136 ORGANISM AND MECHANISM 



of many parts to an effective result. But the living creature 

 is always working, even in dying, towards its own preserva- 

 tion; it can adjust its activity to varying needs and cir- 

 cumstances ; it can rest and begin again ; in normal conditions 

 it can give rise to another organism with activities like its 

 own. The explicit organism develops in appropriate condi- 

 tions from the implicit organism or germ-cell; if disturbed 

 it can re-arrange itself; if it loses a part it can replace it; 

 if it is broken into fragments it can sometimes reconstruct 

 its living edifice. 



(&) Those who claim autonomy for biology are sometimes 

 rebuked by a reference to the music of the spheres. We are 

 told that " in Nature herself, if we look at her larger handi- 

 work, self-regulation and self-maintenance become paramount 

 attributes and characteristics of her machines. The solar 

 system, qua mechanism, is the perfect specimen, the very 

 type and norm, of a self-maintaining, self-regulating mecha- 

 nism; and so also, grade after grade, are its dependent 

 mechanisms, such as the world-wide currents of the atmos- 

 phere and of the sea " (D'Arcy W. Thompson, Life and 

 Finite Individuality, p. 37). 



The order and balance of Nature's larger handiwork 

 must indeed be recognised and admired. The same laws 

 that are used in formulating cosmic architecture and reg- 

 ularity may be usefully employed, as we have admitted, in 

 the realms of organisms. But our point is that the animalcule 

 is in a way greater than all the stars, as stars, for it is an 

 agent, it has alternatives, it shows experimental indetermin- 

 ism, it commands its course. And when this began it was 

 something new in the world. 



(c) But where, precisely, it is asked, does the mechanis- 

 tic description fail? The answer is twofold, that as yet 



