Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III WHAT IB LIFE ? Professor Bergson and Dr. MaoDougall—Category of Consciousness—Professor A. I. Thomson—Table of Consciousness. What is Life ? The question is one of such unspeakable interest and importance; so much has already been said, and so much yet remains to be said; it is one which has so many departments, and ramifications, and side issues, that we almost fear to enter on the discussion of it. At the same time, it is one which comes home so closely to every man, who wishes to know something more about himself and his future, that we feel bound at least to consider what is the view and attitude of the Spiritual Philosophy with regard to it ? What, then, is Life ? According to Dr. Murrayl the root of the word is the Aryan leif, lif, the general meaning of which is to continue, last, endure. What has Herbert Spencer to say ? "Life is definable as the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations, and when we so define it, we discover that the physical and psychical life are equally comprehended by the definition." 1 English Dictionary, s.r. Dr. Hans Driesch, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Heidelburg, in his " History and Theory of Vitalism,"1 regards Life as a method of becoming. But hia work appears to me too metaphysical and speculative to be of much assistance to the ordinary lay reader. Nevertheless, I think we have reason to be thankful to Dr. Driesch for his treatise, because, while of a purely scientific and metaphysical character and holding aloof from the moral, religious and theological aspect of life, it is not antagonistic to the view which the Spiritual Philosophy leads us to take. Whatever else the Professor's work may be, it is the admission by one whose claims to our respect as a scientifi...