106 The Bible of Nature 



and hath more in it than the eye of a common 

 spectator doth discover." We do not wonder at 

 Dr. Hans Driesch, one of the foremost and cer- 

 tainly the most philosophical of experimental em- 

 bryologists, entitling one of his books, "The Soul 

 as a Factor in Nature/' 



(c) Effective Response. Furthermore, the living 

 organism is characterized by its power of effective 

 response. There is response also in the inanimate, 

 the bar of iron responds to heat, its particles have 

 a quicker motion, and it expands; it responds like- 

 wise to the moist air and rusts, turning into oxide 

 of iron. The barrel of gunpowder certainly re- 

 sponds to the spark, it explodes, destroying itself 

 as gunpowder in so doing. But the responses of 

 the living creature in normal surroundings are 

 effective, they are self-preservative, they usually 

 make for betterment. There is wastage, of course; 

 there can be no activity without that; but the or- 

 ganism has a remarkable power of retaining its 

 integrity, for days or years. We throw a piece of 

 potassium on the basin of water, and it rushes 

 about fizzing and flaring like a thing possessed, 

 but in a minute all its activity is over. It goes out. 

 On the other hand, we watch the movements of the 

 whirligig beetle on the pool; it darts like a little 

 water-sprite here, there, and everywhere over the 

 surface, but, unlike the potassium pill, it does not 

 go out. When it is tired, it takes a rest, and so it 



