THE ORGANIC REALM | 569 
whatever mind or matter may be and however they may inter- 
act. If lam right in my belief, then it follows that this power 
of choice which we have already seen reason to regard as the 
fundamental factor in organic evolution, is indeed the very 
essence of life. On this view an organism is recognized as 
alive when it shows signs of control from within, manifested 
by activities regarded as purposeful, and in so far peculiar to 
itself as to defy exact foretelling. It has been well said 
that no arguments can ever force a person to believe that 
even he himself has a free will; for, if it were true that he 
had a free will he must always be free to choose the other 
alternative. The reader will understand, therefore, in what 
follows that as a believer in free will I wish merely to show 
some of the consequences of this belief to anyone who is dis- 
posed to share it with me. ‘Those who agree with me will 
feel free to believe in the workings of will throughout the 
universe. They will conceive of the difference between a 
lifeless and a living thing as simply this: the lifeless thing 
must do whatever it does, while the living thing may do this 
or that. From this it follows that to us and to all other living 
things belongs in various measure a power of preference.! 
The range of this power in us though limited by a Power 
beyond ourselves increases according as it is used. And 
shall we not say that the Power which limits while it permits 
the exercise of our separate wills is reflected in what we call 
the inorganic realm? , 
199. The organic realm. A typical living organism may 
be conceived of as a self-building boat formed of materials 
taken from the inorganic stream in which it floats, but con- 
trolled by an indwelling, immaterial power capable of steer- 
1J7f the reader has studied philosophy he is doubtless aware that 
certain thinkers who concede a power of choice to all living things 
refuse to limit this power to the organic realm, but hold that a certain 
measure of conscious freedom is permitted to every particle of matter. 
They favor this view as enabling them to unify their conception of 
the universe, and at the same time to recognize the immanence of God 
throughout. The unification which is gained, however, by saying that 
all things are alive, deprives Life of any special meaning. For if nothing 
is really lifeless, being alive means no more,than simply existing. What- 
ever truth there may be in saying that all Nature is somehow alive 
seems to me to be implied in the view outlined above. 
