THE LIVING WAVE 



These animals are built up out of the same elements 

 by the same processes, and they may both have had 

 the same stem form in remote biologic time. If so, 

 what made them diverge and develop into such 

 totally different forms? After the living body is 

 once launched many, if not all, of its operations and 

 economies can be explained on principles of mechan- 

 ics and chemistry, but the something that avails 

 itself of these principles and develops an ox in 

 the one case and a sheep in the other — what of 

 that? 



Spencer is forced into using the terms "amount of 

 vital capital." How much more of it some men, 

 some animals, some plants have than others ! What 

 is it? What did Spencer mean by it? This capital 

 augments from youth to manhood, and then after a 

 short or long state of equilibrium slowly declines to 

 the vanishing-point. 



Again, what a man does depends upon what he is, 

 and what he is depends upon what he does. Struc- 

 ture determines function, and function reacts upon 

 structure. This interaction goes on throughout life; 

 cause and effect interchange or play into each other's 

 hands. The more power we spend within limits the 

 more power we have. This is another respect in 

 which life is utterly unmechanical. A machine does 

 not grow stronger by use as our muscles do; it does 

 not store up or conserve the energy it expends. The 

 gun is weaker by every ball it hurls; not so the base- 



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