I must also express my obligation to him for having suggested through his Oxford lectures a good share of the important material interwoven into chapter xii touching the Vitalistic view of evolution.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
W. Y. Evans Wentz
In other words, if the theory of the mechanical transmission of acquired characteristics has failed, as seems to be the case, then we must assume that there is, as the bearer of all gains made from generation to generation, some sort of psychical or Vitalistic principle.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
W. Y. Evans Wentz
A Vitalistic view of evolution is rapidly developing in the scientific world, and the weight of evidence is decidedly in favour of regarding all evolutionary processes, reaching from the lowest to the highest organisms, as illustrating a gradual unfolding in the sensuous world of a pre-existing psychical power through an ever-increasing complexity of specialized structures, this complexity being brought about by natural selection.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
W. Y. Evans Wentz