422 The Inward Urge to Change 



influenced not merely by the physical and chemical elements 

 which we may isolate from their respective environments. 

 It is influenced also by the whole system of relationships 

 which comes from their being integral parts of different 

 systems — of dog muscle in one case and of man brain in 

 the other. 



Even on a simpler scheme of organization we find this 

 to hold. A given current of electricity going through a 

 mile of copper wire of a certain thickness is somehow in- 

 fluenced by the straightness or curvature of the wire. As 

 matter becomes integrated into molecules, organisms, com- 

 munities, the processes at each level, while made possible by 

 those at a lower or underlying level, come in a sense to 

 dominate those lower ones. In this sense it is conceivable 

 that protoplasm regiments non-living matter into its own 

 form. The process of assimilation is looked upon by the 

 scientist as a physico-chemical process. It nevertheless de- 

 pends upon the structure and properties of the protoplasm 

 which is assimilating as truly as it does upon the structure 

 and properties of the nutrient materials which are being 

 assimilated. 



Biologists long ago recognized that in the development 

 of a plant or animal from the c^g, it is just as true to say 

 that the organism divides itself into cells as it is to say that 

 the many cells (formed by successive division) combine to 

 form an organism^. The nature of the tissues and organs 

 depends upon the way the cells divide and differentiate, but 

 the dividing and differentiating of the cells depend upon 

 the kind of organism of which the cells are parts. 



From this point of view it is further conceivable that 

 the higher levels of sensation and mentality emerge out of 

 organic synthesis, and that in turn consciousness commands 

 or determines the organic reactions. The physiologist says 

 that the reaction of the organism depends tipon the physico- 

 chemical state of its tissues and juices, and upon the physico- 

 chemical state of the environment. This is true. But it 

 is also true that progressively the higher commands the lower, 



