50 THE REALM OF ORGANISMS CONTRASTED 



be said that a mechanical sunmiing up of even not-living 

 occurrences is necessarily exhaustive. ISTor can we speak 

 with satisfactory precision of the ' physical order ' , for living 

 creatures are also physical systems, though more ; and the 

 phrase ' purely physical ' is again question-begging. 



So let us call it all — from the solar system to the dew-drop 

 — the inorganic domain. We cannot hold it rigidly apart 

 from living organisms, for it is continually undergoing mod- 

 ification at their hands. Parts of it are ever entering into 

 the bodies of organisms, and into its repository the disen- 

 chanted dust of life is ever returning. We know the inor- 

 ganic system of things only in terms of mind, and our first 

 adventure of scientific faith is to believe in its external 

 reality; yet it looms impressively over us — a great dumb 

 giant, holding us, even in our defiance, in its grip and bear- 

 ing us with it on its stupendous journeying through space. 



§ 2. The Characteristic Features of the Realm of Organisms. 



Let us begin with an impressionist survey of the realm 

 of organisms, and after^^^ards contrast this with a general 

 view of the inorganic domain. It is surely a magnificent 

 spectacle that the obviously animate presents. What a gamut 

 of life from the microscoj^ic Infusorian to the giant whale, 

 from the hyssop on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon ! What 

 abundance of life is revealed when the dredge comes up, 

 or when the insects rise before us in a cloud as we walk 

 through the grassland of a warm country. What variety of 

 architecture, what abundance of individuality within the 

 same style ! All is suggestive of fertile imagination. How 

 strong the pressure, as the waves of life surge up against 

 their shores; how numberless the hand-and-glove fitnesses; 

 how subtle the linkages; how constant the changefulness ; 



