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 Chapter 9 Database Design

Chapter 9
Database Design
Discussion Focus

What is the relationship between a database and an information system, and how does this
relationship have a bearing on database design?

An information system performs three sets of services:

 It provides for data collection, storage, and retrieval.
 It facilitates the transformation of data into information.
 It provides the tools and conditions to manage both data and information.

Basically, a database is a fact (data) repository that serves an information system. If the database is designed
poorly, one can hardly expect that the data/information transformation will be successful, nor is it reasonable
to expect efficient and capable management of data and information.

The transformation of data into information is accomplished through application programs. It is impossible
to produce good information from poor data; and, no matter how sophisticated the application programs are,
it is impossible to use good application programs to overcome the effects of bad database design. In short:
Good database design is the foundation of a successful information system.

Database design must yield a database that:

 Does not fall prey to uncontrolled data duplication, thus preventing data anomalies and the attendant
lack of data integrity.
 Is efficient in its provision of data access.
 Serves the needs of the information system.

The last point deserves emphasis: even the best-designed database lacks value if it fails to meet information
system objectives. In short, good database designers must pay close attention to the information system
requirements.

Systems design and database design are usually tightly intertwined and are often performed in parallel.
Therefore, database and systems designers must cooperate and coordinate to yield the best possible
information system.

What is the relationship between the SDLC and the DBLC?

The SDLC traces the history (life cycle) of an information system. The DBLC traces the history (life cycle)
of a database system. Since we know that the database serves the information system, it is not surprising that
the two life cycles conform to the same basic phases.

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Suggestion: Use Figure 9.8 as the basis for a discussion of the parallel activities.

What basic database design strategies exist, and how are such strategies executed?

Suggestion: Use Figure 9.14 as the basis for this discussion.

There are two basic approaches to database design: top-down and bottom-up.

Top-down design begins by identifying the different entity types and the definition of each entity's attributes.
In other words, top-down design:
 starts by defining the required data sets and then
 defines the data elements for each of those data sets.

Bottom-up design:
 first defines the required attributes and then
 groups the attributes to form entities.

Although the two methodologies tend to be complementary, database designers who deal with small
databases with relatively few entities, attributes, and transactions tend to emphasize the bottom-up
approach. Database designers who deal with large, complex databases usually find that a primarily top-down
design approach is more appropriate.

In spite of the frequent arguments concerning the best design approach, perhaps the top-down vs. bottom-up
distinction is quite artificial. The text's note is worth repeating:

NOTE
Even if a generally top-down approach is selected, the normalization process that revises existing
table structures is (inevitably) a bottom-up technique. E-R models constitute a top-down process
even if the selection of attributes and entities may be described as bottom-up. Since both the E-R
model and normalization techniques form the basis for most designs, the top-down vs. bottom-up
debate may be based on a distinction without a difference.

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Answers to Review Questions

1. What is an information system? What is its purpose?

An information system is a system that

 provides the conditions for data collection, storage, and retrieval
 facilitates the transformation of data into information
 provides management of both data and information.

An information system is composed of hardware, software (DBMS and applications), the database(s),
procedures, and people.

Good decisions are generally based on good information. Ultimately, the purpose of an information
system is to facilitate good decision making by making relevant and timely information available to the
decision makers.

2. How do systems analysis and systems development fit into a discussion about information systems?

Both systems analysis and systems development constitute part of the Systems Development Life Cycle,
or SDLC. Systems analysis, phase II of the SDLC, establishes the need for and the extent of an
information system by
 Establishing end-user requirements.
 Evaluating the existing system.
 Developing a logical systems design.

Systems development, based on the detailed systems design found in phase III of the SDLC, yields the
information system. The detailed system specifications are established during the systems design phase,
in which the designer completes the design of all required system processes.

3. What does the acronym SDLC mean, and what does an SDLC portray?

SDLC is the acronym that is used to label the System Development Life Cycle. The SDLC traces the
history of a information system from its inception to its obsolescence. The SDLC is composed of six
phases: planning, analysis, detailed system, design, implementation and maintenance.

4. What does the acronym DBLC mean, and what does a DBLC portray?

DBLC is the acronym that is used to label the Database Life Cycle. The DBLC traces the history of a
database system from its inception to its obsolescence. Since the database constitutes the core of an
information system, the DBLC is concurrent to the SDLC. The DBLC is composed of six phases: initial
study, design, implementation and loading, testing and evaluation, operation, and maintenance and
evolution.

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5. Discuss the distinction between centralized and decentralized conceptual database design.

Centralized and decentralized design constitute variations on the bottom-up and top-down approaches
we discussed in the third question presented in the discussion focus. Basically, the centralized approach
is best suited to relatively small and simple databases that lend themselves well to a bird's-eye view of
the entire database. Such databases may be designed by a single person or by a small and informally
constituted design team. The company operations and the scope of its problems are sufficiently limited to
enable the designer(s) to perform all of the necessary database design tasks:

1. Define the problem(s).

2. Create the conceptual design.
3. Verify the conceptual design with all user views.
4. Define all system processes and data constraints.
5. Assure that the database design will comply with all achievable end user requirements.

The centralized design procedure thus yields the design summary shown in Figure Q9.5A.

Figure Q9.5A The Centralized Design Procedure

D
A
Conceptual Model T
A

D
I
Conceptual Model Verification C
T
I
User System Data O
Views Processes Constraints N
A
R
Y

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Note that the centralized design approach requires the completion and validation of a single conceptual
design.

NOTE
Use the text’s Figures 9.15 and 9.16 to contrast the two design approaches, then use Figure 9.6
to show the procedure flows; demonstrate that such procedure flows are independent of the
degree of centralization.

In contrast, when company operations are spread across multiple operational sites or when the database
has multiple entities that are subject to complex relations, the best approach is often based on the
decentralized design.

Typically, a decentralized design requires that the design task be divided into multiple modules, each one
of which is assigned to a design team. The design team activities are coordinated by the lead designer,
who must aggregate the design teams' efforts.

Since each team focuses on modeling a subset of the system, the definition of boundaries and the
interrelation between data subsets must be very precise. Each team creates a conceptual data model
corresponding to the subset being modeled. Each conceptual model is then verified individually against
the user views, processes, and constraints for each of the modules. After the verification process has
been completed, all modules are integrated in one conceptual model.

Since the data dictionary describes the characteristics of all the objects within the conceptual data model,
it plays a vital role in the integration process. Naturally, after the subsets have been aggregated into a
larger conceptual model, the lead designer must verify that the combined conceptual model is still able to
support all the required transactions. Thus the decentralized design activities may be summarized as
shown in Figure Q8.6B.

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Figure Q9.6B The Decentralized Design Procedure

DATA COMPONENT

Conceptual D
Models Subset A Subset B Subset C
A
T
A
Views, Views, Views,
Verification Processes, Processes, Processes, D
Constraints Constraints Constraints I
C
T
I
Aggregation O
N
A
R
FINAL CONCEPTUAL MODEL Y

Keep in mind that the aggregation process requires the lead designer to assemble a single model in which
various aggregation problems must be addressed:
 synonyms and homonyms. Different departments may know the same object by different names
(synonyms), or they may use the same name to address different objects (homonyms.) The object
may be an entity, an attribute, or a relationship.
 entity and entity subclasses. An entity subset may be viewed as a separate entity by one or more
departments. The designer must integrate such subclasses into a higher-level entity.
 Conflicting object definitions. Attributes may be recorded as different types (character, numeric),
or different domains may be defined for the same attribute. Constraint definitions, too, may vary.
The designer must remove such conflicts from the model.

