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.
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