THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANISM 



111 



together integrated in order to reproduce the full 

 activity of the whole indivisible process. But in doing 

 this do we not introduce something new a direction 

 or order of happening into the elements of the dis- 

 sociated activity of the organism ? Each elemental 

 process must occur at just the right time. 



What right have we to say that the activity of the 

 organism is made up of physico-chemical elements ? 

 Just as much as we have in saying that a curve is 

 made up of infini- 

 tesimal straight 

 lines. Let us 

 adopt Bergson's 

 illustration, with 

 a non - essential 

 modification. 



The curve 1-8 

 is a line which 

 we draw freehand 

 with a single in- 

 divisible motion 

 of the hand and 

 arm and eye. It 



is something unique and individualised, in that no 

 other curve ever drawn, in a similar manner, exactly 

 resembles it. Let us investigate it mathematically. 

 We can select very small portions of it elements 

 we may call them and each of these elements, if it 

 is small enough does not differ sensibly from a straight 

 line. Let us produce each of these straight lines in 

 both directions, it is then a tangent to the curve, and 

 it does actually coincide with the curve at one mathe- 

 matical point the points 1-8 in the figure. The 

 tangent then has something in common with the curve, 

 but would a series of infinitesimally small tangents 



FIG. 10. 



