PROPERTY AND COMMON SENSE. 141 



of protoplasm, and the protoplasm will no more know 

 what to do with it than we should be able to saw a 

 piece of wood in two without a saw. Even protoplasm 

 from the hand of a carpenter who has been handling 

 hammers all his life would be hopelessly put off its 

 stroke if not allowed to work in its usual way but put 

 bare up against a hammer; it would make a slimy 

 mess and then dry up ; still there can be no doubt (so 

 at least those who uphold protoplasm as the one living 

 substance would say) that the closer a machine can begot 

 to protoplasm and the more permanent the connection, 

 the more living it appears to be, or at any rate the 

 more does it appear to be endowed with spontaneous 

 and reasoning energy, so long, of course, as the close- 

 ness is of a kind which protoplasm understands and is 

 familiar with. This, they say, is why we do not like 

 using any implement or tool with gloves on, for these 

 impose a barrier between the tool and its true con- 

 nection with protoplasm by means of the nervous 

 system. For the same reason we put gloves on when 

 we box so as to bar the connection. 



That which we handle most unglovedly is our food, 

 which we handle with our stomachs rather than with 

 our hands. Our hands are so thickly encased with 

 skin that protoplasm can hold but small conversation 

 with what they contain, unless it be held for a long 

 time in the closed fist, and even so the converse is 

 impeded as in a strange language ; the inside of our 

 mouths is more naked, and our stomachs are more 

 naked still ; it is here that protoplasm brings its 

 fullest powers of suasion to bear on those whom it 