6. What is the minimal data rule in conceptual design? Why is it important?

The minimal data rule specifies that all the data defined in the data model are actually required to fit
present and expected future data requirements. This rule may be phrased as All that is needed is
there, and all that is there is needed.

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7. Discuss the distinction between top-down and bottom-up approaches to database design.

There are two basic approaches to database design: top-down and bottom-up.

Top-down design begins by identifying the different entity types and the definition of each entity's
attributes. In other words, top-down design:
 starts by defining the required data sets and then
 defines the data elements for each of those data sets.

Bottom-up design:
 first defines the required attributes and then
 groups the attributes to form entities.

Although the two methodologies tend to be complementary, database designers who deal with small
databases with relatively few entities, attributes, and transactions tend to emphasize the bottom-up
approach. Database designers who deal with large, complex databases usually find that a primarily
top-down design approach is more appropriate.

8. What are business rules? Why are they important to a database designer?

Business rules are narrative descriptions of the business policies, procedures, or principles that are
derived from a detailed description of operations. Business rules are particularly valuable to database
designers, because they help define:
 Entities
 Attributes
 Relationships (1:1, 1:M, M:N, expressed through connectivities and cardinalities)
 Constraints

To develop an accurate data model, the database designer must have a thorough and complete
understanding of the organization's data requirements. The business rules are very important to the
designer because they enable the designer to fully understand how the business works and what role is
played by data within company operations.

NOTE
Do keep in mind that an ERD cannot always include all the applicable business rules. For
example, although constraints are often crucial, it is often not possible to model them. For
instance, there is no way to model a constraint such as “no pilot may be assigned to flight duties
more than ten hours during any 24-hour period.”

It is also worth emphasizing that the description of (company) operations must be done in
almost excruciating detail and it must be verified and re-verified. An inaccurate description of
operations yields inaccurate business rules that lead to database designs that are destined to
fail.

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9. What is the data dictionary's function in database design?

A good data dictionary provides a precise description of the characteristics of all the entities and
attributes found within the database. The data dictionary thus makes it easier to check for the existence
of synonyms and homonyms, to check whether all attributes exist to support required reports, to verify
appropriate relationship representations, and so on. The data dictionary's contents are both developed and
used during the six DBLC phases:

DATABASE INITIAL STUDY

The basic data dictionary components are developed as the entities and attributes are defined during this
phase.

DATABASE DESIGN
The data dictionary contents are used to verify the database design components: entities, attributes, and
their relationships. The designer also uses the data dictionary to check the database design for
homonyms and synonyms and verifies that the entities and attributes will support all required query and
report requirements.

IMPLEMENTATION AND LOADING

The DBMS's data dictionary helps to resolve any remaining attribute definition inconsistencies.

TESTING AND EVALUATION

If problems develop during this phase, the data dictionary contents may be used to help restructure the
basic design components to make sure that they support all required operations.

OPERATION
If the database design still yields (the almost inevitable) operational glitches, the data dictionary may be
used as a quality control device to ensure that operational modifications to the database do not conflict
with existing components.

MAINTENANCE AND EVOLUTION

As users face inevitable changes in information needs, the database may be modified to support those
needs. Perhaps entities, attributes, and relationships must be added, or relationships must be changed. If
new database components are fit into the design, their introduction may produce conflict with existing
components. The data dictionary turns out to be a very useful tool to check whether a suggested change
invites conflicts within the database design and, if so, how such conflicts may be resolved.

10. What steps are required in the development of an ER diagram? (Hint: See Table 9.3.)

Table 9.3 is reproduced for your convenience.

TABLE 9.3 Developing the Conceptual Model, Using ER Diagrams

STEP ACTIVITY
1 Identify, analyze, and refine the business rules.
2 Identify the main entities, using the results of Step 1.

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3 Define the relationships among the entities, using the results of Steps 1 and 2.
4 Define the attributes, primary keys, and foreign keys for each of the entities.
5 Normalize the entities. (Remember that entities are implemented as tables in an RDBMS.)
6 Complete the initial ER diagram.
7 Validate the ER model against the user’s information and processing requirements.
8 Modify the ER diagram, using the results of Step 7.

Point out that some of the steps listed in Table 9.3 take place concurrently. And some, such as the
normalization process, can generate a demand for additional entities and/or attributes, thereby causing
the designer to revise the ER model. For example, while identifying two main entities, the designer
might also identify the composite bridge entity that represents the many-to-many relationship between
those two main entities.

11. List and briefly explain the activities involved in the verification of an ER model.

Section 9-4c, “Data Model Verification,” includes a discussion on verification. In addition, Appendix C,
“The University Lab: Conceptual Design Verification, Logical Design, and Implementation,” covers the
verification process in detail. The verification process is detailed in the text’s Table 9.5, reproduced here
for your convenience.

TABLE 9.5 The ER Model Verification Process

STEP ACTIVITY
1 Identify the ER model’s central entity.
2 Identify each module and its components.
3 Identify each module’s transaction requirements:
Internal: Updates/Inserts/Deletes/Queries/Reports
External: Module interfaces
4 Verify all processes against the ER model.
5 Make all necessary changes suggested in Step 4.
6 Repeat Steps 2−5 for all modules.

Keep in mind that the verification process requires the continuous verification of business transactions as
well as system and user requirements. The verification sequence must be repeated for each of the
system’s modules.

12. What factors are important in a DBMS software selection?

The selection of DBMS software is critical to the information system’s smooth operation. Consequently,
the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed DBMS software should be carefully studied. To avoid
false expectations, the end user must be made aware of the limitations of both the DBMS and the
database.

Although the factors affecting the purchasing decision vary from company to company, some of the most
common are:

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 Chapter 9 Database Design

 Cost. Purchase, maintenance, operational, license, installation, training, and conversion costs.
 DBMS features and tools. Some database software includes a variety of tools that facilitate the
application development task. For example, the availability of query by example (QBE), screen
painters, report generators, application generators, data dictionaries, and so on, helps to create a
more pleasant work environment for both the end user and the application programmer. Database
administrator facilities, query facilities, ease of use, performance, security, concurrency control,
transaction processing, and third-party support also influence DBMS software selection.
 Underlying model. Hierarchical, network, relational, object/relational, or object.
 Portability. Across platforms, systems, and languages.
 DBMS hardware requirements. Processor(s), RAM, disk space, and so on.

13. List and briefly explain the four steps performed during the logical design stage.
1) Map conceptual model to logical model components.
In this step, the conceptual model is converted into a set of table definitions including table names,
column names, primary keys, and foreign keys to implement the entities and relationships specified in
the conceptual design.
2) Validate the logical model using normalization.
It is possible for normalization issues to be discovered during the process of mapping the conceptual
model to logical model components. Therefore, it is appropriate at this stage to validate that all of the
table definitions from the previous step conform to the appropriate normalization rules.
3) Validate logical model integrity constraints.
This step involves the conversion of attribute domains and constraints into constraint definitions that
can be implemented within the DBMS to enforce those domains. Also, entity and referential integrity
constraints are validated. Views may be defined to enforce security constraints.
4) Validate the logical model against the user requirements.
The final step of this stage is to ensure that all definitions created throughout the logical model are
validated against the users' data, transaction, and security requirements. Every component (table,
view, constraint, etc.) of the logical model must be associated with satisfying the user requirements,
and every user requirement should be addressed by the model components.

14. List and briefly explain the three steps performed during the physical design stage.

1) Define data storage organization.

Based on estimates of the data volume and growth, this step involves the determination of the
physical location and physical organization for each table. Also, which columns will be indexed and
the type of indexes to be used are determined. Finally, the type of implementation to be used for each
view is decided.
2) Define integrity and security measures.
This step involves creating users and security groups, and then assigning privileges and controls to
those users and group.
3) Determine performance measurements.
The actual performance of the physical database implementation must be measured and assessed for
compliance with user performance requirements.

