CHAPTER VII 



THE WONDER OF LIFE 



(Characteristics of Living Creatures) 



* Ipaet anD future are unftnown to ber. Zbe present is ber 

 ctcrnftB. Sbe is beneficent. . . .' 



' Sbe is complete, but never finfsbeD. as 6be vootks now, 

 60 can sbe always worft. . . .' 



' Sbe Is ever sbaping new forms ; wbat is, bas never get 

 been ; wbat bas been, comes not again. Evcrstblng Is new, 

 an& get naugbt but tbe olD.' 



— Ooethe's Afhorisms, translated by Huxley. 



The Creature Itself — Organisms and Mechanisms — The Insignia 

 of Life — Down-breaking and Up-building — The Power of 

 Growing — Capacity for Behaviour — Power of Reproducing — 

 Development — Variability — Simulacra Vitae — Difficult Pheno- 

 mena — The Powers of Life — Correlation — The Subtlety of Lite — 

 Adaptation — Eegeneration — The Crowning Wonder of Evolu- 

 tion — Vitalism. 



WE have considered organisms as actors in a drama, 

 Kving in haunts, conquering space, trading 

 vdth time, and passing from phase to phase in their indivi- 

 dual life-histories. Let us now change our point of view 

 and think of the Uving creature itself. What are the great 

 facts in regard to it and its Uving that stand out when we 

 get to a httle distance, and are not embarrassed by the 

 details of anatomy, physiology, embryology and the hke ? 



The Creature Itself 

 Were it not for the difficulty of seeing things clearly, 

 thoroughly, and imaginatively, all educated men, with 



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