| PART I. BIOLOGY |
| CHAPTER I |
| The Argument from Design |
| PAGE |
| Paley and the Watch | 1 |
| The Analogy Inapplicable | 4 |
| Paley’s Conception of Design | 8 |
| The Evolutionary Conception | 11 |
| Conquest of Nature by the Evolution Theory | 16 |
| The Philosophic Basis of Nature-study | 17 |
| CHAPTER II |
| The Wheel of Life |
| Continuity of Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Life | 21 |
| Characters of Organic Life | 23 |
| Living Matter: Its Functions | 24 |
| Its Substance | 27 |
| Its Structure | 28 |
| CHAPTER III |
| De Minimis |
| Growth and Development | 32 |
| Development a Cell-problem | 33 |
| The Mechanical Conception of Life | 34 |
| The Cell and its Structure | 34 |
| Cell-division and Heredity | 40 |
| Reproductive Cells and Body-cells | 45 |
| The Origin of Conjugation | 46 |
| The Mechanism of Conjugation | 51 |
| Significance of Elementary Vital Processes | 59 |
| Adaptability, a Fundamental Character of Life | 63 |
| CHAPTER IV |
| The Mechanical Theory of Evolution: the Darwin-Lamarck Explanation | |
| The Fixity of Species, how Maintained | 66 |
| The Mutability of Species | 67 |
| Lamarck’s Explanation of the Origin of Species | 68 |
| Natural Selection of Innate Variations | 72 |
| Difficulties of Lamarckism | 77 |
| Need of a deeper Explanation | 89 |
| CHAPTER V |
| The Mechanical Theory of Evolution: the Darwin-Weismann Explanation |
| Lamarck, or ‘Metaphysics’? | 91 |
| Weismann’s Escape | 93 |
| The Struggle among the Determinants | 95 |
| Chance-Variations and Co-adaptation | 97 |
| Other Difficulties of the Chance-Variation Theory | 99 |
| Natural Selection | 103 |
| Impossible before Competition Existed | 104 |
| Co-operation and Competition | 104 |
| Protective Mimicry, Inexplicable by Chance-Variations and Natural Selection | 106 |
| Innate Capacities of Life | 109 |
| Outline of Preceding Arguments | 111 |
| CHAPTER VI |
| The Directive Theory of Evolution |
| Nature’s Power of Response | 115 |
| Reinke’s Theory of Dominants | 120 |
| Cases of their Action in Evolution | 123 |
| Law and Directivity | 128 |
| Intelligence and Directivity | 130 |
| The Analogy of Social Evolution | 131 |
| The Analogy of Language | 133 |
| Synthetic Movement of the Cosmic Reason | 137 |
| Objections from Imperfect Adaptations and Regressive Forms Stated | 143 |
| Mechanical and Psychic Agencies, how Distinguished | 146 |
| Science versus ‘Mysticism’ | 150 |
| Reply to Objection from Imperfect Adaptations, etc. | 152 |
| Man, the Growing-point of Earthly Life | 154 |
| Immanence or Transcendence of the Cosmic Reason? | 155 |
| Man’s Relations to the Whole | 157 |
| PART II. ETHICS |
| CHAPTER VII |
| Law, Free Will, Personality |
| Free Will and Determinism | 161 |
| The Determinist Position | 163 |
| The Free Will Position | 164 |
| Conditions necessary for Free Will | 168 |
| Has the Will an Ethical Bias? | 169 |
| Limitations of Free Will | 172 |
| Evolution of the Will | 174 |
| Free Will and Monism | 176 |
| Free Will and Brain-structure | 177 |
| Relations of Mind and Matter | 186 |
| Immortality | 189 |
| CHAPTER VIII |
| The Ethical Criterion |
| The Visible and the Invisible Worlds | 194 |
| Dualism and Monism | 195 |
| Monism and the Moral Law | 198 |
| The Hedonistic Basis of Morals | 200 |
| The Natural Basis of Morals | 203 |
| CHAPTER IX |
| The Ethical Sanction |
| The Individual and the Whole | 208 |
| A Scale of Motives | 210 |
| Conscience and its Commands, how respectively Derived | 211 |
| Results of Duty and of Self-indulgence Compared | 212 |
| The False and the True Asceticism | 214 |
| Ethics for Life: Implications of this Doctrine | 220 |
| Is Life Dependent on Matter? | 222 |
| The Cosmic Life gives Immortality to the Individual | 225 |
| And Demands his Allegiance | 226 |
| Ethics Originates in the Visible Order, but does not end there | 228 |
| Hence, Ethics is for Death as well as Life | 229 |
| The Martyrdoms of Socrates and of Christ | 230 |
| Outline of the Conclusions arrived at | 233 |
| PART III. ART |
| CHAPTER X |
| Art and Life |
| Tolstoy’s Account of the Nature of Art | 236 |
| Of the Standard of Art | 241 |
| Of the Purpose of Art | 241 |
| Criticism of his Conclusions | 245 |
| Art, Man’s expression of Life | 246 |
| Art and Beauty | 251 |
| Order and Change as Principles of Life and Art | 253 |
| Classification of the Arts | 254 |
| Examples of the Presentative Arts—(a) Architecture | 256 |
| (b) Ornament | 259 |
| (c) Music | 261 |
| The Representative Arts—(a The Plastic Arts | 265 |
| (b) Dancing | 270 |
| The Evocative Art: Literature | 271 |
| The Union of Music and Poetry | 272 |
| Conclusion | 273 |
| APPENDIX A |
| Sum ergo Cogito | 275 |
| APPENDIX B |
| Co-operation and Competition | 279 |
| APPENDIX C |
| Is Life worth Living? | 282 |
| APPENDIX D |
| St. Francis the Poet | 285 |
| APPENDIX E |
| Isabella and Claudio | 288 |
| Index | 295 |
