II22 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



fields of concrete observational science, with their respective inter- 

 pretative endeavours; which we now call physical, biological, and 

 social ; and these may now be viewed in outline, with their relative 

 autonomy and their legitimate specialisms; but also as in indis- 

 soluble order, thus and not otherwise. For in the physicist's square 

 we locate our growing knowledge of the inorganic environment; in 

 the biologist's (which must include man as animal), we gain our 

 knowledge of organic life, in its environmental relations and its 

 internal f unctionings ; while in the social world we are concerned 

 with humanity proper. In this succession and perspective, we see 

 that the physical world so far determines the biological, and the 

 social; and next that organic life also conditions the social life. 

 Yet in the converse perspective, we see humanity controlling the 

 organic world, and these their physical environment also, since not 



only man, but animal and plant-life, are ever actively utilising this 

 to their life's service. 



To give this outline more completeness, and not only to scientific 

 or philosophical students and colleagues, but to ordinary visitors — 

 indeed to our gardeners and workmen, and even to inquiring 

 youngsters, who thus soon understand, and that vividly, what we 

 are trying to do — this diagram has been actually laid out, upon 

 the terrace of our students' hall of residence. (For its outline, see 

 end-paper, next upper cover.) Standing in the square of physics, 

 we here appropriately look out over a quarry, and to a road- junction, 

 with its many motors. From the biological square, that view is 

 replaced by an old evergreen oak; now a convenient symbol of the 

 long-enduring tree of life, with its many ramifications; while in the 

 opposite direction runs a path through the flower and vegetable 

 garden, and into the moor and forest. From the social square, at 

 the corner furthest from the house-door, we may sit down by the 

 terrace-wall, and now see the home beside us, the village hard by, 

 and the historic university city in the distance. So in this way, 

 concrete observation and more abstract reflection are happily 



