An Introduction to a Biology 



I have to go upstairs behind the clock and examine and touch 

 the various wheels, and minutely trace out how they work 

 together. That is to say, I could describe the face of the 

 clock and the changes in position of the hands, the difference 

 between the speed of the two, and so forth, from a dis- 

 tance of 50 yards. But in order to be able to account for 

 these phenomena, I must come as close as possible. So that 

 we may say that, in this case, all that we need, to be able 

 to interpret the phenomenon, is opportunity of coming closer 

 to it (provided we are not in so low a state of intellectual 

 development that we interpret it as the result of the agency 

 of spirits). We may put it another way : we may say that 

 interpretation involves the coming to closer quarters with 

 a phenomenon ; it means a decrease in the distance between 

 the eye of the observer and the thing observed. And all 

 this is perfectly true so long as the constituent parts of the 

 mechanism under investigation are of such bulk that they 

 can be perceived and handled individually by man. Now 

 the constituent parts of a clock are, for the- simple reason 

 that the mechanism is the work of man. But the constituent 

 parts of vital mechanism are not ; yet we continually act and 

 speak as if they were. 



We are nowadays always sighing with relief at our happy 

 deliverance from the old anthropomorphic interpretation of 

 the universe. But are we emancipated ? Not a bit. We 

 are still slaves. What right have we to imagine that the 

 mechanism of the things around us should be of such a size 

 that it bears that relation to us which will enable us to under- 

 stand it if we only look close enough ? Why should it not 

 bear that relation to bacteria, or to some other beings as 

 much smaller than bacteria as bacteria are smaller than 

 ourselves ? What are we that we should expect this ? 

 Nothing but the last term of a series of changes in one direc- 

 tion of mammalian development. We are so incapable of 

 estimating our own place in the universe that we have not 

 yet got out of the habit of referring to all the other animals 



246 



