FATALISM OR FREEDOM 



ties. Thus a dyke may control the flow 

 of a river. In this sense some of the vital 

 processes are said to control behavior. 

 Hereditary organization, the physiological 

 gradients described by Child, the activi- 

 ties of the ductless glands, and innumer- 

 able neuro-muscular mechanisms are illus- 

 trations of the apparatus of organic 

 control. 



In reviewing the various kinds of ani- 

 mals as these are known scientifically and 

 in attempting to reconstruct the probable 

 course of animal evolution we are im- 

 pressed by the orderly progression in the 

 complexity of animal bodies and in the 

 efficiency of the correlated behavior pat- 

 terns. This efficiency is measured by the 

 range and variety of the animal's adjust- 

 ments to the surrounding world in which 

 he lives. 



The worth and rank of living beings 

 everywhere are measured by our capacity 

 to assimilate the wealth of nature by 

 which we are surrounded, to build it into 

 the fabric of our own organizations, to 

 use these materials and these energies pro- 

 ductively, and to return them to the envi- 

 ronment in which we live, stamped with 

 the impress of our own individualities. 



[24] 



