THE NATURAL HISTORY OF REST 



A N outlook on the animate world in Winter impresses 

 f~\ us with the rest fulness of living creatures. Seeds 

 are resting in the ground, buds are resting on the boughs, 

 chrysalids are resting in sheltered nooks, the frogs are 

 resting in the mud by the pond-side, the hedgehog is 

 resting amid the woody wreck. Winter in North Temperate 

 countries is a time of rest. Vital activity gradually in- 

 creases in the Spring months, and reaches its climax in 

 Summer; in Winter we see the down-grade of the curve, 

 which often never re-ascends, but goes lower and lower 

 to the nadir of death. 



The physical basis of rest is to be found in the fact of 

 the conservation of energy, for no material system, how- 

 ever wonderful, can create energy. It takes in, it gives out, 

 it transmutes, but it cannot create. Therefore when it 

 expends energy in work, and exhausts its store, it must 

 stop or rest till it gets more. But the matter is compli- 

 cated by the external rhythms of day and night, of months 

 and tides, of seasons and cycles of years, to which it has 

 been the business of living creatures for millions of years 

 to adjust themselves as harmoniously as possible. Thus 

 we find long periods of expenditure without appreciable 

 income, which are startling from a mechanical point of 

 view. 



We are led from many sides to recognise that the living 

 creature is different from any inanimate machine. If it 



is a machine, it is a self-regulating, self-stoking, self- 



323 



