CHAPTER VII 



THE WONDEE OE LIFE 



(Chaeacteeistics of Living Creatures) 



' past an& future arc unknown to ber. Zbe present is ber 

 cternftB. Sbe is beneficent. . . .' 



' Sbe is complete, but never finisbeD. as sbe works now, 

 so can sbe always work. . . .' 



' Sbe is ever sbaping new forms 5 wbat is, bas never set 

 been; wbat bas been, comes not again. Evergtbtng is new, 

 ant» get naugbt but tbe olO.' 



— Goethe's Aphorisms, translated by Huxley. 



The Creatvire Itself — Organisms and Mechanisms — The Insignia 

 of Life — Down-breakihg and Up-bmlding — The Power of 

 Growing — Capacity for Behaviour — Power of Reproducing — 

 Development — VariabUity — Simulacra Vitse — Difficult Pheno- 

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

 Adaptation — Eegeneration — The Crowning Wonder of Evolu- 

 tipn — ^Vitalism. 



WE have considered organisms as actors in a drama, 

 living in haunts, conquering space, trading 

 with 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 hving creature itself. What are the great 

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

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

 details of anatomy, physiology, embryology and the hke ? 



The Creature Itself 

 Were it not for the diflB.6uIty of seeing things clearly, 

 thoroughly, and imaginatively, all educated men, with 



471 



