464 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



stored experience. It thus appears that energy biologically absorbed for the 

 improvement of life is transformed from one potentiality to another. 



The essential operation in the transformation is the acquisition of a new 

 experience as mentioned above ; in this matter we are concerned with 

 forces without as well as within the organism. The operative element 

 within must be admitted to be the faculty of industry ; for all organic energy 

 obtains expression here. This lays hold on what is commonly called the 

 environment. See what happens as the frog continues to win its environ- 

 ment. The environment constantly circumscribes and ultimately limits 

 the frog's scheme of life. Each successive builder expands a little farther 

 in the direction of this limit. We may, therefore, regard the frog as driving 

 along a narrow tunnel within the great environment of all natural force, gather- 

 ing up life as it proceeds. Should the frog, in the process of building, violate 

 the laws of the circumscribing force, death is the result. In this way any 

 industrial outbursts not touching the appropriate environment are effectually 

 precluded from permanent record in the scheme of knowledge ; while those 

 industrial adventures which properly touch the environment at once produce 

 a permanent reflection in a manner by which they are handed down through 

 all generations. When biological advancement is complete the subjugation 

 of the environment is accomplished, and the frog, as a living anatomical 

 structure, is constantly transforming into life the energy which surrounds it. 

 All that we have seen of the frog applies equally well to any other creature ; 

 therefore, environment, stage upon stage and section by section, pays tribute 

 to the life which triumphs over it. In this grand manufactory potential 

 energy is taken up and transformed into life on an ever ascending scale. 



Another sample of industrial activity conveying many useful lessons is 

 that of the common fowl. The fowl produces eggs in abundance, thus 

 manifesting a surplus of industrial energy. The question arises : by which 

 equation, (i), (2), or (3), is the scheme of industry represented ? Except in 

 a very minor degree it is not (2) ; for a very large proportion of the eggs 

 never become fowls. Also, it is not (3), for in the broad aspect of the matter 

 I think I am right in assuming that the evolution of fowls is complete. 

 What, then, does the surplus energy mean ? can we reconcile such a state 

 of things with the inertness represented by equation (i) ? The surplus, as we 

 know, is appropriated by man and utilised by him as a supply of potential 

 energy. Similarly the surplus energy of cows or bees is utilised as milk 

 and honey. To interpret these things we must view life in terms of environ- 

 ments or the planes upon which it is built. The environment of man is 

 higher than that of fowl, bee, or cow, for man feeds on these creatures, so 

 that his scheme of life embraces theirs. Therefore, it appears, there is a 

 sense in which life may be viewed as an entity embracing all environments 

 all the way from the lowest to the highest. In this view we must accept 

 the idea that life is a division of activities, each element represented by a 

 species set in its own environment. 



Look at the frog system again. In the balance of life a certain constant 

 number of frogs is required to subdue the environment, that is, to keep 

 down (again to a constant number) the grubs, insects, worms, etc., upon 

 which frogs feed. Life pressure of the frog, in accordance with equation (2), 

 comes into existence when these said creatures become plentiful ; at the 

 same time also the number of frogs becomes great. Then come the marsh 

 birds and the snakes ; they reduce the frogs to the appropriate level, absorb- 

 ing, as potential energy, the life pressure not of any individual frog — for 

 that is already spent — but of frogs as a race. Similarly man absorbs the 

 life pressure of the race of fowls. Viewing the whole mechanism of life in 

 this light we plainly see that the surplus energy of each stratum of environ- 

 ment is of no benefit to the creatures dwelling therein, but is of benefit to 

 the structure as a whole. Each species is complete in itself, living perpetually 



