426 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 978 



which all the struggle for existence goes 

 on? 



Surely there must be a deeper meaning 

 involved in natural objects. Orthodox ex- 

 planations are only partial, though true as 

 far as they go. When we examine each 

 particolored pinnule in a peacock's tail, or 

 hair in a zebra's hide, and realize that the 

 varying shades on each are so placed as to 

 contribute to the general design and pat- 

 tern, it becomes exceedingly difficult to ex- 

 plain how this organized cooperation of 

 parts, this harmonious distribution of pig- 

 ment cells, has come about on merely me- 

 chanical principles. It would be as easy to 

 explain the sprouting of the cantilevers of 

 the Forth Bridge from its piers, or the 

 flocking of the stones of the Nile Dam by 

 chemiotaxis. Flowers attract insects for 

 fertilization; and fruit tempts animals to 

 eat it in order to carry seeds. But these 

 explanations can not be final. "We have 

 still to explain the insects. So much 

 beauty can not be necessary merely to 

 attract their attention. We have further 

 to explain this competitive striving towards 

 life. Why do things struggle to exist? 

 Surely the effort must have some signifi- 

 cance, the development some aim. We thus 

 reach the problem of existence itself, and 

 the meaning of evolution. 



The mechanism whereby existence en- 

 trenches itself is manifest, or at least has 

 been to a large extent discovered. Natural 

 selection is a vera causa, so far as it goes; 

 but if so much beauty is necessary for in- 

 sects, what about the beauty of a landscape 

 or of clouds? What utilitarian object do 

 those subserve? Beauty in general is not 

 taken into account by science. Very well, 

 that may be all right, but it exists, never- 

 theless. It is not my function to discuss it. 

 No ; but it is my function to remind you 

 and myself that our studies do not exhaust 

 the universe, and that if we dogmatize in a 



negative direction, and say that we can 

 reduce everything to physics and chem- 

 istry, we gibbet ourselves as ludicrously 

 narrow pedants, and are falling far short 

 of the richness and fullness of our human 

 birthright. How far preferable is the rev- 

 erent attitude of the eastern poet : 



The world with eyes bent upon thy feet stands 

 in awe with all its silent stars. 



Superficially and physically we are very 

 limited. Our sense organs are adapted to 

 the observation of matter; and nothing 

 else directly appeals to us. Our nerve- 

 mnscle system is adapted to the production 

 of motion in matter, in desired ways; and 

 nothing else in the material world can we 

 accomplish. Our brain and nerve systems 

 connect us with the rest of the physical 

 world. Our senses give us information 

 about the movements and arrangements of 

 matter. Our muscles enable us to produce 

 changes in those distributions. That is our 

 equipment for human life ; and human his- 

 tory is a record of what we have done with 

 these parsimonious privileges. 



Our brain, which by some means yet to 

 be discovered connects us with the rest of 

 the material world, has been thought par- 

 tially to disconnect us from the mental and 

 spiritual realm, to which we really belong, 

 but from which for a time and for prac- 

 tical purposes we are isolated. Our com- 

 mon or social association with matter gives 

 us certain opportunities and facilities, com- 

 bined with obstacles and difficulties which 

 are themselves opportunities for struggle 

 and effort. 



Through matter we become aware of 

 each other, and can communicate with 

 those of our fellows who have ideas suffi- 

 ciently like our own for them to be stimu- 

 lated into activity by a merely physical 

 process set in action by ourselves. By a 

 timed succession of vibratory movements 

 (as in speech and music), or by a static 



