THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ORGANISMS 103 



what appears as inorganic, the entire world 

 would still appear as a blind struggle between 

 different organisms. Of this conflict, whether 

 we regard it as conflict between organisms 

 themselves, or between organisms and physical 

 environment, we can give no biological inter 

 pretation, and are thus forced back on a 

 physical interpretation. From the standpoint 

 of ideal biology organism and environment 

 would be one. The organism would be 

 not something in a more or less foreign 

 environment, but in its own environment, 

 which it has grown in, and which has been 

 part of its very nature from the outset. Of 

 the actual foreignness or imperfection in the 

 environment biology as such can give no 

 account. 



This discussion brings us to the subject of 

 the last lecture. In the higher organisms, at 

 least, we find distinct evidence of a quite new 

 factor consciousness. A conscious organism 

 is, as it were, fighting the inorganic world, not 

 blindly but with the weapons of that inorganic 

 world itself. It answers blow with counter 

 blow, and physical force with counter-force. 

 The conscious organism is aware of the inor- 



