Devolution 125 



And why is this devolution easy? In the 

 first place, because organisms are bilateral and 

 growth alternates between the two sides. But 

 more than this, human beings, at least, are a 

 combination of anabolic and katabolic ten- 

 dencies between which a constant equilibrium 

 must be preserved, as it is in men, whose inner 

 being or mind is anabolic and whose outer 

 body is katabolic, and with women in whom 

 the opposite is true. Each self acts on the 

 other, not directly through muscles or nerves, 

 but through emotions. The outer body must 

 despecialize to match the conditions of the 

 inner body, and the inner body by the same 

 resource must attain an equilibrium with the 

 outer body. The equilibrium comes in all 

 cases indirectly through devolution, and not 

 directly through growth. Any divergent ten- 

 dencies are cut off by emotional set-backs 

 which cease only when the two parts receive 

 a common impulse to grow in one direction. 

 Devolution is thus easy, effective, and in- 

 creasingly prominent as organisms rise in the 

 scale of being. 



Physiologists seem recently to have proved 



