Hardly
one of my critics (I think absolutely not one) has noticed the
distinction I have tried and intended to draw between Evolution on the
one hand, and the fundamental powers and properties of Life--growth,
assimilation, reproduction, heredity, etc.--on the other. In Evolution I
recognise the action of Natural Selection as universal and capable of
explaining all the facts of the continuous development of species from
species, "from amoeba to man." But this, as Darwin, Weismann, Kerner,
Lloyd-Morgan, and even Huxley have seen, has nothing whatever to do with
the basic mysteries of life--growth, etc. etc. The chemists think they
have done wonders when they have produced in their laboratories certain
organic substances--always by the use of other organic products--which
life builds up within each organism, and from the few simple elements
available in air, earth, and water, innumerable structures--bone, horn,
hair, skin, blood, muscle, etc. etc.; and these are not amorphous--mere
lumps of dead matter--but organised to serve certain definite purposes
in each living organism. I have dwelt on this in my chapter on "The
Mystery of the Cell." Now I have been unable to find any attempt by any
biologist or physiologist to grapple with this problem. One and all,
they shirk it, or simply state it to be insoluble. It is here that I
state guidance and organising power are essential. My little
physiological parable or allegory (p.
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