conditions of matter and nothing else, makes at best merely a subjective statement.  He cannot help acknowledging that spontaneity is not a quality of matter.  He is then driven to the contention that what we believe to be spontaneous in us, is, after all, an unconscious result of external impulses only.  His contention rests then on the basis of his own inner experience, or what he believes to be such.  This contention of his is, however, disputed by many, who no less appeal to their own inner experience, or what they believe to be their experience.  It is then a question of inner experience of the one party versus inner experience of the other.  And such being the case, the scientific materialist is driven to admit that his theory, however correct it may be, rests, after all, on subjective experience, and can, as such, not claim the rank of positive knowledge.  There is then no difficulty in accepting the entity of the spirit in man, the materialistic assertion to the contrary notwithstanding.  But the vital force is exclusively concerned with the construction of matter.  Here we have a right to expect that physical and chemical forces should hold the whole ground of an explanation, if an explanation is possible at all.  Now, physical and chemical forces are no entities; they are invariably connected with matter.  In fact, they are so intimately connected with matter that they can never be dissevered from it altogether.  The energy of matter may be latent or patent, and, when patent, it may manifest itself in one form or the other, according to the condition of its surroundings; it may manifest itself in the shape of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, or vitality; but in one form or the other energy constantly inheres in matter.  The correlation of forces is now a well-established, scientific fact, and it is more than plausible that what is called the vital principle, or the vital force, forms a link in the chain of the other known physical forces, and is, therefore, transmutable into any of them; granted even that there is such a thing as a distinct vital force.  The tendency of modern Biology is then to discard the notion of a vital entity altogether.  If vital force is to be indestructible, then so are also indestructible heat, light, electricity, &c.; they are indestructible in this sense, that whenever their respective manifestation is suspended or arrested, they make their appearance in some other form of force; and in this very same sense vital force may be looked upon as indestructible:  whenever vital manifestation is arrested, what had been acting as vital force is transformed into chemical, electrical forces, &c., taking its place.

But the Esoteric Doctrine appears to teach something quite different from what I have just explained, and what is, as far as I understand, a fair representation of the scientific conception of the subject.  The Esoteric Doctrine tells us that the vital principle is indestructible, and, when disconnected with one set of atoms, becomes attracted by others.  He then evidently holds that, what constitutes the vital principle is a principle or form of force per se, a form of force which can leave one set of atoms and go over as such to another set, without leaving any substitute force behind.  This, it must be said, is simply irreconcileable with the scientific view on the subject as hitherto understood.