9 8 CREATIVE EVOLUTION 



of matter, as if the organizing forces only entered space 

 reluctantly. The spermatozoon, which sets in motion 

 the evolutionary process of the embryonic life, is one 

 of the smallest cells of the organism ; and it is only a 

 small part of the spermatozoon which really takes part 

 in the operation. 



But these are only superficial differences. Digging 

 beneath them, we think, a deeper difference would be 

 found. 



A manufactured thing delineates exactly the form of 

 the work of manufacturing it. I mean that the manu 

 facturer finds in his product exactly what he has put 

 into it. If he is going to make a machine, he cuts out 

 its pieces one by one and then puts them together : 

 the machine, when made, will show both the pieces and 

 their assemblage. The whole of the result represents 

 the whole of the work ; and to each part of the work 

 corresponds a part of the result. 



Now I recognise that positive science can and should 

 proceed as if organization was like making a machine. 

 Only so will it have any hold on organized bodies. For 

 its object is not to show us the essence of things, but 

 to furnish us with the best means of acting on them. 

 Physics and chemistry are well advanced sciences, 

 and living matter lends itself to our action only so far 

 as we can treat it by the processes of our physics and 

 chemistry. Organization can therefore only be studied 

 scientifically if the organized body has first been 

 likened to a machine. The cells will be the pieces of 

 the machine, the organism their assemblage, and the 

 elementary labours which have organized the parts will 

 be regarded as the real elements of the labour which has 

 organized the whole. This is the standpoint of science. 

 Quite different, in our opinion, is that of philosophy. 



