THE PRIMAL MIND 



thus diverts the life-energies of the plant to its own 

 purpose. In the case of malignant tumors, the life- 

 energy of the body consumes itself. The hostile 

 germs destroy the body by the use of the vital energy 

 which the body furnishes. The body can be made to 

 destroy itself, to eat itself up. 



ii 



Interfere with the normal currents and course of 

 life in the mother's body, and her womb grows a 

 monstrosity or hideous deformity; the cells go on 

 building blindly; the push of life is not abated, but 

 it has lost its way or forgotten its plan; it wanders 

 aimlessly. Now, what gives it a plan, or guided it 

 through all its vagaries and wanderings in the lowly 

 or monstrous forms of the foreworld, till it built up 

 man from the ape, and the bird from the fish or rep- 

 tile? Natural selection, the Darwinians say. But 

 there must be a variety to select from, and some 

 scheme or purpose in the selecting agent. Mechani- 

 cal laws may select the strongest, or the largest, or 

 the smallest, as the case may be, but not the fittest. 

 The fittest implies a scheme, implies progression. 

 The survival of the fittest implies the push of life, 

 the aspiration, as it were, toward higher forms. How 

 could the gift of mind be brought about by mechan- 

 ical means, unless there was incipient mind a 

 tendency to mind in the struggling forms? The 

 physicochemical forces are not creative; they bring 

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