UNIT ONE — REVIEW • WHAT IS LIFE? 



Since plants and animals come so close to our lives in a variety of ways, it 

 is necessary for us to know^ the different kinds apart, especially to know 

 which are beneficial and which are destructive. We have to understand 

 how they act and how we can turn them to our purposes. But children and 

 primitive people everywhere always interpret what plants and animals do 

 — as they interpret other natural happenings — as if the objects were influ- 

 enced by human likes and dislikes, or as if the objects were caused to act 

 by outside beings like ourselves. They attribute to plants and animals — and 

 nonliving things — the kinds of feelings which we human beings experience, 

 such as fear, hunger, affection, anger, jealousy. Healdi and sickness, har- 

 vest and blight, sunrise and thunder, drought and flood, they explain as the 

 work of spirits. These invisible fairies and imps push and pull things about; 

 they get into and out of natural objects. They act just as we do, and for 

 the same kinds of reasons. 



Now it is natural and reasonable for us not only to interpret whatever 

 goes on in relation to our own interests, but also to judge events according 

 to ourselves. For we have no way of judging — at least at first — except by our 

 own doings and feelings. But while that kind of explaining is easy, and for 

 a time satisfactory, it leaves us in doubt; it leaves us worried and anxious. 

 This is because those spirits cannot be relied upon; they are capricious. If 

 all goes well, it is comfortable to feel that the friendly spirits are in control. 

 But if things go wrong — as they often do — we are not sure how we can 

 manage the unfriendly spirits. Men have long been searching for under- 

 standings and interpretations of life that would enable us to make things 

 happen our way with greater certainty. 



People have improved their understanding by enlarging their horizons. 

 The more plants and animals we are able to observe and compare, the 

 broader is our outlook. Comparing many kinds from different regions en- 

 ables us to sort them more satisfactorily and to communicate with one an- 

 other about them on a world-wide scale. Such comparing reveals what 

 plants and animals have in common with us, but also what distinguishes 

 them from us. We learn that living things, including ourselves, have much 

 in common with nonliving things; and that enables us to examine our 

 problems with less emotion and with clearer vision. We try to find out 

 what actually makes one cow yield more milk than another without blam- 

 ing the difference upon the beliefs of the owners or upon the day of the 

 week on which the cow or owners were born. 



We discover many objects that are very different from us and yet cer- 

 tainly "living". We discover in all living things a slimy protoplasm that 



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