THE BREATH OF LIFE 



Inheritance and adaptation, says Haeckel, are 

 sufficient to account for all the variety of animal 

 and vegetable forms on the earth. But is there not 

 a previous question? Do we not want inheritance 

 and adaptation accounted for? What mysteries 

 they hold ! Does the river-bed account for the river? 

 How can a body adapt itself to its environment un- 

 less it possess an inherent, plastic, changing, and 

 adaptive principle? A stone does not adapt itself 

 to its surroundings; its change is external and not 

 internal. There is mechanical adjustment between 

 inert bodies, but there is no adaptation without the 

 push of life. A response to new conditions by change 

 of form implies something actively responsive — 

 something that profits by the change. 



VII 



If we could tell what determines the division of 

 labor in the hive of bees or a colony of ants, we could 

 tell what determines the division of labor among 

 the cells in the body. A hive of bees and a colony 

 of ants is a unit — a single organism. The spirit 

 of the body, that which regulates all its economies, 

 which directs all its functions, which coordinates 

 its powers, which brings about all its adaptations, 

 which adjusts it to its environment, which sees to 

 its repairs, heals its wounds, meets its demands, 

 provides more force when more is needed, which 

 makes one organ help do the work of another, which 



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