THE QUESTION RESTATED 



sical and chemical diversity and interdepend- 

 ence of the various portions of the surface of 

 our cooling earth, and in those wonderful differ- 

 entiations by which solar radiance is metamor- 

 phosed into the innumerable forms of energy 

 manifested alike by winds and waves, by grow- 

 ing plants and animals, and by reasoning men. 

 We have described it in some detail as revealed 

 in the gradual change of a seed into a tree and 

 of an ovum into an adult mammal. We have 

 observed it also in the increasing chemical com- 

 plexity which at a remote epoch resulted in the 

 formation of living protoplasm ; and we have 

 seen how from this earliest protoplasm there 

 have arisen, in the course of ages well-nigh in- 

 finite in duration, the myriad forms of animal 

 and vegetable life. The progress toward higher 

 complexity and higher organization has likewise 

 been discovered to be taking place in processes 

 as well as in things. It has been shown that Life 

 is a process, consisting in a series of adjustments 

 between the organism and its environment; and 

 that Mind, objectively considered, is a special 

 form of Life, consisting in a specialized portion 

 of the series of adjustments. In these wondrous 

 processes we have found the Law of Evolution 

 most beautifully exemplified ; the degree of Life, 

 or of Mind, being high in proportion not only to 

 the extent which the adjustments cover, but also 

 to their complexity, definiteness, and coherence. 



167 



