We may never know precisely how this is done; it 

 is one of the great mysteries of life and nature. But 

 we know it is done. We know that nature has pre- 

 pared a place where life exists, endures, and becomes 

 enlarged. We know that the germinal principle of life 

 with its increment, a working capital and fixed income 

 with their increments, and the beaten pathways of con- 

 structive conduct, straightened by restrictive discipline, 

 and approved by success, are its dower. 



There are always three great overlapping phases 

 in the life of every individual organism: (i) That of 

 receiving all that the individual has and is; (2) that 

 of preserving and augmenting these endowments; and 

 (3) that of giving them with their increments to their 

 offspring, or to life at large. 



The first may be called the entail phase, the second 

 the growth phase, or the phase of self-enlargement, 

 and the third, the phase of self-giving. 



Life's Entailed Estates. In recent years we have 

 gained an inspiring insight into the correlation between 

 the acts of fertilization, the architecture of germ cells, 

 and the products of selective breeding. These dra- 

 matic revelations have led some biologists, and many 

 laymen, to exaggerate the significance of genetics, in 

 the narrower meaning of the term, and dangerously 

 to neglect the larger aspects of life and nature. 



But there are many other factors which have an 

 equally significant influence on the reproduction and 

 the evolution of life, and so far as possible all these 

 factors, in due proportions, should be borne in mind. 

 The chief factors are as follows: 



i. The Entailed Habitat of Life. The habitat 

 common to all life, with its provincial variations, is 



