88 Instinct, 



were studied. We see chemical action and mechan- 

 ical structure and osmose just as far as our best 

 glasses will carry us, — but we see certain results 

 which we cannot find in these agencies any tenden- 

 cy even to produce, except as they are servants to 

 prepare and distribute materials. The organizing 

 force itself and its wise action in building up the or- 

 ganism are no nearer our comprehension than they 

 were before Spencer and Huxley wrote. Grov/th 

 in a complex being requires selection of material in 

 proper kind and quantity to be carried to certain 

 places, and there to be molded into certain forms 

 for a certain purpose, in a self-acting machine hav- 

 ing power of rapid and complex adjustments to the 

 constantly varying conditions of the inorganic world 

 and all organized beings with which it comes into 

 any relation. It is not enough that Lime and Iron 

 and Silica are carried to certain places, but they are 

 selected in proper quantities and carried where they 

 are needed for a specific purpose ; and there they 

 are mingled with other materials according to the 

 office they are to perform, and then are molded into 

 bone and feather, beak or talon, as the case requires, 

 according to the leading idea of the machine in 

 which the work is done. All this is entirely differ- 

 ent from the work of Chemistry or Mechanics, — so 

 very different that we see no more tendency in 

 Chemistry and Mechanics to set this machine in 

 motion and preside over its operations, even with 

 the aid of all the favoring conditions of the universe, 

 than we do in a finely adjusted machine to start it- 

 self. The origination of organized beings through 



