04 EVOLUTION 



in which the author, working from his stand- 

 point as an experimental embryologist, ad- 

 vances technical proofs of the "autonomy 

 of life," and of its specific distinctiveness 

 from the not-living. He advances an elabo- 

 rate threefold argument to show how the 

 interpretation of a living creature as a 

 machine breaks down, both in regard to its 

 functioning and its development; and he 

 seeks to show that it is necessary to postulate 

 an immaterial autonomous factor, or "en- 

 telechy" which punctuates the transforma- 

 tions of energy that go on within the body. 

 This "entelechy" is the living creature's 

 innermost secret, in fact its directive soul. 

 Another clear and comprehensive exposi- 

 tion of a theory of Vitalism will be found in 

 Bergson's "Creative Evolution." 

 dy^lfi rm *V>*M4 M 



ifa nf tli ft nrflR-msTn finH OUr OWn 



We change without ceasing; the 

 organism is in a state of ceaseless flux which 

 s we call metabolism. Both have the mysteri- 

 ous quality of "duree" but duration in more 

 physical and chronological 



sense; for what he means by it is "the con- 

 tinuous progress of the past which gnaws 

 into the future and which swells as it advan- 

 ces." "Our personality shoots, grows and 

 ripens without ceasing. Each of its moments 



