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204 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



lished by Mendel could alone lead us to recognise that the 

 properties of organisms arise from " manipulations " or part- 

 actions of the germ-plasm. 



When Mendel published his discoveries, which were to set 

 a standard for all time, biological ideas were still in the 

 melting-pot. The new way of regarding the world intro- 

 duced by Mendel compelled us to analyse every organism 

 into part-actions (much as one might analyse an oil-painting 

 into brush-strokes) ; and this gave biology the chance of 

 defending itself victoriously against Darwinistic materialism, 

 since it was now in a position to base its structure on elements 

 that were its exclusive property. But Mendel's discovery 

 was disregarded, and biology was wrecked. 



When Mendel's discovery was rediscovered in 1900, 

 eighteen years after the master's death, it was too late. The 

 meaninglessness of the universe had become a guiding prin- 

 ciple. The eyes of scientific men were blind to all natural 

 factors that were not of a material kind. In the pre-Dar- 

 winian period, two scientists engaged in the study of living 

 things might still argue as to which properties of animals 

 were referable to independent part-actions of the germ- 

 plasm. After Darwin, the assumption that Nature could 

 institute actions was unconditionally contradicted ; there 

 were nothing there but mechanical and chemical processes. 



So long as men listened, without preconceived ideas, to 

 what went on in living Nature, they could not close their ears 

 to the peculiar rhythm that distinguishes all living phenomena, 

 and constitutes its own peculiar laws. But after Darwin, that 

 was all over and done with : life was without autonomy. 



Let us make a comparison. Suppose that a very illegible 

 sheet of music is entrusted to two investigators to decipher ; 

 in the pre-materialistic period they might have disputed as 

 to which of the signs were to be regarded as notes and which 

 as chance ink-blots. In the materialistic period, which knows 



