TRANSFORMISM 243 



perfect than was the last one. It is unlikely that 

 matter possesses the rigidity and homogeneity which 

 would enable us to obtain this perfect identity of 

 result ; nevertheless this identity has a very obvious 

 utility, and we strive after it, so that the result of our 

 activity is the conception of a perfect mechanism, 

 and of products which are identical. We assume that 

 the reasons why our early and cruder machines were 

 imperfect are also the reasons why our later and more 

 perfect ones do not produce the results that we desire. 



We are artisans first of all, and then philosophers, 

 and so we extend this ingrained mechanism of the 

 intellect into our speculations. To the biologist the 

 organism is a mechanism which, in reproduction, ought 

 to turn out perfect replicas of itself. It does not do so. 

 Now, if biology shows us anything, it shows us that 

 living matter is essentially " labile," that is, something 

 fluent, while lifeless matter is essentially rigid, or 

 nearly so. Yet, ignoring this difference, we expect 

 from the organism that identity of result and operation 

 that we conceptualise, but do not actually obtain from 

 the artificial machine. We regard the organism, not 

 only as a mechanism like the minting machine, but as 

 the conceptual limit to a series of mechanisms. The 

 reproductive apparatus of our fish does not turn out 

 ova which are identical, but which differ from each 

 other. Some of this variation, we say, is due to the 

 action of the environment ; and some of it is due to 

 the condition that each ovum receives a slightly 

 different legacy of characters from the multitude of 

 ancestors. The rest we conceive as due to the im- 

 perfect working of the reproductive machinery. 



It is useful that science should so regard the working 

 of the organism, for in the search for the causes of varia- 

 tion our analysis of the phenomena of life becomes 



