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176 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



any reference to whether they depend on human purposes 

 or not. 



Instead of conformity with plan, we might just as well 

 speak of conformity with function, or of harmony, or of 

 wisdom. The name does not matter ; what does matter is 

 that we should recognise the existence of a natural force, 

 which binds according to rules. Unless we do this, biology 

 is sheer nonsense. 



SUMMARY 



From the foregoing, it is easy to select colours with which 

 to paint the various function-circles for a single organism, 

 when we are investigating its relations to its indicators. 

 The picture we get throughout is of a world that seems created 

 exclusively for this animal. And so we are justified in assum- 

 ing that there are as many surrounding-worlds as there are 

 animals. 



When we go further, and try to understand the connection 

 between different animals, we succeed in this also to a certain 

 extent, if we restrict ourselves to those animals that live in 

 a narrowly circumscribed medium. We can paint a picture 

 of the chains formed from the function-circles enclosing the 

 enemy and the prey, and, as we pass from one to the other, 

 show that the prey of one enemy appears further on as the 

 enemy of some other prey. 



But knowledge of single individuals is not sufficient to 

 give us an impression of the whole living tissue in the carpet 

 of Nature. In order to attain to this, we must rely on the 

 higher unities, such as are represented by the species. We 

 cannot go into this until later on. 



