An Introduction to a Biology 



great investigators who have spent their lives in 

 the service of Biology ? " Let us apply the general 

 conclusions we arrived at with regard to the rela- 

 tion between words and things to the word " Biology. 5 ' 

 The area covered by this word includes in one, let 

 us say its western, region that great mass of (fairly 

 pure) description of the forms and colours and 

 behaviour of living things. In its eastern region 

 it contains a great mass of interpretation little con- 

 taminated by facts ; and, in the intermediate region, 

 mixtures of the two in every conceivable proportion. 

 Now when a man asks himself what he means by 

 Biology he probably calls to mind the great store 

 of (fairly well) established facts which make up the 

 content of descriptive zoology, botany, embryology, 

 cytology, histology and the rest. But if the man 

 who indignantly asked the questions above, merely 

 used the phrase Modern Biology as a bludgeon to 

 frighten me with, he almost certainly did not ask 

 himself what he meant by the word biology ; and in 

 that case he made no attempt to keep the descriptive 

 and interpretative parts of Biology strictly apart and 

 distinct in his mind. Until he has done this, it is 

 impossible to answer the above questions. If he will 

 do this, I will answer that I certainly do not ignore 

 the established facts of biology. I am concerned in 

 this book solely with the interpretation of life ; and 

 1 assert that we have not yet begun to understand it. 



; '*. j 6 V 



Let us now glance at the relation between the 

 mind of man and the phenomena of life from the 

 historical quarter. 



29 



