124 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



colour which the properties of the particular instruments 

 impose on it. 



These are simple and obvious facts, and in no way nebulous 

 theories. And they give us the key to the three above- 

 mentioned actions of protoplasm in the higher animals — 

 construction, running of the machine, and repair. In all 

 cases, something new is achieved ; but in accordance with 

 an already existing rule, and always with special relation to 

 the properties of the organs. There is never evolution, but 

 always epigenesis. 



The concept of instinct having already shown us that we 

 must recognise in the impulse-sequence a natural factor lying 

 outside the anatomical framework of the animal, a factor 

 which regulates the functioning, we shall now seek it in the 

 protoplasm itself, which universally obeys it. This factor does 

 not seize upon the framework in any unregulated way, but 

 with as great conformity to plan as do our impulse-rules in 

 governing our own actions. 



Such an analogy yields us the first hint as to the nature 

 of this problematical factor, which resides in all protoplasm 

 and in its very essence is a rule. 



SUMMARY 



In this chapter, devoted to synthesis, we have seen how, 

 by the help of schemata, the things of space take on material 

 form ; how, by the help of causality, objects, extended in 

 time, are comprehended as unities ; and how, by the help of 

 conformity with plan, implements arise. Furthermore, we 

 have investigated conformity with plan, and we have found 

 that it is always based upon a function. By tracing back our 

 own actions, we have referred function itself to the impulse- 

 sequence, which comes to our consciousness indirectly through 

 our own qualities. 