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 Chapter 9 Database Design

15. What three levels of backup may be used in database recovery management? Briefly describe
what each of those three backup levels does.

A full backup of the database creates a backup copy of all database objects in their entirety.
A differential backup of the database creates a backup of only those database objects that have changed
since the last full backup.
A transaction log backup does not create a backup of database objects, but makes a backup of the log
of changes that have been applied to the database objects since the last backup.

Problem Solutions

1. The ABC Car Service & Repair Centers are owned by the SILENT car dealer; ABC services and
repairs only SILENT cars. Three ABC Car Service & Repair Centers provide service and repair
for the entire state.

Each of the three centers is independently managed and operated by a shop manager, a
receptionist, and at least eight mechanics. Each center maintains a fully stocked parts inventory.
Each center also maintains a manual file system in which each car’s maintenance history is kept:
repairs made, parts used, costs, service dates, owner, and so on. Files are also kept to track
inventory, purchasing, billing, employees’ hours, and payroll.

You have been contacted by the manager of one of the centers to design and implement a
computerized system. Given the preceding information, do the following:

a. Indicate the most appropriate sequence of activities by labeling each of the following steps in
the correct order. (For example, if you think that “Load the database.” is the appropriate first
step, label it “1.”)

____ Normalize the conceptual model.

____ Obtain a general description of company operations.
____ Load the database.
____ Create a description of each system process.
____ Test the system.
____ Draw a data flow diagram and system flowcharts.
____ Create a conceptual model, using ER diagrams.
____ Create the application programs.
____ Interview the mechanics.
____ Create the file (table) structures.
____ Interview the shop manager.

The answer to this question may vary slightly from one designer to the next, depending on the selected
design methodology and even on personal designer preferences. Yet, in spite of such differences, it is
possible to develop a common design methodology to permit the development of a basic
decision-making process and the analysis required in designing an information system.

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 Chapter 9 Database Design

Whatever the design philosophy, a good designer uses a specific and ordered set of steps through which
the database design problem is approached. The steps are generally based on three phases: analysis,
design, and implementation. These phases yield the following activities:

ANALYSIS
1. Interview the shop manager
2. Interview the mechanics
3. Obtain a general description of company operations
4. Create a description of each system process

DESIGN
5. Create a conceptual model, using E-R diagrams
6. 8. Draw a data flow diagram and system flow charts
7. Normalize the conceptual model

IMPLEMENTATION
8. Create the table structures
9. Load the database
10. Create the application programs
11. Test the system.

This listing implies that, within each of the three phases, the steps are completed in a specific order. For
example, it would seem reasonable to argue that we must first complete the interviews if we are to obtain
a proper description of the company operations. Similarly, we may argue that a data flow diagram
precedes the creation of the E-R diagram. Nevertheless, the specific tasks and the order in which they are
addressed may vary. Such variations do not matter, as long as the designer bases the selected procedures
on an appropriate design philosophy, such as top-down vs. bottom-up.

Given this discussion, we may present problem 1's solution this way:

__7__ Normalize the conceptual model.

__3__ Obtain a general description of company operations.

__9__ Load the database.

__4__ Create a description of each system process.

_11__ Test the system.

__6__ Draw a data flow diagram and system flow charts.

__5__ Create a conceptual model, using E-R diagrams.

_10__ Create the application programs.

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 Chapter 9 Database Design

__2__ Interview the mechanics.

__8__ Create the file (table) structures.

__1__ Interview the shop manager.

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b. Describe the various modules that you believe the system should include.

This question may be addressed in several ways. We suggest the following approach to develop a
system composed of four main modules: Inventory, Payroll, Work order, and Customer.

We have illustrated the Information System's main modules in Figure P9.1B.

Figure P9.1B The ABC Company’s IS System Modules

The Inventory module will include the Parts and Purchasing sub-modules. The Payroll Module will
handle all employee and payroll information. The Work order module keeps track of the car
maintenance history and all work orders for maintenance done on a car. The Customer module keeps
track of the billing of the work orders to the customers and of the payments received from those
customers.

c. How will a data dictionary help you develop the system? Give examples.

We have addressed the role of the data dictionary within the DBLC in detail in the answer to review
question 10. Remember that the data dictionary makes it easier to check for the existence of
synonyms and homonyms, to check whether all attributes exist to support required reports, to verify
appropriate relationship representations, and so on. Therefore, the data dictionary's contents will help
us to provide consistency across modules and to evaluate the system's ability to generate the required
reports. In addition, the use of the data dictionary facilitates the creation of system documentation.

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d. What general (system) recommendations might you make to the shop manager? (For example.
if the system will be integrated, what modules will be integrated? What benefits would be
derived from such an integrated system? Include several general recommendations.)

The designer's job is to provide solutions to the main problems found during the initial study.
Clearly, any system is subject to both internal and external constraints. For example, we can safely
assume that the owner of the ABC Car Service and Repair Center has a time frame in mind, not to
mention a spending limitation. As is true in all design work, the designer and the business owner
must prioritize the modules and develop those that yield the greatest benefit within the stated time
and development budget constraints.

Keep in mind that it is always useful to develop a modular system that provides for future
enhancement and expansion. Suppose, for example, that the ABC Car Service & Repair company
management decides to integrate all of its service stations in the state in order to provide better
statewide service. Such integration is likely to yield many benefits: The car history of each car will
be available to any station for cars that have been serviced in more than one location; the inventory
of parts will be on-line, thus allowing parts orders to be placed between service stations; mechanics
can better share tips concerning the solution to car maintenance problems, and so on.

e. What is the best approach to conceptual database design? Why?

Given the nature of this business, the best way to produce this conceptual database design would be
to use a centralized and top-down approach. Keep in mind that the designer must keep the design
sufficiently flexible to make sure that it can accommodate any future integration of this system with
the other service stations in the state.

f. Name and describe at least four reports the system should have. Explain their use. Who will
use those reports?
REPORT 1
Monthly Activity contains a summary of service categories by branch and by month. Such reports
may become the basis for forecasting personnel and stock requirements for each branch and for each
period.
REPORT 2
Mechanic Summary Sheet contains a summary of work hours clocked by each mechanic. This
report would be generated weekly and would be useful for payroll and maintenance personnel
scheduling purposes.
REPORT 3
Monthly Inventory contains a summary of parts in inventory, inventory draw-down, parts reorder
points, and information about the vendors who will provide the parts to be reordered. This report will
be especially useful for inventory management purposes.
REPORT 4
Customer Activity contains a breakdown of customers by location, maintenance activity, current
balances, available credit, and so on. This report would be useful to forecast various service demand

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factors, to mail promotional materials, to send maintenance reminders, to keep track of special
customer requirements, and so on.

2. Suppose you have been asked to create an information system for a manufacturing plant that
produces nuts and bolts of many shapes, sizes, and functions. What questions would you ask, and
how would the answers to those questions affect the database design?

Basically, all answers to all (relevant) questions help shape the database design. In fact, all information
collected during the initial study and all subsequent phases will have an impact on the database design.
Keep in mind that the information is collected to establish the entities, attributes, and the relationships
among the entities. Specifically, the relationships, connectivities, and cardinalities are shaped by the
business rules that are derived from the information collected by the designer.

