An Introduction to a Biology 



relation of tlie parts of a man-made machine are 

 the proximate cause of the performance of that 

 machine. But the structure of a machine is no 

 more than the proximate cause of its activity. 

 Structure is only one stage behind action in the 

 causal sequence. True, if the machine were bailt 

 differently it would act differently ; but that does 

 not make the build of the machine the explanation 

 of its activity. The explanation of the performance 

 of a machine surely lies deeper than its structure, 

 and is to be sought in the idea of the machine as 

 it gradually took shape in the mind of the man 

 who invented it to fulfil a particular purpose. May 

 not, then, idea, intention, design, purpose be the 

 explanation of the mechanism which we perceive 

 in the organism ? The whole trend of current 

 biological thought is to give an emphatically nega- 

 tive answer to this question. It is not that the 

 modern biologist shrinks from probing deep ; on 

 the contrary, he thinks that he has not only touched 

 bottom, but that the foundations of his biology 

 rest upon bedrock itself. But is it not possible that 

 the sensation of security which he thinks is due to 

 his touching bottom is really due to the fact that 

 he feels at home with a machine ? Is it likely 

 that man has fathomed the depths of life ? It is 

 more likely that his sense of security is an illusion. 

 Man treading water on the ocean of life is more likely 

 to attain to a sense of security by coming to think 

 that he is trundling a bicycle than he is by actually 

 touching bottom. 



But if mechanism is not the explanation of the 



organism, what is the alternative view ? If the soul 



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