LIFE AS MECHANISM 



and then splits into two similar cells and continues 

 in this same simple process until very many cells are 

 formed. Then, it is casually stated that the aggrega- 

 tion of simple cells is differentiated into" all the com- 

 plex physical and mental characteristics of the adult. 

 The little doubt about such an argument which we 

 may have is soothed by saying that Von Baer and oth- 

 ers have almost completely unravelled these pro- 

 cesses. If so, why does the incessant labour of the 

 biologists continue as they try to find how the cell 

 grows and how from seeming simplicity it becomes 

 complex^ If the reader were not hypnotized by the 

 reiteration that cells are almost like bricks of inorgan- 

 ic matter, he would at once ask himself whether the 

 addition of many simple things changes them into a 

 complex unit, and he would also be sure that the 

 adult existed potentially in the ovum or that there 

 must be some intelligent being who has made a plan 

 and carried it out just as an architect builds a house. 

 Who is this artificer. Nature, which makes these ex- 

 traordinary cell-bricks and gives them the power to 

 acquire an orderly arrangement^ Nature has here the 

 characteristics we used to assign to an intelligent God. 

 And this simile of an artificer constructing accord- 

 ing to the design of an architect is the picture or meta- 

 phor which the biologist employs, although, at other 

 times, he denies anything but matter and physical 

 force. After comparing the cells to bricks, he jumps 

 over the whole difficulty by innocently remarking 



C 291 3 



