chanical cosmos. Nature, as interpreted by the {10} inorganic
sciences, presents a spectacle of impassivity. It moves, transforms,
and radiates, on every scale and in all its gigantic range of temporal
and spatial distance, utterly without loss or gain of value. One
cannot rightly attribute to such a world even the property of neglect
or brutality. Its indifference is absolute.

Such a world is devoid of value because of the elimination of the bias
of life. Where no interest is at stake, changes can make no practical
difference; where no claims are made, there can be neither fortune nor
calamity, neither comedy nor tragedy. There is no object of applause
or resentment, if there be nothing in whose behalf such judgments may
be urged.

But with the introduction of life, even the least particle of it, the
rudest bit of protoplasm that ever made the venture, nature becomes a
new system with a new centre. The organism inherits the earth; the
mechanisms of nature become its environment, its resources in the
struggle to keep for a time body and soul together. The mark of life
is partiality for itself. If anything is to become an object of
solicitude, it must first announce itself through acting in its own
behalf. With life thus instituted there begins the long struggle of
interest against inertia and indifference, that war of which
civilization itself is only the latest and most triumphant phase.

{11}

Nature being thus enlivened, the simpler terms of value now find a
meaning. A living thing must suffer calamities or achieve successes;
and since its fortunes are _good_ or _bad_ in the most elementary sense
that can be attached to these conceptions, it is worth our while to
consider the matter with some care. An _interest_, or unit of life, is
essentially an organization which consistently acts for its own
preservation. It deals with its environment in such wise as to keep
itself intact and bring itself to maturity; appropriating what it
needs, and avoiding or destroying what threatens it with injury. The
interest so functions as to supply itself with the means whereby it may
continue to exist and function. This is the principle of action which
may be generalized from its behavior, and through which it may be
distinguished within the context of nature. Now the term _interest_
being construed in this sense, we may describe goodness as _fulfilment
of interest_. The description will perhaps refer more clearly