, what weakens your
judgments,« he said. »You lack biology. It has no place in your scheme of
things. - Oh, I mean the real interpretative biology, from the ground up, from
the laboratory and the test-tube and the vitalized inorganic right on up to the
widest æsthetic and sociological generalizations.«
    Ruth was appalled. She had sat two lecture courses under Professor Caldwell
and looked up to him as the living repository of all knowledge.
    »I scarcely follow you,« he said dubiously.
    Martin was not so sure but what he had followed him.
    »Then I'll try to explain,« he said. »I remember reading in Egyptian history
something to the effect that understanding could not be had of Egyptian art
without first studying the land question.«
    »Quite right,« the professor nodded.
    »And it seems to me,« Martin continued, »that knowledge of the land
question, in turn, of all questions, for that matter, cannot be had without
previous knowledge of the stuff and the constitution of life. How can we
understand laws and institutions, religions and customs, without understanding,
not merely the nature of the creatures that made them, but the nature of the
stuff out of which the creatures are made? Is literature less human than the
architecture and sculpture of Egypt? Is there one thing in the known universe
that is not subject to the law of evolution? - Oh, I know there is an elaborate
evolution of the various arts laid down, but it seems to me to be too
mechanical. The human himself is left out. The evolution of the tool, of the
harp, of music and song and dance, are all beautifully elaborated; but how about
the evolution of the human himself, the development of the basic and intrinsic
parts that were in him before he made his first tool or gibbered his first
chant? It is that which you do not consider, and which I call biology. It is
biology in its largest aspects.
    I know I express myself incoherently, but I've tried to hammer out the idea.
It came to me as you were talking, so I was not primed and ready to deliver it.
You spoke yourself of the human frailty that prevented one from taking all the
factors into consideration. And you, in turn, - or so it seems to me, - leave
out the biological factor, the very stuff out of which has been spun the fabric
of all the arts, the warp and the woof of all human actions and achievements.«
    To Ruth'
