IV 



MAN AND THE WEB OF LIFE 



THE two strongest tendencies of our age are probably the 

 democratic and the scientific. The keywords of the democratic 

 tendency are such as participation in responsibilities and 

 rewards, liberation, equality of opportunity, solidarity. The 

 keywords of the scientific tendency are such as accuracy, 

 verification, prevision, control. Now, as a condition of secure 

 progress, it seems greatly to be desired that these two strong 

 tendencies should be brought into closer correlation. Without 

 turning aside from its chief end, which is the quest of under- 

 standing, science might be directed with greater determination 

 towards the relief of man's estate. And the democratic 

 tendency would gain if it could be more informed by know- 

 ledge, if it could acquire the habit of basing action, neither on 

 prejudice nor on desire, but on the facts and the whole facts 

 of the case. 



Now one of the indispensable ideas which must be gripped 

 is the idea of the web of life, the correlation of organisms, the 

 linking together of vital interests in a Systema Naturae. This 

 idea is essential to the scientific outlook on man and Nature ; 

 it is of incalculable practical importance, but it is also an 

 idea as pleasant as the vision of light itself. It makes for 

 delight as well as for discipline. 



Let us try first of all to make the biological idea clear. 

 No creature lives or dies to itself. Animate nature is a vast 

 system of linkages. Gilbert White was aware of this when he 

 wrote his famous letter (1777) on the influence of earthworms 

 in the economy of Nature. Christian Conrad Sprengel was 



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