in the main, the view which has affected, not merely our ideas of the development of living organisms, but our ideas upon politics, upon sociology, ideas which cover the whole domain of human terrestrial activity. He is the fount and origin, and he will stand for all time as the man who has made this great, and, as I think, beneficent revolution in the mode in which educated men can see the history, not merely of their own institutions, not merely of their own race, but of everything which has that unexplained attribute of life, everything that lives on the surface of the globe or within the depths of the ocean. In any case, we must agree with what Huxley says of Darwin: "It is only by pursuing his method, by that wonderful single-mindedness, devotion to truth, readiness to sacrifice all things for the advance of definite knowledge, that we can hope to come any nearer than we are at present to the truths which he struggled to attain." Darwin was no metaphysician; he always kept very close to earth--which is half the secret of the persistent strength of his teaching. For this reason, most appropriately, Prof. R. M. Wenley ended a very suggestive address on Darwin by quoting, in reference to Darwin's services, the fine words of a Scottish poet: 2 Man's thought is like Antæus, and must be 1 Nature, July 1st, 1909. Popular Science Monthly (1909), vol. lxxiv. p. 395, But, once thereon reset, 'tis like a tree, Sap-swollen in spring-time: bonds may not restrain; Thine, then, it was to touch dead thoughts to earth, CHAPTER II THE WEB OF LIFE Correlation of Organisms as well as Correlation of Organs-What the Metaphor of "The Web of Life" suggests-Dependence of Living Creatures upon their Surroundings-Nutritive Chains -Nexus between Mud and Clear Thinking-Correlation between Catches of Mackerel and Amount of Spring Sunshine -Nutritive Chains in the Deep Sea-Dependence of one Organism on another for the Continuance of the Species -Darwin's Instance of the Connection between Cats and Clover-Scattering of Seeds-Interrelations between Freshwater Mussels and Fishes-Life-histories of Parasites-Farreaching Influence of Certain Animals: Earthworms-Termites, or White Ants-The Hand of Life upon the Earth-Practical Importance of a Realisation of the Web of Life. NATURALISTS, in the true sense, who study the life of living creatures in nature, have always been distinguished by a keen perception of the inter-relations of things. Whether we take Gilbert White as representing the old school, or W. H. Hudson as representing the new, we get from their observations the same impression of nature as a vibrating system, most surely and subtly inter-connected. But it seems just to say that no naturalist, before or since, has come near Darwin in his realisation of the web of life, in his clear vision and picture of the vast system of linkages that penetrates throughout the animate world. CORRELATION OF ORGANISMS AS WELL AS CORRELATION OF ORGANS.-In thinking of a living body we are accustomed to the idea of the correlation of |