1458 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



in the career of Delage, Lacaze's eminent successor; and indeed of 

 not a few others of the widely international fraternity of "Rosco- 

 vites", one stiU growing. Biology has room and need for all types of 

 mind, from simplest observer's to deepest philosopher's: but neither 

 prospers best alone; for then one sinks to mere collecting, and the 

 other risks coming to what Huxley called "Mr. Spencer's idea of a 

 tragedy — a beautiful hypothesis murdered by a horrid little fact!" 

 Science is first of all inductive: hence it is some fresh first-hand 

 observation which best sets a bright mind working, and to search 

 more deeply: thus Mendel's was stirred by his garden peas, tall and 

 short, green and yeUow; Weismann's theories, of germ-plasm and 

 more, started from observation of hydroid's and Daphnid's eggs; 

 Metschnikoff's invaluable interpretation of inflammations, even his 

 well-known contribution of Bulgarian milk to dispel digestive dis- 

 order and promote longevity accordingly, alike came from his first 

 observations of Hydra's (simplest possible) alimentary canal; and, 

 as he says himself, from watching what happened when minute 

 crustaceans answered back to an irritant intrusion. Pasteur's great 

 opus began with puzzling over left-handed crystals, and even more 

 with sour milk, bad wine, sick stock, and other rustic matters, 

 seeming of no scientific importance before; while his no less im- 

 mortal disciple. Lister, may be simply represented as a modern 

 variant of "the shepherd with his tar-box by his side". Thus the 

 Antaeus of the spirit must ever renew his strength by coming into 

 touch with Mother Earth; and in short, every Newton must needs 

 have his apple (whether that particular story be apocryphal or no). 



DARWIN. — In these two generations since The Origin of Species, 

 we have been searching into some of the internal factors of evolu- 

 tion — which it is but fair to say Darwin was himself open to, and 

 even actively feeling and searching his way towards. Yet too few 

 who have been or are on these new quests (as indeed throughout 

 life ourselves) can avoid being fascinated, or at least biased, by 

 the new and interesting conceptions these have been yielding; and 

 thus specialising on these so strictly as more or less to lose that 

 comprehensive view of the whole life-problem with its many life- 

 aspects and situations which it was Darwin's ambition to attain, 

 and his example to strive towards; for in this largest survey of life 

 and its continuance and progress, he saw even his own doctrine of 

 natural selection as but part, and often candidly said so. It was, of 

 course, but natural also — and, as we shall see later, especially in 

 Darwin's day and generation — to specialise too extremely on this 

 one doctrine, even to its "all-sufficiency"; and thus to provoke 

 reactions against that ultra-Darwinism which he did not himself 

 affirm; but the like of which has so commonly arisen among the 

 devoted disciples of each new thinker, who have ever so readily 