Sample questions and their likely impact on the design might be:
 Do you want to develop the database for all departments at once, or do you want to design and
implement the database for one department at a time?
 How will the design approach affect the design process? (In other words, assess top-down vs.
bottom-up, centralized or decentralized, system scope and boundaries.)
 Do you want to develop one module at a time, or do you want an integrated system? (Inventory,
production, shipping, billing, etc.)
 Do you want to keep track of the nuts and bolts by lot number, production shift, type, and
department? Impact: conceptual and logical database design.
 Do you want to keep track of the suppliers of each batch of raw material used in the production
of the nuts and bolts? Impact: conceptual and logical database design. E-R model.
 Do you want to keep track of the customers who received the batches of nuts and bolts? Impact:
conceptual and logical database design. ER model.
 What reports will you require, what will be the specific reporting requirements, and to whom will
these reports be distributed?

The answers to such questions affect the conceptual and logical database design, the database’s
implementation, its testing, and its subsequent operation.

a. What do you envision the SDLC to be?

The SDLC is not a function of the information collected. Regardless of the extent of the design or its
specific implementation, the SDLC phases remain:

PLANNING
Initial assessment
Feasibility study

ANALYSIS
User requirements
Study of existing systems
Logical system design

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DETAILED SYSTEMS DESIGN

Detailed system specifications

IMPLEMENTATION
Coding, testing, debugging
Installation, fine-tuning

MAINTENANCE
Evaluation
Maintenance
Enhancements

b. What do you envision the DBLC to be?

As is true for the SDLC, the DBLC is not a function of the kind and extent of the collected
information. Thus, the DBLC phases and their activities remain as shown:

DATABASE INITIAL STUDY

Analyze the company situation
Define problems and constraints
Define objectives
Define scope and boundaries

DATABASE DESIGN
Create the conceptual design
Create the logical design
create the physical design

IMPLEMENTATION AND LOADING

Install the DBMS
Create the database(s)
Load or convert the data

TESTING AND EVALUATION

Test the database
Fine-tune the database
Evaluate the database and its application programs

OPERATION
Produce the required information flow

MAINTENANCE AND EVOLUTION

Introduce changes
Make enhancements

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3. Suppose you perform the same functions noted in Problem 2 for a larger warehousing operation.
How are the two sets of procedures similar? How and why are they different?

The development of an information system will differ in the approach and philosophy used. More
precisely, the designer team will probably be formed by a group of system analysts and may decide to
use a decentralized approach to database design.

Also, as is true for any organization, the system scope and constraints may be very different for different
systems. Therefore, designers may opt to use different techniques at different stages. For example, the
database initial study phase may include separate studies carried out by separate design teams at several
geographically distant locations. Each of the findings of the design teams will later be integrated to
identify the main problems, solutions, and opportunities that will guide the design and development of
the system.

4. Using the same procedures and concepts employed in Problem 1, how would you create an
information system for the Tiny College example in Chapter 4?

Tiny College is a medium-sized educational institution that uses many database-intensive operations,
such as student registration, academic administration, inventory management, and payroll. To create an
information system, first perform an initial database study to determine the information system's
objectives.

Next, study Tiny College's operations and processes (flow of data) to identify the main problems,
constraints, and opportunities. A precise definition of the main problems and constraints will enable the
designer to make sure that the design improves Tiny College's operational efficiency. An improvement
in operational efficiency is likely to create opportunities to provide new services that will enhance Tiny
College's competitive position.

After the initial database study is done and the alternative solutions are presented, the end users
ultimately decide which one of the probable solutions is most appropriate for Tiny College. Keep in
mind that the development of a system this size will probably involve people who have quite different
backgrounds. For example, it is likely that the designer must work with people who play a managerial
role in communications and local area networks, as well as with the "troops in the trenches" such as
programmers and system operators. The designer should, therefore, expect that there will be a wide range
of opinions concerning the proposed system's features. It is the designer's job to reconcile the many (and
often conflicting) views of the "ideal" system.

Once a proposed solution has been agreed upon, the designer(s) may determine the proposed system's
scope and boundaries. We are then able to begin the design phase. As the design phase begins, keep in
mind that Tiny College's information system is likely to be used by many users (20 to 40 minimum) who
are located on distant sites across campus. Therefore, the designer must consider a range of
communication issues involving the use of such technologies as local area networks. These technologies
must be considered as the database designer(s) begin to develop the structure of the database to be
implemented.

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The remaining development work conforms to the SDLC and the DBLC phases. Special attention must
be given to the system design's implementation and testing to ensure that all the system modules
interface properly.

Finally, the designer(s) must provide all the appropriate system documentation and ensure that all
appropriate system maintenance procedures (periodic backups, security checks, etc.) are in place to
ensure the system's proper operation.

Keep in mind that two very important issues in a university-wide system are end-user training and
support. Therefore, the system designer(s) must make sure that all end users know the system and know
how it is to be used to enjoy its benefits. In other words, make sure that end-user support programs are in
place when the system becomes operational.

5. Write the proper sequence of activities in the design of a video rental database. (The initial ERD
was shown in Figure 9.9.) The design must support all rental activities, customer payment
tracking, and employee work schedules, as well as track which employees checked out the videos
to the customers. After you finish writing the design activity sequence, complete the ERD to ensure
that the database design can be successfully implemented. (Make sure that the design is normalized
properly and that it can support the required transactions.

Given its level of detail and (relative) complexity, this problem would make an excellent class project.
Use the chapter’s coverage of the database life cycle (DBLC) as the procedural template. The text’s
Figure 9.3 is particularly useful as a procedural map for this problem’s solution and Figure 9.6 provides a
more detailed view of the database design’s procedural flow. Make sure that the students review section
9-3b, “Database Design,” before they attempt to produce the problem solution.

Appendix B, “The University Lab: Conceptual Design,” and Appendix C “The University Lab:
Conceptual Design Verification, Logical Design, and Implementation” show a very detailed example of
the procedures required to deliver a completed database. You will find a more detailed video rental
database problem description in Appendix B, problem 4. This problem requires the completion of the
initial database design. The solution is shown in this manual’s Appendix B coverage. This design is
verified in Appendix C, Problem 2.

The Visio Professional files for the initial and verified designs are located on your instructor’s CD.
Select the FigB-P04a-The-Initial-Crows-Foot-ERD-for-the-Video-Rental-Store.vsd file to see the
initial design. Select the Fig-C-P02a-The-Revised-Video-Rental-Crows-Foot-ERD.vsd file to see the
verified design.

6. In a construction company, a new system has been in place for a few months and now there is a list
of possible changes/updates that need to be done. For each of the changes/updates, specify what
type of maintenance needs to be done: (a) corrective, (b) adaptive, and (c) perfective.
a. An error in the size of one of the fields has been identified and it needs to be updated
status field needs to be changed.

This is a change in response to a system error – corrective maintenance.

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b. The company is expanding into a new type of service and this will require to enhancing
the system with a new set of tables to support this new service and integrate it with the
existing data.

This is a change to enhance the system – perfective maintenance.

c. The company has to comply with some government regulations. To do this, it will
require adding a couple of fields to the existing system tables.

This is a change in response to changes in the business environment – adaptive maintenance.

7. You have been assigned to design the database for a new soccer club. Indicate the most
appropriate sequence of activities by labeling each of the following steps in the correct order. (For
example, if you think that “Load the database” is the appropriate first step, label it “1.”)

_10__ Create the application programs.

__4__ Create a description of each system process.
_11__ Test the system.
__9__ Load the database.
__7__ Normalize the conceptual model.
__1__ Interview the soccer club president.
__5__ Create a conceptual model using ER diagrams.
__2__ Interview the soccer club director of coaching.
__8__ Create the file (table) structures.
__3__ Obtain a general description of the soccer club operations.
__6__ Draw a data flow diagram and system flowcharts.

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Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 CHAPTER VIII

The soul needs only to open the door.

Boehme.

