LIFE; BODY AND MIND 199 



trial the organism finds ways to circumvent the 

 agencies of destruction. The fish lays millions 

 of eggs that a few may survive, and not only 

 individuals but species die. Very few of our 

 existing species will be the ancestors of those 

 that will exist a few million years hence. 



When we describe this struggle for existence 

 as a phenomenon apparently independent of, 

 and even contrary to, the generalizations of in- 

 organic science, we are using, intentionally or 

 unintentionally, a word which suggests some- 

 thing purposive or mental, and, indeed, there is 

 a great group of vital phenomena which can 

 hardly be discussed without using some words 

 which have been used, in a narrower sense, to 

 describe the habits of mankind. If, for example, 

 w^e use the word mental when we speak of other 

 li\dng things, it is evident that we must enlarge 

 or extend its primitive meaning. But this is 

 only doing, in a less exact way to be sure, what 

 we have already done with the concepts of num- 

 ber and distance, in the first two chapters. 



Our minds work through analogies, and when 

 we attempt to formulate the behavior of living 

 things we cannot forget that there are two kinds 

 of behavior with which we are already inti- 

 mately acquainted: on the one hand, the be- 



