An Introduction to a Biology 



§ 6 



If we attempt to visualise the beginnings of in- 

 dustry, warfare, and the chase, we shall, I think, see 

 that they flow from two or three sources, the pro- 

 ducts of which unite to form a common stream, 

 or, at any rate, to flow in a common broad channel, 

 which, however, in its turn soon begins to divide 

 up again in the delta of differentiation. Warfare 

 and sport must both have owed their popularity to 

 a great extent to the pleasure of shedding blood. 

 Necessity must have contributed very largely to 

 all three, whilst the insatiable curiosity of man must 

 have played an important part in the origin and 

 development of each, but especially in that of in- 

 dustry. For if Necessity was the mother of Inven- 

 tion, Curiosity was almost certainly its father. But 

 I would prefer to attempt to express the truth with 

 regard to the origin of human activities not in terms 

 of cause and effect, but by suggesting that the rela- 

 tion between necessity and curiosity on the one hand, 

 and adventure and invention on the other was of 

 that obscure, reciprocally fertilising kind already 

 indicated. 



The chief objection to this that I can foresee is 

 one which arises from the difficulty of understand- 

 ing how necessity could be in any way the result of 

 adventure or invention. But the essence of adven- 

 ture surely is that you risk all in the attempt to 

 gain something, and in the risking of all you may 

 lose an arm which leaves you in the direst necessity 

 or need. Also invention involves the abstraction 



of the mind from the practical business of provision, 



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