B
y the establishing of habit-memories in the nervous structures of
man consciousness is liberated for another and, if the man will, a
nobler use. The instrument may be forgotten, the work goes on.
This liberation of the spirit from attention to modes of activity and
actions that can be automatically or almost automatically carried on
is among life's greatest triumphs. And the triumph is indefinitely
extended in man's peculiar relation to his tools, and through the
peculiar character of both his tools and his tool-making.
An animal's tools are parts of its body; they are stings, claws,
fangs and so on. Some of the tools of man are also parts of his
body; but there are others, not his natural organs, by which its
instrumentality is extended—and that, you may say, without signs of
coming to an end. It seems as though life had a sort of prophetic
instinct in this business; for primitive man was driven to search for
these new tools by his lack of organic armament of either the
offensive or the defensive kind. He had no protective shield like the
armadillo or the crab; and even the scanty covering of hair, which
contrasted so ill with the close fur of his cousins, grew scantier still,
until it became altogether useless against rain or cold or storm. He
had no claws, no tusks, worth considering as weapons of offence;
but he had a desirous and adventurous mind, and both by his
necessities and his mind he was driven to the making of tools. He
owned also one very remarkable natural tool. He had an archaic five-
fingered hand inherited from his amphibian ancestors, which had not
been specialized into a wing or a shaft ending in a hoof or a paw—a
hand plastic, mobile, delicate and sensitive, a very 'instrument of
instruments' for a creature opening wide the gate for life.
We are apt to think of this beautiful tool of ours as highly
specialized. It is not; it was preserved unspecialized from the
amphibian stage throughout a long pre-human history, as though life
had indeed foreseen just what was coming and knew that its
versatility would make it the worthy partner of man's versatile brain.
Let us put it that way. (Or let us say that it was a happy accident. As
you please; anyhow the fact remains.) The result was that man
possessed a natural tool beautifully adaptable for making and using
many and various artificial tools. And there was not another creature
upon earth that had not either spoilt its hand for those various uses
by specializing it for some narrow use, or like the monkeys and the
apes, had no brain to match. Man specialized his feet, as the
monkeys and the apes did not; he left his multifarious hand alone.
By means of this hand he projected into space the powers of his
body and his mind. He began, no doubt, with sticks and stones; he
went on to strings; and from sticks and stones and strings he passed
to telescopes with which he reached new stars, spectroscopes with
which he saw what they were made of, telegraphs and telephones
through which his speech and hearing stretched out from land to
land, and destructive machines by which his delicate fingers
shattered and blasted with the power of a thousand storms. These
things and more he has done; and all the tools he has used are
extensions of both his body and his mind. So too are the industrial
machines by which he manufactures (note the word) what his
newly-complicated needs demand of clothes and food and furniture
and the like. So too are the astounding machines which make for
him other and different machines. And everywhere we see that in
the advance of his tool-devising he draws nearer to making those
which will work either without his aid or with very little of it. His
tools grow more and more automatic, more and more saving of the
labour of mind. He makes, you may say, artificial habit-bearers,
motor-structures by which the devices of his mind are carried into
action independent of his mind, as other devices are through his
nervous system and his muscular limbs. Thus he follows the example
set him by life in its organizing of living tools. And we ought to tell
ourselves (parenthetically) at this point that the one reasonable and
worthy use of all our machinery is just this—to follow the example of
life not only in the actual organizing but in the purpose and meaning
of organization. We ought to acknowledge to ourselves that unless
our machinery liberates the mind and spirit of man to serve better
and more freely his spiritual needs it will of a certainty enslave him.
At present, because most of us are in the dark as to the direction in
which life strives to conduct us, machinery is used to emancipate the
few and to enslave the many. We do not know what we are doing,
we do not understand what the primacy of spirit means or should
mean for us all. We do not know how we ought to grow, every one
of us, in the natural, that is, in the spiritual way.
Why do I venture to say that in the spiritual way we ought to
grow? And what in fact is that spiritual way? Do life and experience
point out the way and emphasize the 'ought'? Here we come to the
gist of our whole inquiry.
If in looking back along the road on which, in these chapters, we
have been trying to pick out stage after stage, we discern a
governing purpose and the foreshadowing of an end; and if we also
discern not only the possibility but also the means, through intellect
and intuition, through action and feeling and thought, of identifying
ourselves with that purpose and throwing the energy of our own
lives into furthering it, we shall see both the ought and the way. We
shall dimly discern, too, the promise of the end, although we do not
and cannot yet know what we shall be. From the moment when the
life-current driving onward and overcoming one by one the
reluctances of matter along the genealogical ascent to man, reached
him—homo faber, the skilful tool-maker, homo sapiens, the able
thinker—from that moment the sublime purpose of all that had gone
before began to be revealed.
The advance of life's main stream in all its variety of operation
shows, from the beginning until now, one character and motive-
principle. It begins, as we have said, by subduing to its purpose the
inveterate habits of material elements, those habits we speak of as
physical necessity and law, raising their status that they may be
servants in new power to a freedom foreign to themselves. From
subduing and assembling elements within cells it passes to the
assembling of cells and lifts up these in their turn to higher place.
They play their part in a commonwealth; they are servants whose
habits, like those of matter, further the cause of a freedom they
cannot reach. Their own relative necessity is subdued and used
through their coöperating. They promote what they neither see nor
know. Finally they reach their highest function in a man's brain,
where they coöperate to carry power to an incalculably various use.
There it is that life, by a very splendour of new emancipation,
passes, as the philosopher says, 'through the meshes of necessity,'
passes through that net the cords of which it has itself both spun
and knotted from the refractory substance of material things.
Man comes into his heritage. He inherits, we may allow ourselves
to say, from the habits of elements and from the habit-memories of
cells, single and corporate. He inherits from the habit-memories of
every living creature in his ancestry. And each habit-memory of them
all has contributed to his setting free. Now he is so far master that
life has put into his hands the choice between a greater freedom still
towards which its impulsive purpose has been directed from the first,
and a new slavery that the man himself is able to make for himself.
For—and surely we need to note this for our warning—the conduct
and determination of life, which is in some small measure in the
power of every creature within its manner of life, is given over to
man; and the next step in emancipation is for him to take or leave
as he will. He may dominate the whole chain of habits and go
forward; or he may wind it about him and entangle his spirit in its
fetters.
Matter, his body, the habits or habit-memories he inherits or
makes for himself, all these may either be instruments of his growing
liberation or machines that turn him to the likeness of themselves.
The pianist who has wrought his music into the living instrumentality
of his fingers may leave his fingers to work as mechanism, or he
may pour into their established habit the riches and beauty of an
artistic soul. Thus it is with all the heritage and possessions of a
man. He may submit to them as to a constraining mechanism and
grow mechanical himself, or he may infuse them with his spirit and
raise them and himself to that further altitude which spirit seeks. We
may well say of some men that they are the slaves of habit; we may
well think more than we do of the many kinds of habit to which men
may be slaves.
To look on heredity as an affair of transmitted habit-memories is to
discover our true relation with it, once we have come to see what
the spiritual memory of an enduring and accumulating spiritual life,
lived according to its proper meaning, may be for man. In the chick
the inherited habit-memory of its race is as the boundary wall of
cellulose is for the plant-cell; in the child it is a standing ground from
which, while his creative spirit stirs within him, he surveys the
kingdoms of a world. In the man, like the habits he himself builds
up, it may come to be a hill-top from which he looks down upon all
those kingdoms and their glory. Life incurred death when first the
cells were summoned out of solitude to work together in a body. And
here, too, it is as though it foresaw what was coming, saw in a vision
a creature come to being who should have life in himself and be
divinely discontent, seeking to go on. It is hard to think that a
creative impulse beginning so low down, so humbly, and yet
purposive enough and skilful and potent enough to reach the
immeasurable wonder and promises of man, should ever have been
blind, or in the last resort should be no more and no greater than
himself.
 CHAPTER IX

The human animal desires to escape from its

animal prison by means of all kinds of love, by
freedom of emotion no less than of action and thought.
And it attains to the freedom of emotion when it is
aware of beauty. It cannot be aware of beauty
except in self-forgetfulness, and it cannot produce
beauty except in self-forgetfulness.
Arthur Clutton-Brock.

