130 ORGANISM AND MECHANISM 



of many parts to an effective result. But the living creature 

 is always working, even in dying, towards its own preserva- 

 tion; it can adjust its activity to varying needs and cir- 

 cumstances ; it can rest and begin again ; in normal conditions 

 it can give rise to another organism with activities like its 

 own. The explicit organism develops in appropriate condi- 

 tions from the implicit organism or germ-cell ; if disturbed 

 it can re-arrange itself; if it loses a part it can replace it; 

 if it is broken into fragments it can sometimes reconstruct 

 its living edifice. 



(h) Those who claim autonomy for biology are sometimes 

 rebuked by a reference to the music of the spheres. We are 

 told that '^ in [N'ature herself, if we look at her larger handi- 

 w^ork, self -regulation and self-maintenance become paramount 

 attributes and characteristics of her machines. The solar 

 system, qua mechanism, is the perfect specimen, the very 

 type and norm, of a self-maintaining, self-regulating mecha- 

 nism ; and so also, grade after grade, are its dependent 

 mechanisms, such as the world-wide currents of the atmos- 

 phere and of the sea '' (D'Arcy W. Thompson, Life and 

 Finite Individuality, p. 37). 



The order and balance of T^ature's larger handiwork 

 must indeed be recognised and admired. The same laws 

 that are used in formulating cosmic architecture and reg- 

 ularity may be usefully employed, as we have admitted, in 

 the realms of organisms. But our point is that the animalcule 

 is in a way greater than all the stars, as stars, for it is an 

 agent, it has alternatives, it shows experimental indetermin- 

 ism, it commands its course. And when this began it was 

 something new in the world. 



(c) But where, precisely, it is asked, does the mechanis- 

 tic description fail? The answer is twofold, that as yet 



