CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 319 



life on the globe derives a new content, which is accessible to 

 investigation. 



It is not intended that this shall be the statement of a 

 new dogma ; merely that the way shall be cleared for study 

 of the old but ever-new inquiry into the " meaning " of 

 life, a problem worthy the earnest effort of the noblest minds. 



Conformity with plan, as the ultimate natural law embrac- 

 ing all living things, is once more laid open for biological 

 investigation. Conformity with plan is the guiding law of 

 the impulse-systems, by the aid of which it organises all 

 living matter into subjects, and the coming and going of which 

 it controls, as well as the relations of the subjects to one 

 another and to non-living Nature. 



THE THEORIES OF ADAPTATION AND OF CONGRUITY 



If we regard the world from the standpoint of the theory 

 of adaptation, then each organism is the product of influences 

 to which it has been exposed for thousands of years. Every 

 object, implement and organism in its environment have 

 their share in the transformations that it has undergone. 

 The media, animals and plants set their stamp on it. Its 

 entire organic and inorganic environment, light and rain, 

 warmth and cold, alter and shape the susceptible protoplasm, 

 until at last it assumes the form, colour and consistency 

 that assure it a permanent place in the world. 



Through innumerable " errors " the everlasting " trials " 

 of Nature (which permits all the agencies within it to influence 

 each single organism) lead on towards an ultimate product 

 that shall have achieved the suitable form, making it wholly 

 congruous with the other world-factors. 



The Darwinian theory offers only an approximate ex- 

 planation of this dogma. It points out that the production of 

 offspring is so enormous that if each organism should multiply 



