LIVING THINGS AND MACHINES 195 



ism, is irritable towards warmth and light as 

 well as towards all kinds of mechanical and 

 chemical influences and thus is responsive to the 

 most manifold expressions of life. In the 

 machine power is developed in a restricted 

 direction, in the organism there is an extra- 

 ordinarily free, many-sided play of powers. 



A comparison will make the difference be- 

 tween the two more obvious. Look at the 

 difference between a musical box or a gramo- Musical 

 phone and the human larynx combined with** * 

 the lungs and the nerves and muscles which set 

 it in operation. Both of these can give vent to 

 numerous tunes and those of all kinds. But the 

 difference between them is enormous. The in- 

 strument can only play the tune or tunes which 

 it is constructed to play or the records which 

 are inserted into it. On the other hand, with- 

 out any visible change the human larynx can 

 puss from one melody to another and alter its 

 time and time by the action of the muscles 

 under the influence of the will of the indivi- 

 dual who is singing. Moreover, at will the 

 singer can alter the pitch, the time and the 

 tone of his song, introduce all sorts of trills 

 and runs and modifications which the instru- 

 ment can never do, for that must always 

 pe rform its task in exactly the same manner. 



Then we come to a second difference. When, 



