THE ORGANIC REALM 569 



whatever mind or matter may be and however they may inter- 

 act. If I am right in my belief, then it follows that this power 

 of choice which we have already seen reason to regard as the 

 fundamental factor in organic evolution, is indeed the very 

 essence of life. On this view an organism is recognized as 

 alive when it shows signs of control from within, manifested 

 by activities regarded as purposeful, and in so far peculiar to 

 itself as to defy exact foretelling. It has been well said 

 that no arguments can ever force a person to believe that 

 even he himself has a free will; for, if it were true that he 

 had a free will he must always be free to choose the other 

 alternative. The reader will understand, therefore, in what 

 follows that as a believer in free will I wish merely to show 

 some of the consequences of this belief to anyone who is dis- 

 posed to share it with me. Those who agree with me will 

 feel free to believe in the workings of will throughout the 

 universe. They will conceive of the difference between a 

 lifeless and a living thing as simply this: the lifeless thing 

 must do whatever it does, while the living thing may do this 

 or that. From this it follows that to us and to all other living 

 things belongs in various measure a power of preference. ' 

 The range of this power in us though limited by a Power 

 beyond ourselves increases accorchng as it is used. And 

 shall we not say that the Power which limits while it permits 

 the exercise of our separate wills is reflected in what we call 

 the inorganic realm? 



199. The organic realm. A typical living organism may 

 be conceived of as a self-building boat formed of materials 

 taken from the inorganic stream in which it floats, but con- 

 trolled by an indwelling, immaterial power capable of steer- 



1 If the reader has studied philosophy he is doubtless aware that 

 certain thinkers who concede a power of choice to all living things 

 refuse to limit this power to the organic realm, but hold that a certain 

 measure of conscious freedom is permitted to every particle of matter. 

 They favor this view as enabling them to unify their conception of 

 the universe, and at the same time to recognize the immanence of God 

 throughout. The unification which is gained, however, by saying that 

 all things are alive, deprives Life of any special meaning. For if nothing 

 is really lifeless, being alive means no more than simply existing. What- 

 ever truth there may be in saying that all Nature is somehow alive 

 seems to me to be implied in the view outlined above. 