N
o doubt the great question for any man in regard to himself—if he
is able and willing to put one so searching—is whether he is or is
not on the way to aid in the fulfilment of the promise of life. It is a
question hard to answer, for the promise of life grows ever greater in
our eyes once we have begun to see it at all. There was a time when
for our ancestors of the caves it must have called for little more than
strength and skill, courage and perseverance, in attack or in defence
and in the procuring of shelter, food and wives. The bitter struggle in
which they were engaged was a real struggle for existence in which
every man must fight for his own hand, or at best for his little group
of near kindred. There were not many differences then between the
practical demands of the daily life of men and those of the daily life
of the hyenas or the wolves. But there were other differences, and
they were great and significant. One in particular has left a wealth of
evidence behind it, evidence graven and painted in certain caverns.
There are bisons, for example, painted by some of the men whom
we call primitive, or savage, which are of the truest art. There is no
such difference and no such likeness between those bisons and the
artistic work of to-day as there is between the flint-headed arrow
and the machine-gun. The arrow and the gun are products of an
intellectual ingenuity, practising and becoming expert through
practice and concentrated on the external relations of thing with
thing; the painting comes of a direct intuition of the reality and the
essential beauty in a bison's life. They are alive for us, those bisons,
and they are beautiful. Their creator was a true artist, able to throw
himself into the object he wished to discover, to feel and to depict;
and he was able to endow his picture with the bison's life and his
own. If you are in aesthetic sympathy with him you can feel the
creature he paints as you feel the man painting. The intellect that
devised the arrow has always to travel onward by an accumulating
process, from step to step; the intuition that felt the bison arrived at
once. No doubt there is not only intellect but intuition in the arrow;
and there is not only intuition but intellect in the painting; but the
emphasis and the proportion are contrasted in the two.
Why did this primitive artist paint at all? There are those who
suggest that he had some practical end in view to be reached by the
magic of representation—an idea perhaps of thus ensuring luck for
his hunting. But at least that can hardly be true of the graceful form
and the conventional adornment he gave to some of his tools. It is
far more likely that even if he began with magic and a practical end
he went on to paint for the pure joy of it, the pure spiritual joy of
inspired admiration glowing to a creative act, and winning admiration
in its display. That is the manner of art—even to the delight in its
being admired by those to whom it is made known—and this man's
work is the work of an artist. I should say these men's work is the
work of artists, for there were many of them in many generations.
There was not merely a single eccentric genius—though even one
would have sufficed us for a revelation. Here then, in these caverns,
we have a kind of work done by many men, who, however much
they looked for admiration from their fellows, worked in something of
the self-forgetfulness of an artist; so we may presume. The man who
pursued it did not in any lesser way profit by it (unless his fellows
were self-forgetful enough to pay him for the joy he gave, and that
only extends and strengthens the case); but he assuredly profited in
his spirit, which there found its outlet as creative, there showed its
self-forgetting love of something beyond self, there in consequence
found its joy. The true artist paints or sings for the love of it, and
because he must; and wins his joy, even though in and with the
artist's pain, and the man's self-seeking. The spirit within him drives
him on; no outward necessity, no carnal attraction, no mere self-
seeking, is adequate to force or draw him. Art, however skilled and
taught, however marred by human weakness, is spontaneous as
love. We are in presence here of that of which only faint
adumbrations can be discerned in any other creature than man.
There are adumbrations; and there is at least a plain foreshadowing
of love. But full and lasting self-forgetfulness is to be attained only in
man, and true art and true love, like true joy, depend upon it.

The declared promise for the further advance of life in us demands

and displays growth in self-forgetfulness. The man who strikes us as
being above other men is one who shows us powers other men
either have not or do not use, and uses them as other men very
often do not use them. He is always stamped with the stamp of
spirit. He is creative and he is self-forgetful. We do not really, or at
least readily and spontaneously, admire any man who does things
from self-interested motives. We may admire the things he does, but
we do not admire the man. If, for example, we are religious
ourselves, and however much we wish other people to be so too, we
do not admire the man who, we know, is religious because he sees
his profit in religion either for this world or the next. We do not
admire the kind of artist who clutches at beauty because it feeds
that deadly appetite which is no other than aesthetic greed. We want
him to admire a beautiful thing for its own sake, because it is what it
is and is altogether admirable. And no lover holds our respect if for
him his beloved is merely a curio to be proud of or a satisfaction of
the flesh. We say justly that he is only a lover of himself. To
command our admiration a man must stretch out his desire and
enlarge his interests beyond the boundary of self; he must give
himself, not necessarily without reward—for the joy set before him
often comes—but without making the attainment of it a motive
spring.
That simple fact proves the spirits that we are. And it is shown in
strange places. Even the leader of the gang of thieves wins
admiration by his carelessness of personal gain. Robin Hood is
always both honourable and honoured, though he steals.
Think then how much life had gained in power of expression when
the painters of the caves were reached. Yet the philosopher reminds
us that indeed this gain began with the beginning of love. Self-
forgetfulness began before man came to show himself called by
spirit and life to die daily. Yet in and by him they call with an
emphasis and solemnity new in the tale of creation. He is to die to
the struggle and the desire to live; he is to give himself and grow by
self-giving. That is his proper way.
Not without reason does the philosopher tell us that the supreme
secret of life begins to be revealed in the plant which surrenders its
own life for its seed. But if we ignore the far plainer voice of man,
how can we hear what has been whispered by the plant? If we are
made mechanical by slavery to our own tools how can we discern
either? And unless we listen with the ears of our intuitive soul we
shall never hear what it is that they are saying. Unless we immerse
ourselves in the current of the spirit, unless we confide ourselves to
the life that would bear us on, we shall miss the fulfilment of our
promise. The whole long weary road of life has been travelled on our
behalf in vain, unless through the adventure of self-giving we
become unceasing spiritual creators of greater selves than those we
are now.
 CHAPTER X

If thou hast union now, thou shalt have it hereafter.

Kabir.

W ithout social life no one of the peculiarly human powers of a

man comes to fruition. He may chatter, for example; he cannot
speak. He has all the necessary organs and all the necessary power,
but man-language is part of an inheritance stored up for him in
community life. It is stored up there, just as clinging with his hands
and sucking with his lips are stored up ready for him at birth, in his
body. Society is for him an immense extension of his body, and
therefore a further means of extension for his spirit. It is also an
immense extension of the bodies and spirits of other men with
whom he may enter upon relations. You may look on it as supplying
a brain common to all men which all may use together, and in which
their activities should find not only a recording medium but an
unfailing stimulus and contributory aid. But the social brain is in a
peculiar sense men's own making, as free and capable creators.
They have come to be owners of life and directors of its course in a
degree they certainly had not attained when their bodily brains were
slowly growing to be what they are. This brain of theirs, used in
community, is as truly built by their own efforts as are the houses in
which they live. The evolution of man has to all intents of spirit
ceased to advance by changes in his body, but it goes on by
incessant change and enormous amplification in his community life.
Here, too, in this many-bodied and many-souled community, as
well as in the individual man's life, function determines structure. But
function has there become self-conscious and world-conscious,
aware of the many bodies and the many souls, aware of their needs
and dangers, aware of their giving and their gaining. Men have
societies within the community such as on the whole their conscious
desires and purposes, their attitude towards their fellows, their sense
of responsibility and obligations, their aims and ideals, demand. We
have indeed the societies we deserve. We may well ask ourselves
why we deserve to have them as they are; we may well say to
ourselves—'"Prisoner, tell me, who was it that wrought this
unbreakable chain?"' And the answer is clear, convicting not only of
error but of what some of us have learnt to know as actual sin, sin
against the call and promise of life. '"It was I," said the prisoner ...
"when at last the work was done and the links were complete and
unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip."'

