10 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



less. " But wlien they are brought together under certain 

 conditions they give rise to the still more complex body, proto- 

 plasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena of life " 

 (p. 52). Then follows an exposition of the well-known argu- 

 ment as to water and crystals being produced by the " proper- 

 ties " of their constituent elements, with this conclusion : 



" Is the case any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and 

 nitrogenous salts disappear, and in their place, under the influence 

 of pre-existing living protoplasm, an equivalent weight of the 

 matter of life makes its appearance?" (p. 53). 



But here we have the words I have italicised introduced 

 which were not in the previous staj:ement; and these are of 

 fundamental importance considering the tremendous conclu- 

 sion he goes on to draw from them — " that the thoughts to 

 which I am now giving utterance are the exj)ression of molec- 

 ular changes in that matter of life which is the source of our 

 other vital phenomena." At the end of the lecture he says 

 that " it is of little moment whether we express the phenomena 

 of matter in terms of spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in 

 terms of matter — each statement has a certain relative truth." 

 But he thinks that in matters of science the materialistic ter- 

 minology is in every way to be preferred. 



This is vague and unsatisfactory. It is not a mere question 

 of terminology ; but his statement that " thought is the expres- 

 sion of molecular change in protoplasm " is a mere begging 

 of the whole question, both because it is absolutely unproved, 

 and is also inconsistent with that later and clearer statement 

 that " life is the cause of organisation " ; but, if so, life must 

 be antecedent to organisation, and can only be conceived as 

 indissolubly connected with spirit and with thought, and with 

 the cause of the directive energy everyw^here manifested in the 

 growth of living things. 



In the present volume I am endeavouring to arrive at a 

 juster conception of the mystery of the Life- World than that 

 of Professor Haeckel, and bv a verv different method. I shall 



