98 ORGANISM AND ENVIRONMENT 
formed operation leads to its being performed with 
ease and certainty, without there being any conscious- 
ness of the innumerable details of nervous and muscu- 
lar adjustment which are involved. 
Of all other analogous facts the most remarkable, 
in the higher organisms, are those relating to reproduc- 
tion of the whole organism. None of the innumerable 
structures special to the adult organism are present in 
the developing ovum ; but as if guided by stimuli which 
awaken memories of its parents and ancestors, it 
builds up the adult structures and activities by degrees, 
often reproducing even the finest nuances in the 
character of either parent. In a living organism the 
past lives on in the present, and the stored adaptations 
of the race live on from generation to generation, wak- 
ing up into response when the appropriate stimulus 
comes, just as conscious memory is awakened. 
Looking at all these facts we are inevitably forced 
to the conclusion that the life of an organism, includ- 
ing its relations to internal and external environment, 
is something of prime reality, since it persists actively 
and as a whole, and moreover tends to do so in more 
and more detail with enlarging experience, so that life 
‘is a true development. What persists is neither a mere 
‘definitely bounded physical structure nor the activity 
of such a structure. There is no sharp line of demar- 
ication between a living organism and its environment. 
The persistence of the internal environment and its 
activities is, in fact, as evident as that of the more 
central parts of an organism ; and a similar persistence, 
becoming less and less detailed, extends outwards into 
