constant contact with the body.

But each one of these tools of the fifth degree was made in the
first instance by the sole instrumentality of the four preceding
kinds of tool. They must all be linked on to protoplasm, which is
the one original tool-maker, but which can only make the tools that
are more remote from itself by the help of those that are nearer,
that is to say, it can only work when it has suitable tools to work
with, and when it is allowed to use them in its own way. There can
be no direct communication between protoplasm and a steam-engine;
there may be and often is direct communication between machines of
even the fifth order and those of the first, as when an engine-man
turns a cock, or repairs something with his own hands if he has
nothing better to work with. But put a hammer, for example, to a
piece of protoplasm, and the protoplasm will no more know what to do
with it than we should be able to saw a piece of wood in two without
a saw. Even protoplasm from the hand of a carpenter who has been
handling hammers all his life would be hopelessly put off its stroke
if not allowed to work in its usual way but put bare up against a
hammer; it would make a slimy mess and then dry up; still there can
be no doubt (so at least those who uphold protoplasm as the one
living substance would say) that the closer a machine can be got to
protoplasm and the more permanent the connection, the more living it
appears to be, or at any rate the more does it appear to be endowed
with spontaneous and reasoning energy, so long, of course, as the
closeness is of a kind which protoplasm understands and is familiar
with. This, they say, is why we do not like using any implement or
tool with gloves on, for these impose a barrier between the tool and
its true connection with protoplasm by means of the nervous system.
For the same reason we put gloves on when we box so as to bar the