Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/336

 322 CHARLES S. MYERS : altered molecular vibration, which arises from chemical union and is held to produce the characteristic odour of the compound. Similarly, the phenomena of life, as revealed to consciousness by certain movements inherent in peculiar atomic combinations, cannot justifiably be extended to include the latent half-developed properties of matter in general. In point of fact the word "life" tacitly conveys a far wider signification here than it avowedly asserts ; the objec- tive is forsaken for the subjective standpoint. Surveying the working of the universe, observing the evolution of in- dividual and of race, recognising nature's attempts at repair and the marvellous compensating mechanisms of disease man has not hesitated from the first dawn of knowledge to declare that there is something in the universe far greater and nobler than matter and motion. Reading the conscious- ness of his own actions into the antecedents of phenomena of the external world, he has imagined a universal Will in nature and above all a principle of Design. Just as he has at one time assigned " mentality " in some form to the humblest atom upon earth, so at another time Man has invested with similar powers the subject of the loftiest conception which is possible to him. Pantheism and mono- theism rest on the same psychological basis. The sensations of the effort of Innervation and of Will seem to man the source of all energy ; and when he finds himself surrounded by a universe whose parts fit together with an accuracy surpassing that of human skill, he must needs infer the working of an intellect of preternatural prudence and strength. This course of subjective reasoning naturally became extended to the phenomena of life itself. To those who could find no room for the application of a hypermechanical force, whether spiritual or material, there still remained the conception of vital principle as a directive agency (20), per- haps as an " engine-driver who does not draw the train himself but by means of certain valves directs the course of the steam so as to drive the engine " (21), or as an " ante- cedent cause" which "controls or directs or governs the forces of matter . . . and is separable from the matter with which it is temporarily associated " (14). It has been already indicated that the popular notion of cause has no authorised locus standi in Natural Science. The sole method of Natural Science is integration. In terms of space and time as afforded by visual and tactile sensations in the common language of movement she endeavours to