1402 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



"natural advantages" or "resources," are first in view, and in the 

 second the activity exercised upon them. Every organism, every 

 human community, has obviously this two-fold aspect of its life- 

 work; and hence our diagram must be made with two sides, in fact 

 much like an account-book, as of receipts from Nature, and expendi- 

 ture on it towards further result. 



Yet a graphic method works far better than does book-keeping; 

 and as the experience of crafts and games is that mind works best 

 along with hand, let the reader give that principle a fair trial, 

 needing but a little practice, of reconstructing our diagrams for 

 himself; and so begin by folding a double sheet of note-paper, 

 vertically, into three columns, on each side. On the left of these 

 two opened pages, let us write at top of first column PI for Environ- 

 ment or Place, and at bottom of its third column Fk, for organism 

 or Folk, so leave the middle for function or work (and, to avoid two 

 F's, say Wk for main Ufe-work, as determined by environment). 

 So this outline reads as: 



(E or) PI 



Wk 



(O or) Fk 



GEOGRAPHY, ECONOMICS, AND ANTHROPOLOGY— Next 



recall, as noted above, that in our city, its Geographic, Economic, 

 and Anthropological studies and discussions are carried on apart, in 

 so many Societies, and in our University in so many Departments, 

 and thus aU as separate specialisms. So to express this, we must 

 fold up our diagram verticallj^, into a three-sided prism, on which 

 we can thus no longer see aU three at once; but onty one a,t a time. 

 Next, let us ask, what is it that these effect ; what do they respectively 

 produce for us ? The Geographers are ready with their answer : they 

 show us their maps and atlases, their globe: each an admirable 

 condensation of knowledge, embodying ages of exploration and 

 discovery, with modern accuracy of topographic survey to boot. 

 Yet we must be pardoned for saying that the human interest is still 

 far from complete; our tow^n is more than a black dot, or even a plan. 

 We pass to the Anthropologist, who duly impresses us by his vast 

 collection of skulls, flints, and other human remains of interest. 

 But when he and we have no longer our Place, with oiu activities in 

 it (Work), we shall be dead; and little of us will endure, save perhaps 

 our skulls for future collections and measurements, and say oui" 

 spectacles too, which may earn some such approving remark when 

 shelved in the museum of the future, that "these twentieth century 

 barbarians really polished their flints prett}^ well". And as for the 



