230 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



We know that the whole framework of all organisms arises 

 in this way, and that, when it is finished, it begins every- 

 where to work mechanically until it suffers an injury, when 

 the impulses set in again at the damaged place, and repair 

 the framework. 



In this way it is possible to bring the desired unity into 

 the concept of the subject. From the subject proceeds the 

 rule which, like a melody, binds the genes together. In the 

 genesis of organisms this is a melody of construction ; when 

 the building is finished, it is a melody guiding the working 

 of the organism, and it becomes apparent only if that is dis- 

 / turbed. Thus the subject reveals itself to us first as an 

 architect, and then as a director of affairs. We ourselves 

 experience our subject always through the medium of the 

 qualities which accompany the impulse-sequences of our 

 actions. 

 J The material plan of the framework in the body of the 



organism is thus referred to a non-material plan, which, so long 

 as it represents for us a closed unity, we call a subject. 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 



From this we may draw some conclusions of a general 

 kind. There are material systems that work in accordance 

 with plan ; in these, material processes go on strictly accord- 

 ing to the rule of causality. The material systems are either 

 dead or living. The dead systems have only a rule of working, 

 which we read from them, but which is quite without effect 

 on the framework. In the living systems run according to 

 plan, there is a reciprocal action with a rule which we call a 

 rule directing the working. This is not a mere formula ; it 

 is a natural factor. 



The plan appearing in rules affects the material indirectly 

 by means of the impulses. Causality, in contrast to plan, 



