CHAPTER VI 

 THE GENESIS OF LIVING ORGANISMS 



EVOLUTION AND EPIGENESIS 



Whoever witnesses the genesis of one of our human appliances 

 — the manufacture, for instance, of a candle from paraffin and 

 wick — and compares with that what is done by the finished- 

 article (in the case of the candle, its burning), must straight- 

 way realise that the designs governing the two processes are 

 completely different. Undoubtedly both are guided by a rule, 

 but the two rules cannot be identical. 



Hitherto we have been concerned only with the rule of the 

 finished object, which we called its function-rule. In living 

 beings we also met with a function-rule, which governs their 

 doings independently, whereas the corresponding rule of 

 implements has reference to a human performance, and so is 

 always dependent. Accordingly we speak of the counter- 

 actions of implements, in contrast to the performances of 

 subjects. 



Apart from this difference, the function-rules of implements 

 readily admit of comparison with those of organisms. In both 

 we find a fixed framework, which forms the externally visible 

 expression of a rule. The framework is responsible for carry- 

 ing out the action that follows the function-rule. From what 

 we know of the spatial rules of the framework, we may con- 

 fidently deduce the function-rule. So we have been able to 

 show that, among animals, in so far as concerns the 

 activity of the framework, all those mechanical rules hold 

 good which we know in our own machines. 



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