GENERAL LAW OF ANIMAL FERTILITY. 579 



— the completeness of their co-ordination. Thus, h'kewise, is it 

 with Intelligence^ even in its highest manifestations. That which 

 we call rationality is the power to combine, or co-ordinate a great 

 number and a great variety of complex actions for the achieve- 

 ment of a desired result. The husbandman has in the course of 

 years, by drainage and manuring, to bring his ground into a fer- 

 tile state ; in the autumn he must plough, harrow, and sow, for 

 his next year's crop ; must subsequently hoe and weed, keep out 

 cattle, and scare away birds ; when harvest comes, must adapt 

 the mode and time of getting in his produce to the weather and 

 the labour market ; he must afterwards decide when, and where, 

 and how to sell to the best advantage ; and must do all this that 

 he may get food and clothing for his family. By properly co- 

 ordinating these various processes (each of which involves many 

 others) — by choosing right modes, right times, right quantities, 

 right qualities, and performing his acts in right order, he attains 

 his end. But if he have done too little of this, or too much of 

 that ; or have done one thing v/hen he should have done another 

 — if his proceedings have been badly co-ordinated — that is, if he 

 have lacked intelligence — he fails. 



We find, then, that the co-ordination of actions is a definition 

 of Life, which includes alike its highest and its lowest manifesta- 

 tions ; and not only so, but expresses likewise the degree of Life, 

 seeing that the Life is high in proportion as the co-ordination is 

 great. Proceeding upwards, from the simplest organic cell in 

 which there are but two interdependent actions, on through the 

 group in which many such cells are acting in concert, on through 

 the higher group in which some of these cells assume mainly the 

 respiratory and others the assimilative function — proceeding still 

 higher to organisms in which these twt) functions are subdivided 

 into many others, and in which some cells begin to act together 

 as contractile fibres; next to organisms in which the visceral divi- 

 sion of labour is carried yet further, and in which many contrac- 

 tile fibres act together as muscles — ascending again to creatures 

 that combine the movements of several limbs and many bones 

 and muscles in one action ; and further, to creatures in which 

 complex impressions are followed by the complex acts we term 

 instinctive — and arriving finally at man, in whom not only are 

 the separate acts complex, but who achieves his ends by com- 

 bining together an immense number and variety of acts often 

 extending through years — we see that the progress is uniformly 

 towards greater co-ordination of actions. Moreover, this co-ordi- 

 nation of actions unconsciously constitutes the essence of our 

 common notion of life ; for we shall find, on inquiry, that when 

 we infer the death of an animal, which does not move on being 

 touched, we infer it because we miss the usual co-ordination of a 



