vi PREFACE 



of intellectually enjoying the works of His hands? If 

 Nature is expressing a thought, may we not try to spell this 

 out by patient observation ? Even if we have no philosophi- 

 cal or religious preconceptions of this sort, we are likely to 

 understand our own life better by inquiring into the order 

 of things in which we are immersed, sometimes, perhaps, 

 almost submerged. 



The aim of this study of Animate Nature is to state the 

 general results of biological inquiry which must be taken ac- 

 count of if we are to think of organic Nature as a whole and 

 in relation to the rest of our experience. Both among care- 

 ful thinkers and careless passers-by views of organic Nature 

 are held, in regard, for instance, to the organism as mechan- 

 ism, the determinism of heredity, the struggle for existence, 

 which seem to the author to be lacking in accuracy or in 

 adequacy, which therefore tend to involve unnecessary diffi- 

 culties in systematisation and perhaps gratuitous confusion 

 in conduct. It has been declared by some that the world of 

 life is " a dismal cockpit ", that in the behaviour of living 

 creatures mind is a negligible quantity, that the study of 

 heredity must leave us fatalistic, and that evolution is largely 

 " a chapter of accidents ". Such views engender what may 

 be called natural irreligion, and it is the object of this course 

 to show that such views are scientifically untenable. 



Nature doubtless presents many puzzling features, but care 

 must be taken to make sure that what seem to be uncon- 

 formabilities are not due to the inadequacy of our knowl- 

 edge. While trying to keep wishes from fathering thoughts, 

 we have been led in our study to see that the general results of 

 Biology, when stated with accuracy, are not out of line with 

 transcendental conclusions reached along other paths, — con- 

 clusions which different minds express in different forms. 



