380 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



their own peculiar ways are creative and self-sustain- 

 ing entities. 



A red blood corpuscle, for example, itself an or- 

 ganism, but small beyond our unaided powers to esti- 

 mate, picks out in its own peculiar way its burden 

 of oxygen from the air, or water; and driven by other 

 bodily agents through a maze of capillary channels, 

 delivers its combustion cargo to muscle, and nerve, and 

 gland. And these, in terms of rightly administered 

 bodily actions, feed the corpuscle and pay its trans- 

 portation and deterioration charges to and from the 

 consumer and the source of its supplies. Which one 

 of all these separate and distinct agencies performs 

 the more vital, or essential service, the oxygen, blood 

 corpuscle, heart, arteries, veins, muscle, nerve, food, or 

 habitat? Where does any one of these services begin 

 or end? Which service could man best omit from 

 his bodily make-up, or which one of these bodily serv- 

 ants could best live and endure without the other? 



Does the yeast plant, which ferments the grape, do 

 less for man than the laborer who extracts the wine 

 and stores it in his cellar against the time of need? 

 Does the lamb, which gives its wool to man, do less 

 for man than the tailor that fashions it into a coat? 

 Does the cow, which gives its milk to man, perform a 

 less vital and sustaining service for man than the 

 mother that nurses her own offspring? So also with 

 rice, wheat, potatoes, farmer, miller, baker, birds, flow- 

 ers, bees, ships, cars, iron, and coal. Do not all these 

 things, and countless more, cooperatively serve to ac- 

 complish the common result we call social life? 



Evidently, therefore, the existence of this New Le- 