There are other societies besides those of men. Some are far
more completely organized. The bees and the ants have carried
social organization to a state of harmony and of adjustment to ends
which is as strongly marked in its contrast with any that human
societies present, as is the triumphant surgery of the solitary wasp
by contrast with the blunders of an untrained man. In 'the civility of
these little citizens' society is carried to a completeness
corresponding with that of the life of the creatures who are its parts.
In an ant-hill or a hive we have before us, some may say, a model of
what a society should be. Perfect co-operation, complete
subordination of individual to social ends, the highest possible
working efficiency of each and all—it sounds well, and no one can
deny that for bees and ants it works well. Would it work equally well
for men?
The answer we give to this question will depend on two things. It
will depend first on whether we think that men are or are not
competent to advance, and are aided to advance, as beings not only
spiritual in essential character and purpose, but self-creative and so
able to reach both an efficiency beyond all constraint by institutions
and machines, and an enlargement of community-life which shall
embrace society upon society in all their diverse modes. Secondly, it
will depend on whether we are or are not willing to organize any
society by what used to be called biological methods, that is by the
methods of the arena—of the 'gladiators' show.' If we decide on the
gladiators' show and a social efficiency with no further outlook than
a highly superior human ant-hill's, we pronounce ourselves believers
that in principle the ant-hill manner of life with its isolation of society
from society will work for men. We may be wrong even in a short
view or a narrow view of man's capacities and existence; we are
certainly wrong if spiritual progress lies before him as a glorious
prospect not only for this man or society of men here, or another
there, but for all men as members of an all-containing community
made one only by an all-containing principle. In face of the promise
and adventure of life we are as certainly wrong in giving consent to
the ant-hill principle for society as we should be if we consented to
exchange our own pregnant incompleteness for the perfection of the
ant. Yet we of the modern civilized nations of Europe and America
have been far too much influenced of late years, not only by our
animal inheritance and the passions that we share with 'ape and
tiger,' but by what is now a powerful tradition and in the last century
was a new force—the mechanistic conception of social life. Our
reasoning about society, our social science, even our social practices,
have by this tradition been made not only more materialistic—many
of us know that—but more plausibly mechanistic. It has seemed to
us that we have science and nature both on our side, in trusting less
to the initiative of life and more to its organization of circumscribed
institutions and ordered means. We have taken a biological
hypothesis far too seriously. And no doubt we have done this in
great part because it has enabled us to leave uncriticized, or even to
justify, habitual ways of acting and thinking which have about them
still the taint of the pit from which we have been digged. These
ways of ours were laid down for us in the long effort of each man to
keep his footing on earth for himself and for the few he recognized
as his own; but we have made them both more difficult and more
dangerous by loading ourselves with a burden of perverted or
artificial needs which not only call for perverted or artificial means to
satisfy them, but set us in opposition to other men from whom we
wrest their satisfaction. Those ways and this burden are proper to a
creature who in very truth is seeking so to encumber life as to
prevent its carrying him on, so to contract his own life as to prevent
its intermingling with the lives of others. In short they are proper to
one who is arresting life in himself as it has been arrested in the
tiger or the ant. It will be arrested at a higher point—that is all; and
it will be consciously arrested by the conscious building up of an
obstacle far more serious than death. Therefore it is no mere failure;
it is sin—sin against the true nature of human life.
The mechanistic theories of biology, which have helped to confirm
men in an evil course, are fast being discredited. With them will go a
false philosophy which has been widely current of late and has had
an influence reaching far beyond an acquaintance with its authors'
names. Critical and careful biologists are now undoubtedly doing
much to effect this salutary change. Yet, may be, we shall be driven
to call some of their opponents (as has been prophesied) by the bad
name of necrologists, that we may perhaps shock them into self-
knowledge. It is a name only too grievously appropriate now, since
the picture of natural evolution they have, all innocently, drawn has
not only foreshadowed, but contributed to fill, the grave-yard of the
peoples dug in the great war.
We are changing this baleful picture; we are learning too, partly in
consequence, that the self-interest of utilitarian economists and the
ruthless search for individual advantage which social mechanists
have commended are not the mainsprings of evolution. Of far
greater, more lasting, and more profound significance and effect
than the self-interested struggle for existence among animals and
plants has been the species-interest to which self-interest has been
subordinated. A creature must first eat and only afterwards
reproduce; but this in no way justifies us in thinking that competition
for food is charged with more meaning in the long story of life than
the protective care of parents for their offspring and the eminently
natural self-sacrifice it involves. Progress among both animals and
vegetables has been secured more by 'species maintaining' efforts
than by a mere self-seeking struggle for self-restricted ends. It is a
recognition of this fact that makes a distinguished biologist say, 'The
ideal of evolution is thus no gladiator's show, but an Eden; and
although competition can never be wholly eliminated ... it is much
for our pure natural history to see no longer struggle, but love as
"creation's final law."'
PART II
 CHAPTER I

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything

would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has
closed himself up, till he sees all things through
narrow chinks of his cavern.
Blake.

A
s we looked at chlorophyll, at colloids and the sea-urchin's egg, so
let us look at Christian habits and beliefs. And in the first place we
will fix our attention on the central 'mystery' of worship in the
Christian Church. All the world over and from the first days of
Christian apostles and brethren, a man going into one of their places
of assembly would at some hour or another find their devotion
apparently gathered about common, familiar, bread and wine, or,
sometimes, bread alone. They would tell him that this bread 'is no
longer common bread.' Nevertheless, in the ordinary or the scientific
sense, it is, just as much 'common bread' as chlorophyll is the
common colouring matter of the green wheat. They will tell him, too,
that it is a 'sacramental' means of communion between God and
themselves and between them and Christ, the Anointed Son of God.
Just as we insist scientifically upon the fact that chlorophyll is the
meeting-point between the power of the sun and our living selves,
so Christians insist that the sacramental bread, whatever else it is or
does, constitutes a meeting-point between them and God and his
Christ. No doubt (they may say, if they understand such matters), for
the mathematical physicist, bread, like everything else, may be
finally reduced to a series of dynamical equations. Or it may be
taken as ether and electrons; or as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and so
forth; or, roughly, as what it comes to be at last, gases, water, and
dust, like the bodies of us all. But each of these ways of looking at
bread manifestly, even to the mind of that scientific man, leaves out
something of its richness and fails to reckon with its use and purpose
for life. By ordinary persons it is known as the 'staff' of life; and
these ordinary persons, when they say it is this, are speaking poetry.
In fact if you are to do justice to bread you must be something of an
artist; you do it gross injustice—that is, you leave out of your
account the most valuable thing about it—when you do not go
beyond the scientific man's idealistic or abstract summing up. The
poet's vision does better when he mates in the corn and the grape
the glories of the sun and the expectancy of earth, and sees the
bringing forth and revealing and communicating, through the grain
and the wine, of a concealed and straining life. But the philosopher
also has his contribution to a fulness of justice. He insists, after his
manner, on 'spirit and life'; he disdains mechanism; he opens gates
that science cannot pass, and shows that all real things have depth it
cannot reach—a third dimension where it has discovered only two.
He solidifies the schematic diagrams of the scientific man and gives
reasons for the faith of the religious man, who goes further still.
Here in the Christian Sacrament, where the Christian says that the
fullest justice is done to bread and wine in lifting them up to be a
means of communion between God and man, science and
philosophy, religion and art, may meet together.
For nearly two thousand years Christians have seen in 'this bread'
of theirs matter impenetrated by spirit, and raised by it into another
and a higher order. They have held to a doctrine of both in which
neither was despised, or thought of as deceiving or unreal.
Materialistic thought and theory, abstract spiritualism, all theories or
doctrines that cut the world of experience in two with a rationalizing
hatchet, have been powerless to loosen their hold. Matter informed
and transformed by spirit; spirit pre-eminent over and including
matter—these have been cardinal and inevitable implications in the
sacramental worship of Christians. Cardinal and inevitable, too, is, in
consequence, their view of the world as an affair of order
superposed on order in a nature capable of being raised to the
height of that which they call the supernatural, an earth that may
become a new earth, a city of men that should rise to the noble
state of a City of God.

