FUNCTION AND ENVIRONMENT 201 



it will not develop fully. Again, we know 

 that changes in function have great individ- 

 ual importance. By force of smiting one be- 

 comes a smith. Even if there be no multi- 

 plication of muscle-fibres after the more 

 strenuous function began, each fibre is 

 larger and worth more. Contrariwise, disuse 

 means deterioration; when we rest too much 

 we rust. No one has ever doubted the 

 individual importance of functional modi- 

 fications. Further, although the transmis- 

 sion of a functional modification remains un- 

 proved, the secondary and indirect results 

 may influence the germ-cells and the off- 

 spring. It is idle to say that what living 

 creatures do or fail to do has no racial im- 

 portance. Another certainty is that by its 

 activity a living creature, being no mere 

 puppet of fate, may alter the whole situa- 

 tion. This, again, may have evolutionary 

 interest, even if it ends fatally. Admitting 

 all this, can we say more? 



THE LIVING ORGANISM. The secret of 

 Life is baffling to the human intelligence, 

 refusing to be formulated. Often the con- 

 ception of Life has seemed to biologists to 

 be within reach, and then it is perhaps far- 

 thest away. It recedes as we approach. Yet, 

 though intelligence fails, do we not at times 

 come nearer to it through sympathy? Words- 



