CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 327 



actions of the organism we refer to a definite, delimited subject, 

 which, in accordance with its impulses, arranged conformably 

 with plan, is able to create directly definitely organised shapes. 



As we saw in the previous section, the difficulty in the way 

 of understanding the actions of the subject lies not so much 

 in their directly producing forms capable of acting indirectly 

 through indications, but in the selection of the indicators 

 that accompanies the shaping, so that ultimately an indi- 

 vidual is produced which is perfectly fitted in to an 

 indication-tunnel. 



Even we human beings, in constructing our machines, have 

 to consider getting a suitable environment ; for every action, 

 even the simplest, has relation to certain objects, the pro- 

 perties of which must accordingly be taken into account. 

 In doing this, we are guided by our indications, and need only 

 make a selection from these. But subjects stand in a relation 

 to the universe that to us is totally obscure ; they are parts 

 of the universe, like all other natural factors. 



We can state confidently only this much, — that there 

 are natural factors acting in accordance with plan, and with- 

 out these factors organic life would be quite inconceivable. 



TRIAL AND ERROR 



We have now elaborated our point of view so far that 

 we can easily attain to a critical understanding of the two 

 most important theories of life at the present day, and explain 

 their contradictions. 



As we know, Jennings built his all-embracing theory 

 of " trial and error " on a single example, which was 

 to be typical of all life's manifestations. A dog, which as 

 a rule could easily jump through a gap in a fence, tried to do 

 so when he was carrying his master's stick held crosswise in 

 his mouth. He failed, because the gap was too narrow. Then 



