6 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



how often in the backward method facts have to be supplemented 

 by inference. But I had learnt some undoubted facts and some 

 inferences from them nearly as certain. Some mind of man had 

 conceived and hands carried out the division of the bundles of 

 fibres into three strands, had twisted them somehow so as to reduce 

 their length by a quarter and yet not far enough to rupture them, 

 and had thus fitted them the better for their purpose by a rein- 

 forcement of tensile strength due to the twisting. I could also see 

 that this same mind had seen it better to divide each of these 

 strands into two yarns before the final twisting, and that in framing 

 the yarns the silky fibres of the plant had been squeezed together 

 by some powerful agency and yet not disintegrated, and that the 

 finished product had been immersed in a protective substance 

 which gave it a slight glaze. In short, I, though a child in these 

 matters, read much of the story of this cord in terms of mind dealing 

 with given organic matter. I may add that I did not imagine 

 myself a little Paley, and that I do not intend to " take in " the 

 reader as to the argument from design and final causes, even though 

 this parable may feebly resemble Pa ley's study of a watch. The 

 conclusion was perfectly clear that certain directing grey cells of 

 a certain brain had interfered with and acted upon some plastic 

 vegetable matter, and one could at the " strand " stage, the " yarn " 

 stage, and the " fibre " stage see mind writ large. 



The Forward Way. 



The limits of the former method are obvious, but I might also 

 attempt to follow the little story as a crime is followed and described 

 by eye-witnesses. So I go to an old-fashioned rope-factory and 

 ask the foreman questions about the making of twine, cords, ropes 

 and cables. He shows me bundles of hemp ; he calls them Russian, 

 Italian or American, and goes on to tell me how the fibre is 

 " heckled " or combed, how " tow " is separated from " line," and 

 how the yarns are pressed together and twisted, how they are at 

 first rough and bristly, and are then dressed, polished, and " sized " 

 with such a starch as that of the potato. When I proceed to ask 

 him about the plant itself his interest flags, and he becomes vague. 

 He says, " You had better ask the Head, young Mr. X., he knows 

 these things better." I find the Head with his golf clubs over his 

 shoulder and about to start on his " business," and he is polite, but 

 says he knows very little about the origin of his hemp. " You should 

 go over the way and ask Messrs. Y. if they will let you see the expert 

 who advises them in their business, he will know." The expert is 

 at home and kindly and fully describes to me the early home of 



