Luck, or Cunning, as the Main Means of Organic ModificationButler, Samuel
Philosophy
Luck, or Cunning, as the Main Means of Organic Modification
Butler, Samuel
Evolution; Natural selection
THE position, then, stands thus. Common sense gave the inch of admitting
some parts of the body to be less living than others, and philosophy took
the ell of declaring the body to be almost all of it stone dead. This is
serious; still if it were all, for a quiet life, we might put up with it.
Unfortunately we know only too well that it will not be all. Our bodies,
which seemed so living and now prove so dead, have served us such a trick
that we can have no confidence in anything connected with them. As with
skin and bones to-day, so with protoplasm to-morrow. Protoplasm is
mainly oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon; if we do not keep a sharp
look out, we shall have it going the way of the rest of the body, and
being declared dead in respect, at any rate, of these inorganic
components. Science has not, I believe, settled all the components of
protoplasm, but this is neither here nor there; she has settled what it
is in great part, and there is no trusting her not to settle the rest at
any moment, even if she has not already done so. As soon as this has
been done we shall be told that nine-tenths of the protoplasm of which we
are composed must go the way of our non-protoplasmic parts, and that the
only really living part of us is the something with a new name that runs
the protoplasm that runs the flesh and bones that run the organs—
Why stop here? Why not add “which run the tools and properties which are
as essential to our life and health as much that is actually incorporate
with us?” The same breach which has let the non-living effect a lodgment
within the body must, in all equity, let the organic
character—bodiliness, so to speak—pass out beyond its limits and effect a
lodgment in our temporary and extra-corporeal limbs. What, on the
protoplasmic theory, the skin and bones are, that the hammer and spade
are also; they differ in the degree of closeness and permanence with
which they are associated with protoplasm, but both bones and hammers are
alike non-living things which protoplasm uses for its own purposes and
keeps closer or less close at hand as custom and convenience may
determine.
According to this view, the non-protoplasmic parts of the body are tools
of the first degree; they are not living, but they are in such close and
constant contact with that which really lives, that an aroma of life
attaches to them. Some of these, however, such as horns, hooves, and
tusks, are so little permeated by protoplasm that they cannot rank much
higher than the tools of the second degree, which come next to them in
order.
These tools of the second degree are either picked up ready-made, or are
manufactured directly by the body, as being torn or bitten into shape, or
as stones picked up to throw at prey or at an enemy.
Tools of the third degree are made by the instrumentality of tools of the
second and first degrees; as, for example, chipped flint, arrow-heads,
&c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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