CHAPTER II 



THE DIVERGENT DIRECTIONS OF THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 

 TORPOR, INTELLIGENCE, INSTINCT 



The evolution movement would be a simple one, and 

 we should soon have been able to determine its direc- 

 tion, if life had described a single course, like that of a 

 solid ball shot from a cannon. But it proceeds rather 

 like a shell, which suddenly bursts into fragments, which 

 fragments, being themselves shells, burst in their turn 

 into fragments destined to burst again, and so on for a 

 time incommensurably long. We perceive only what is 

 nearest to us, namely, the scattered movements of the 

 pulverized explosions. From them we have to go back, 

 stage by stage, to the original movement. 



When a shell bursts, the particular way it breaks is 

 explained both by the explosive force of the powder it 

 contains and by the resistance of the metal. So of the 

 way life breaks into individuals and species. It depends, 

 we think, on two series of causes : the resistance life meets 

 from inert matter, and the explosive force — due to an 

 unstable balance of tendencies — which life bears within 

 itself. 



The resistance of inert matter was the obstacle that 



had first to be overcome. Life seems to have succeeded 



in this by dint of humility, by making itself very small 



and very insinuating, bending to physical and chemical 



forces, consenting even to go a part of the way with them, 



like the switch that adopts for a while the direction of 



98 



