THE MECHANISM OF NATURE 



305 



No one who does not answer in the negative the absurd ques- 

 tion whether life is worth Hving — a question which is answered 

 affirmatively by every act of scientific inquiry— can ask with any 

 serious doubt of the answer, whether the attributes of living things 

 are useful. 



" The opinion which disdaineth our life is ridiculous : For in fine 

 it is our being. It is our all in all. It is against nature, we should 

 disprise, and carelessly set ourselves at naught: It is a particular 

 infirmitie, and which is not seene in any other creature, to hate 

 and disdaine himself." ^ 



In Romanes's words, "wherever we tap organic nature it seems 

 to flow with purpose." The whole history of zoology is a history 

 of the discovery of the adjustment of the acts of living things to 

 the order of nature. 



The discovery of the chain of physical causation which joins 

 this order of nature to these adjustments, by means of natural 

 selection, tells us nothing except that these adjustments are no 

 more than might have been expected; and I cannot put myself 

 in the place of those who think this discovery shows that the fit- 

 ness of living beings is not real fitness. 



He who admits that cats are part of nature, and that skill in 

 catching mice is important to the race of cats, must admit that 

 nature is, so far, useful to itself ; nor, while the standpoint of the 

 mouse must not be forgotten, do I see how proof that cats are 

 part of the order of physical nature would alter the case, for this 

 would only prove that physical nature is, so far, useful to itself. 

 Proof that cats are automatic and mechanical, from beginning to 

 end, would show that their whole history has been orderly and 

 what might have been expected, but it would not disprove any- 

 thing we now know about them, nor tell us whether their actions 

 are necessary or unnecessary, for the discovery that a natural 

 event may be counted on with confidence tells us nothing about 

 its origin and nothing about its existence except what we know 

 already. 



When we say nature is orderly, we mean each event may be 

 a sign which leads us to expect other events with confidence. 

 When we say the attributes of living things are useful to them, we 



^ Montaigne, " A Custom of the He of Cea." 



