THE SCOPE OF BIOLOGY 5 



sultant of the properties and interrelationships of the chemical 

 elements which compose it. But he must not suppose that physics 

 and chemistry when added up fulfil the role of biology. Rather 

 he must grip the cardinal fact that with new relations the proper- 

 ties of things change — the properties of protoplasm depend on and 

 emerge from those of its chemical constituents only when the 

 latter are actually in protoplasm. 



Thus ''in one direction, supported by chemistry and physics, 

 biology becomes biochemistry and biophysics. In another direc- 

 tion it becomes the basis of the psychical sciences winch relate 

 to human nature, of psychology and sociology," etc. Indeed, 

 it is not an exaggeration to regard all knowledge as really bio- 

 logical, since the process of knowing is a life process which is basal 

 to every art and its practice, to every science and its application, 

 and to every philosophy and its exposition. 



C. Biology and Human Progress 



Probably the value of a knowledge of biological principles, and 

 of the order of nature in general, cannot be better emphasized 

 than in the words of the founder of modern methods of biological 

 teaching. Huxley wrote: "Suppose it were perfectly certain that 

 the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, 

 depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess. Don't you 

 think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn 

 at least the names and the moves of the pieces? . . . Do you not 

 think we should look with disapprobation upon the parent who 

 allowed his child, or the state that allowed its members, to grow 

 up without knowing a pawn from a knight? Yet it is a very plain 

 and elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness 

 of every one of us, and, more or less, of all who are connected with 

 us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a 

 game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It 

 is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and 

 woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her 

 own. The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena 

 of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws 

 of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. . . . 

 To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid with an 

 overflowing generosity. And one who plays ill is checkmated." 

 (Fig. 298.) 



