FUNCTION AND ENVIRONMENT 207 



towards becoming naturalists, we cannot 

 but feel that the next step in progress must 

 depend upon how far we naturalists can in 

 our turn become something of psychologists 

 and even philosophers. 



It is a matter of common sense and expe- 

 rience, which we are all verifying any and 

 every day for ourselves, that the psycho- 

 logically-minded person can and does see 

 farther into life, and sees more aspects of it, 

 than the most skilled mechanic, be he the in- 

 ventor of machines or the discoverer in 

 physics. After all, the biologist cannot be 

 content until he becomes something more 

 than a physicist and chemist, an anatomist, 

 systematist and so on: beyond its struc- 

 tures and reactions, life has an aspect of 

 behaviour, and that is, after all, the main 

 one. As he grasps this, he becomes a bio- 

 psychologist, and starts upon fresh quests; 

 at first, no doubt, and properly, armed cap- 

 a-pie with brass instruments and copper 

 wires. Faithful to his physico-mechanical 

 upbringing, he measures reaction-times, he 

 plots curves, he again reassures himself that 

 there is nothing more in Life. But one day 

 danger and opportunity arouse him; another 

 love or sorrow awakens him altogether not 

 most probably to any mystic vision such as 

 vitalists are credited with by their opponents, 



