THE PRIMAL MIND 
thus diverts the life-energies of the plant to its own 
purpose. In the case of malignant tumors, the life- 
energy of the body consumes itself. The hostile 
germs destroy the body by the use of the vital energy 
which the body furnishes. The body can be made to 
destroy itself, to eat itself up. 
Ir 
Interfere with the normal currents and course of 
life in the mother’s body, and her womb grows a 
monstrosity or hideous deformity; the cells go on 
building blindly; the push of life is not abated, but 
it has lost its way or forgotten its plan; it wanders 
aimlessly. Now, what gives it a plan, or guided it 
through all its vagaries and wanderings in the lowly 
or monstrous forms of the foreworld, till it built up 
man from the ape, and the bird from the fish or rep- 
tile? Natural selection, the Darwinians say. But 
there must be a variety to select from, and some 
scheme or purpose in the selecting agent. Mechani- 
cal laws may select the strongest, or the largest, or 
the smallest, as the case may be, but not the fittest. 
The fittest implies a scheme, implies progression. 
The survival of the fittest implies the push of life, 
the aspiration, as it were, toward higher forms. How 
could the gift of mind be brought about by mechan- 
ical means, unless there was incipient mind — a 
tendency to mind — in the struggling forms? The 
physicochemical forces are not creative; they bring 
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