WITH THE DOMAIN OF THE INORGANIC 75 



and to offspring; to regularly recurrent times and seasons and nsks 

 of injury; to its ante-natal life and to dying at the proper time! 



If we are to consider Animate Nature in its totality we must not 

 overlook the practically universal pervasiveness of beauty of form 

 and colour. 



It may be said that this impressionist picture of Animate Nature 

 is one-sided, that it ignores the redness of tooth and claw, the 

 cruelty, the ugliness, the parasitism, the obtrusively enormous mortal- 

 ity, and the mis-adaptations. Much of this objection is due to 

 misunderstanding; the admittedly great difficulties that remain will 

 be discussed in Lecture XVIII. 



Comparing the realm of organisms with the domain of the in- 

 organic, we must avoid the error of exaggerating the differences 

 (so that an impression of discontinuity is created) and the error 

 of merging the two (thus missing what is distinctive in each). 

 In the domain of the inorganic there is little individuality (though 

 much difference of quality), no apparent freedom of action, no 

 endeavour, no purposiveness, no learning in the school of time. 

 But its uniformity has been a probably indispensable fulcrum for 

 the lever of will. It should be noted too that the old view of inert 

 matter has given place to a dynamic conception of extraordinary 

 subtlety. 



