CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 291 



course, the movements of the helm are mechanically connected 

 with the compass. But in order to meet all the contingencies 

 of the voyage, we place the helmsman between the compass and 

 the rudder ; the helmsman gets his bearings from the compass, 

 though he is not mechanically connected to it, and it is his 

 business to steer the whole ship according to circumstances. 



In every living organism there is a super-mechanical 

 directing of this kind ; but it is not connected with some 

 person, or director of works, standing outside ; it lies within 

 the works themselves, even if external to the actual frame- 

 work. It cannot invade the works in any way, except by re- 

 construction or by breaking down of the framework. Through 

 lack of any analogy, it is very difficult to understand a direction 

 of this kind. Attempts to compare it with a mechanism lead 

 us just as far astray as do those to set it on the level of a 

 personality conscious of an aim. 



So far as I can see, the only escape from these difficulties 

 is to imagine some implement, with the framework of which 

 we are very familiar, and endow it with those super-mechanical 

 powers that are the prerogative of the organism. 



Let us imagine a two-wheeled iron cart, all the structural 

 parts of which are surrounded, as in a living creature, by a 

 reserve substance, " protoferine," which does not enter into 

 the framework. This protoferine has the power, not only to 

 replace a piece of iron if it breaks off, but also to form anew 

 whole structural portions of the framework. Accordingly, it 

 is able, not only to repair substance, but also to restore form. 

 This possibility of restoration of form is the question that 

 interests us here. It is obvious that the form, once destroyed, 

 cannot produce form anew. There must still be present in 

 the residue of protoferine the rule that led to shaping, and 

 this even after part of the framework with its protoferine 

 has been lost. As an auxiliary concept, connecting the rule 

 of shaping with that of substance-forming, I have introduced 



