THE PROCESS OP EVOLUTION 



put to much strain in the search after analogies with 

 this process of going forth and, as it were, return- 

 ing to the starting point. It may be likened to the 

 ascent and descent of a slung stone, or to the course 

 of an arrow along its trajectory. Or we may say that 

 the living energy takes first an upward and then a 

 downward road. Or it may seem preferable to com- 

 pare the expansion of the germ into the full-grown 

 plant, to the unfolding of a fan, or to the rolling 

 forth and widening of a stream ; and thus arrive at 

 the conception of ' development,' or ' evolution.' Here 

 as elsewhere, names are ' noise and smoke ' ; the 

 important point is to have a clear and adequate 

 conception of the fact signified by a name. And, 

 in this case, the fact is the Sisyphsean process, 

 in the course of which, the living and growing 

 plant passes from the relative simplicity and latent 

 potentiality of the seed to the full epiphany of a 

 highly differentiated type, thence to fall back to 

 simplicity and potentiality. 



The value of a strong intellectual grasp of the 

 nature of this process lies in the circumstance that 

 what is true of the bean is true of living things in 

 general. From very low forms up to the highest 

 in the animal no less than in the vegetable kingdom 

 the process of life presents the same appearance (*) of 

 cyclical evolution. Nay, we have but to cast our 

 eyes over the rest of the world and cyclical change 

 presents itself on all sides. It meets us in the water 

 that flows to the sea and returns to the springs ; in 

 the heavenly bodies that wax and wane, go and return 



B 2 



