352 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



binds the organism to a definite life-tunnel, with which it is 

 dovetailed, on the one hand by its receptive organs (as 

 sockets), and on the other by its effector organs (as pegs). 



In this way there develops, everywhere that life extends, 

 a closely coherent framework, built in full conformity with 

 plan. 



If we consider the framework of life as a whole, we come 

 everywhere on individuals, which constitute its organs, and 

 serve the life-functions so long as they form a whole. Accord- 

 ingly they are to be regarded as the elements of the living. 

 Since undoubtedly they must always be renewing themselves, 

 we must conclude that there is a life-energy, which perpetually 

 produces them. This life-energy is subjective, in the sense 

 that it puts autonomous subjects into the world. We may 

 therefore infer that the several impulses are already united 

 into subject-systems when they begin their activity. 



As soon as living organisms are made, their organisation 

 enables them to lay hold of the world and systematise it. 

 The genesis of their own organisation, however, lies outside 

 their scope, and requires special natural forces, to which, 

 in the last resort, even the machines and tools of man are 

 referable, since these owe their existence to organised beings. 



And so it is a mistake to conclude that organisms should 

 be treated as mechanisms. Fundamentally, the genesis of a 

 machine is harder to understand than that of a human being. 

 The genesis of the latter involves the former, since the machine 

 is a secondary product of a being that has arisen through 

 primary forces of Nature. 



Superficially considered, the constructing of a machine 

 seems easier to grasp, because, as personal observation tells 

 us, it arises from unorganised forces of Nature and unorganised 

 substances, on which organisation is imposed by the organism 

 Man. The conclusion that has been drawn from this is that 

 in Nature there are only unorganised substances and forces. 



