4 The Universe and Life 



the world. We shall have to sketch some of the main 

 features of those aspects of the universe that the bi- 

 ologist studies ; the main features of the world of Hf e. 

 We shall try to see the relations of the world of Hfe 

 to the rest of the universe, and what light this casts 

 on the nature of things in general. In connection with 

 this we shall be forced into certain critical remarks on 

 some of the practices and conclusions of science ; and 

 also on some of the ideas and practices that are con- 

 spicuous in some of the religions of the world. And" 

 finally we shall try to see the bearings of all these 

 things on the problems of human conduct and on our 

 attitude toward life and the world. 



At the beginning I feel driven to confess that the 

 task of presenting a satisfying unified account of the 

 world and of what goes on in it seems to me very much 

 the sort of task that Alice would have had, if, after 

 her adventures in Wonderland, she were required to 

 present a satisfactory unified account of that realm. 

 The farther one goes into life and the universe, the 

 more of a wonderland one finds them ; the more arbi- 

 trary and unexpected and improbable become the 

 things that take place in them. And the more hopeless 

 becomes the prospect of giving any thoroughgoing 

 satisfactory or intelligible account of them, of dis- 

 covering what men think they want when they call for 

 an explanation of them. One cannot be surprised that 

 the wise men of a previous generation — a Huxley, a 

 Leslie Stephen — merely formulated this conviction of 

 the general arbitrariness and ultimate inexplicability 



