PREFACE vii 



It looks as if Nature were much more conformable than is 

 often supposed to religious interpretation, but we have not 

 seen it to be our duty to justify the ways of God to man. 

 We have tried to keep as close as possible to the facts of the 

 case, leaving philosophical and religious inferences for 

 those who are better qualified to draw them. 



Our endeavour to present the scientific view of Animate 

 Nature has often led only to a disappointing balancing of 

 alternative formulations, for science abounds in open ques- 

 tions; it has also involved considerable noise of facts through- 

 out the lectures, for there is no other way of getting beyond 

 mere opinions. But it will be understood that the appeal to 

 facts is not exactly for their own sake, as in a course of lec- 

 tures on descriptive Biology, but as a basis for those distinc- 

 tive biological and psycho-biological concepts of organism, 

 behaviour, development, heredity, evolution, and so on, which 

 must be included in a philosophical view of Nature. 



It would be ungracious not to use this opportunity of 

 thanking many friends in St. Andrews and Dundee espe- 

 cially Principal Sir John Herkless and Principal John Yule 

 Mackay from whom I received much kindness while de- 

 livering these lectures. 



UNIVERSITY or ABERDEEN, 

 May, 1919. 



