LA VIE NORMALE 127 



where a little information about the contents of the books would 

 have been appropriate. I would further point out that, as a 

 scientific thinker, I cannot countenance the view that a species 

 has been " attacked " by a disease, leaving the matter at that. 

 I hold that every effect, physiological or biological, good or 

 bad, has had a commensurate cause, and, hence, that a disease 

 so serious as acromegaly must originate in some serious trans- 

 gression against natural law. This, I know, is a novel and 

 therefore strange point of view, but one, nevertheless, which 

 must prevail. 



We have seen that function rests on " duty " and that even 

 the so-called " physiological economy " of the body is governed 

 by strict laws of biological co-operation. The activity of the 

 glands in particular depends primarily upon food which either 

 makes or mars the organism in accordance with the biological 

 equity of its food-getting. To see that this is so, requires nothing 

 more than a quite legitimate expansion of the principle of cause 

 and effect to the subjects of physiological and biological 

 " economy." 



Having reluctantly said so much pro domo, I would once 

 more emphasise the fact that the normal and ideal life is never 

 the life of indulgence. This truth may be said to be the bio- 

 logical counterpart of the Christian teaching that it is easier for 

 a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich 

 man to enter into Heaven. 



The rich man is the most apt to be tempted to self-indulgence 

 which leads to physical and mental perversions detrimental to 

 ultimate survival. And this is also why the vox populi may at 

 times be worth listening to. It may, and frequently does, 

 represent the wisdom of " la vie normale " and as such proves 

 a valuable corrective of " acromegalic " tendencies in politics, etc. 

 We can thus better understand Ruskin, whose paramount teaching 

 was that the increase of both honour and beauty is habitually 

 on the side of restraint, declaring that 



Out of the peat-cottage come faith, courage, self-sacrifice, purity and 

 piety, and whatever else is fruitful in the work of Heaven ; out of the ivory 

 palace come treachery, cruelty, cowardice, idolatry, bestiality whatever 

 else is fruitful in the work of Hell. 



It has been said that the fat man knoweth not what the 

 lean man thinketh ; and if, as is evident from history and 

 from biology, a kind of diathesis may slowly spread amongst 



