THE LIVING ORGANISM 3 



posed to be a remote and recondite subject, intelligible 

 only to the technical expert in knowledge, and apart 

 from the everyday world of life. It is more often 

 conceived as a metaphysical and philosophical system, 

 something antagonistic to the deep-rooted religious 

 instincts and the theological beliefs of mankind. Truly 

 all the facts of knowledge are the materials of science, 

 but science is not metaphysics or philosophy or belief, 

 even though the student who employs scientific method 

 is inevitably brought to consider problems belonging to 

 these diverse fields of thought. A study of nervous 

 mechanism and organic structure leads to the philo- 

 sophical problem of the freedom of the will ; questions 

 as to the evolution of mind and the way mind and matter 

 are related force the investigator to consider the problem 

 of immortality. But these and similar subjects in the 

 field of extra-science are beyond its sphere for the very 

 good reason that scientific method, which we are to 

 define shortly, cannot be employed for their solution. 

 Evolution is a science; it is a description of nature's 

 order, and its materials are facts only. In method and 

 content it is the very science of sciences, describing 

 all and holding true throughout each one. 



The overwhelming importance of knowing about 

 natural laws and universal principles is not often real- 

 ized. What have we to do with evolution and science ? 

 Are we not too busy with the ordering of our immediate 

 affairs to concern ourselves with such remote matters ? 

 So it may appear to many, who think that the study 

 of life and its origin, and of the vital facts about plants 

 and animals may be interesting and may possess a 

 certain intellectual value, but nothing more. The 



