CHAPTER I 

 ATTRACTION AND REPULSION 



When one is searching for the basic principles underlying 

 any Growth process or phenomenon, it is wise to put aside 

 completely all thoughts regarding the " purpose " mani- 

 fested. One should presume that the elementary laws 

 which are being sought for set in action and control a sequence 

 of reactions which must inevitably have definite results ; 

 these results being frequently the originators of similar 

 sequences. We have to study our problem in the light of 

 Causes and their Effects, and not of Purpose. On every 

 hand in Nature we see what may truly be interpreted as 

 the exhibition of beneficent Purpose, but, scientifically, we 

 recognise Harmony : the phenomenon, whatever it may be, 

 is the harmonious effect of a definite cause, or definite causes. 

 Keeping in mind the object of our search, we shall be wise 

 to relegate Purpose to behind the basic laws, and to regard 

 all that follows from these laws as natural result, for there 

 can be no doubt that to look for Purpose often makes it 

 difficult to see the Cause ; we arrive at knowledge sooner 

 by tracing back causes than by following purposes. To 

 take an illustration. In the study of the multiplication of 

 a unicellular organism by simple division it throws no fight 

 on fundamental processes to look for the purpose exhibited 

 — for example, the avoidance of extinction, or the perpetua- 

 tion of species. More will be learnt by ignoring Purpose 

 and by reasoning somewhat as follows : that the organism 

 is governed by, and is the result of relentlessly working 

 laws ; that it divides because it has to, owing to these laws ; 

 that for certain discoverable reasons one part of the 

 organism has to separate and withdraw itself from the 

 remainder ; and that as a result of the constant application 

 of the governing laws the organism in question does not 



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