52 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



own have been alike defective, he must 

 fix our attention on something deeper 

 than the differences between every 

 organism and its own skin. His selec- 

 tion of this most superficial kind of 

 difference as the first to dwell upon, is 

 not merely wanting it is erroneous. 

 It hides and leads us off the scent of 

 another kind of outsidedness and in- 

 sidedness which is really and truly 

 fundamental ; namely, the insidedness, 

 the self-containedness, of every organism 

 as a whole with reference to all external 

 forces. Nobody has pointed this out 

 more clearly in former years than Mr. 

 Spencer himself. The grand distinction 

 between the organic and the inorganic 

 lies in this that the organic is not 

 passive under the touch or impact of 

 external force, but responds, if it re- 

 sponds at all, with the play of counter- 

 forces which are essentially its own. 



