votion to a particular science, through examination
of a particular aspect of the universe. Each lecturer is
to serve as a sample, a specimen, of the results which
follow from devoting one's life mainly to a certain field
of study. This I take to be one of the main purposes of
the lectures: they are to give specimens of the main
types of outlook on life and the universe that arise in
individuals working in different fields. In the present
case, therefore, I am to serve as a specimen of the
biologists. I am to present a sample of the results that
follow--or that may follow--from devoting one's life
to the study of living things.

Of course a specimen is of no use at all unless it is
genuine. One must present the views to which he has
come just as they are, without holding back anything
that may offend his hearers; without any omissions or
concessions that are based on conventionalities or that
are designed to disarm criticism or opposition; other-
wise, the sample is worthless. I shall try to follow these
maxims.

And further there must be no striving for novelty or
originality at the expense of soundness or sincerity.
If the truth is what one is seeking, one cannot reject it
because someone else has recognized it or spoken it.
It is one's own in the sense that it is the product of
one's own experience and thought. But one cannot
hope nor wish to be the only person that recognizes
the truth. All that one can attempt is to express what
seems to him true, irrespective of whether it has or has
not seemed true to anyone else. After a lifetime spent
in a science, working on the questions that are set by

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