THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ITS HIGHER WORK 261 



The possession of an ear greatly extends the compass of the 

 environment which can exert directing influences on the 

 conduct of an animal. If this is true of the ear, how shall 

 we estimate the widening of environment that comes 

 with the addition to the receptor system of an eye! Our 

 ability to see the stars means nothing less than this: that 

 the reactions of the organism so endowed may be modified 

 by energy proceeding from the incomprehensible distances 

 of the stellar universe. 



Throughout this book we have held steadily to the point 

 of view defined in its very first paragraphs : that all living 

 things are transformers of energy, and engaged so long as 

 they live in reacting according to the principles of mechan- 

 ics and chemistry in response to external changes. A pres- 

 entation in this spirit provokes resentment and protest 

 from many readers. It seerns to leave out of account all 

 that is instinctively held to be highest and finest in human 

 life. To this remonstrance we are glad to give place. 

 The scientist is, after all, a man, and no scientist was ever 

 so ruthlessly logical as to convince himself that his friend 

 was no more than a reflex mechanism. The impression 

 that the study of science deprives one of the philosophic 

 outlook and of the conviction of moral responsibility 

 belongs to the earlier stages of the student's experience. 

 Later it is seen that no incentive to right conduct and no 

 worthy consolation is to be taken away. 



A few years ago a brilliant astronomer was concluding 

 a course of lectures in which he had traced the long story 

 of planetary evolution. He had pictured the ages of forma- 

 tive process, the slow condensation and cooling of the 

 globe, the gradual approach to conditions suitable for or- 

 ganic life. He had sketched the brief flourishing of that 

 life, the remorseless chilling of the planet, and its frigid 

 and sterile old age. His hearers were weighed down with 

 the appalling sense of futility and insignificance. At the 

 very last he asked abruptly: Which, after all, is the greater 

 these awful ranges of time and reaches of space or the 

 mind of man which comprehends and ponders them? 



