WITH THE DOMAIN OF THE INORGANIC 59 



demand, action and reaction between plants and animals, 

 between flowers and insects, between herbivores and carni- 

 vores, and between other conflicting yet correlated interests, 

 we begin to get a glimpse of a vast self-regulating organisa- 

 tion. There may be local and temporary friction and dis- 

 order ; there is the clash of fierce competition in some forms 

 of the struggle for existence ; but the larger fact is the 

 smooth working of a balanced correlated system. 



In philosophical reconstruction we must surely take ac- 

 count of this inter-relatedness of organisms. Is it not of 

 interest to find in Animate Nature, as in mankind, advance 

 from comparatively isolated units towards systematisation 

 and solidarity? The multitudinous unique threads of life 

 become more and more interwoven; the warp and the woof 

 of the web are hunger and love ; we get glimpses of a chang- 

 ing pattern becoming ever finer. The web seems to become 

 increasingly coherent, though man often rends the fabric 

 ruthlessly. 



Another point of importance, demanding subsequent 

 study, is that the intricacy of the web of life becomes in it- 

 self of great significance in evolution. It is its subtlety that 

 gives point and possibility of survival to minute variations. 

 The very fact of complex interaction and systematisation 

 tends to diminish fortuity and to make towards definite 

 progression. The correlation of organisms which is a prod- 

 uct of evolution becomes in turn a directive factor. 



§ 7. The Prevalence of Adaptations. 



The balance demonstrable on a large scale holds through- 

 out; every higher organism is a complex bundle of adap- 

 tations. It is suited to its surroundings, to its food, to its 

 own weight, to its way of moving, to the regularly recurrent 