We look back on the chemist's colloid that becomes, as

protoplasm, no longer common colloid but one from which a world of
living creatures has arisen. We see again a wonderful life informing
and transforming matter, pre-eminent over it yet dependent on and
manifesting through it. We see the chlorophyll of the plant raising
chemical elements to a new order of being, and life in its onward
march from order to order of manifesting consciousness, attaining at
last man, creative in his spiritual freedom and dominance. We see
that a Christian might point to man himself as the summing up of
outward and visible signs and an inward and spiritual grace which
science has made known, as reasonably as he may take bread as the
central symbol of his worship. And he may tell us, or we may tell
him, that these things are one—that there is everywhere 'continuity
of process with the emergence of real differences' in a world that is
'sacramental' from its lowest to its highest order, from the speck of
jelly to man. He and we both may see it as a world of outward and
visible signs, each manifesting what the Christian names 'an inward
and spiritual grace,' and we name—how do we name it? So far, only
life, mysterious and mysteriously potent, communicating and
communicated life.
We are encouraged to consider, further, this name and its meaning
for us and above all in us. In us, we justly say, life is really different
from what it is in the plant. We are 'persons'; plants are not. Life in
us is personal, in the plant it is less than personal. But it is life, all
the same and all through, from the impersonal to us, different
though we assuredly are from the impersonal. And we can hardly
escape asking ourselves whether, as they are now, men are of the
highest order of real difference among the different orders embraced
in the potency of life. Can life do no more and better, seeing that it
has done so much? Is it, in itself, no more and better? The Christian
answers these questions without one moment of hesitation. He says
that 'the Holy Ghost,' the divine Spirit and Lord, is the 'Giver of Life';
and that there is an order of life in which this Lord and Giver is
brought into personal relations with us, communicating with and
communicated to us; so that by this communication we are raised
beyond the state of children of earth and of the merely earthly life,
to the high place of Sons of God, who know their Father and are at
one with each other and with him.
If there is a thorough-going evolutionist anywhere it is the
Christian. And it is his sacramental doctrine that gives consistency
and persistence to his evolutionary convictions, if and when they are
consistent and persistent. At times they are neither. At times the
Christian, like the rest of us, fails to see the grandeur and
universality of his own deepest principles. And then he belies them in
word and deed; and his picture of the world of men and things is
false to them and to himself.
It is these deepest principles that the enquirer should search out.
When he has caught one glimpse of them he should thereby be
strengthened against the falsifications that are offered him either by
Christians or their contemners. Great principles are there, for his
vision and enlightening. And in them he will find his own raised to a
higher power. His evolution is then carried beyond the point where it
so abruptly and unsatisfactorily breaks off. His potent life is there
borne upward to the meeting-place with a Lord and a Giver of life.
His personal, self-conscious and world-conscious, loving and self-
sacrificing man, the crown of his evolutionary process, comes face to
face with the source and fulfilment of all that he is and all that he so
brokenly promises to be. Man himself crowns the sacramental world
and is its greatest sacrament, revealing as in a glass darkly and by
foretelling, the fulness of beauty and glory in all its grace. And the
Christian points to one man as above all other men in the revealing
office of mankind. He says that this man in no way distorts the
beauty and glory given him; that in him very God is made known in
and as very man. Here, plainly, the sacramental principle reaches its
supreme height, and is taken beyond detail after detail to a
wholeness covering every detail. If any one man is thus the
unclouded revelation of God in terms of man, then it is true—as the
Christian says it is—that the whole world of men and things is best,
most faithfully and fully, stated, reasoned about, interpreted, through
this man. Every particle of the bread we eat becomes for us no
longer 'common bread.' It is bread shown for what it really is in the
plan and process of God as these are made present to us, alive,
pregnant of glory and beauty and power, in the living revelation of
Jesus Christ.

The Christian sets his consecrated bread apart from all the rest of
bread and things, and, we must own, he does well. For men see all
things as in a glass darkly, and we are, most of us, the slaves of
habit and victims of familiarity. What is everywhere and always soon
comes to be nowhere and never for our interest and our attention. If
the Christian had not kept as a rare thing, a thing enthroned, the
bread that is for him no longer common bread, he would of a
certainty often, if not for ever, have lost hold on the sublime principle
it enshrines for him and for the world. The conflicting currents of
speculative thought, as well as the weaknesses of his mental grasp,
would have made him loose his hold upon it. Just because it stands
there as the central symbol gathering up and establishing his
worship and its sanctifying associations, it has lasted through the
centuries, preserving its own great principle, a witness, a token and
a sign not empty but 'effective'—signum efficax not only for thought
but for all human life in its amplitude.
 CHAPTER II

Can you think at all and not pronounce heartily

that to labour in knowledge is to build up Jerusalem,
and to despise knowledge is to despise Jerusalem
and her builders?
Blake.

F
or the Christian a man is a being capable of receiving and
assimilating life as no other creature can, and as the biologist has
no biological reason to believe. The Christian declares that he has
reason, good and ample. He knows whom he believes. This is a
matter of living religious experience to which generations after
generations have borne witness. There is a ladder of spiritual reality,
he says, up which men are climbing and upon which some have
reached great heights. The biologist's ladder, despite its many steps
and its length along the ages, is too short for him. Or rather (so he
will tell you when he understands what the biologist means) his own
ladder is a legitimate and even a natural extension of that, as of all
others of the sort that men have anywhere set up.
Is this advance of man, then, an affair of a single departmental
business—the religious business? Or, let us ask, can there be kinds
of knowledge that are not really knowledge of God? Is it reasonable
to regard biological knowledge, or chemical or physical, as
knowledge of some alien reality not embraced in God? The
supposition is monstrous. If God is, then all truth attained by man is
truth of him. If I learn that the world advances from the ether to my
brain I shall have learnt something about God. So the Christian
should maintain, if he is true to his Christian principles. The advance
of man towards communion with God in knowledge is not a mere
affair of some one department of knowledge called religious,
although it is now for the most part carried on departmentally.
Although men separate off for their practical convenience the study
of plants from the study of animals, and a specialist may separate
off the egg of the newt and study nothing else, and even think, at
least seriously, of nothing else; although we may not only speak of
religion, or knowledge, or philosophy as separate one from another
but act as though they were, yet if the Christian and the philosopher
and the scientific man are right in holding that there is a unity in the
multiplicity of things, a 'uniformity of nature,' an 'Absolute,' or 'One
God,' then religion and science and philosophy are only separated, if
separate at all, by an artifice or a convention. You cannot really
separate knowing, in a man's activity, from his feeling and acting,
nor his feeling from acting and knowing, nor his acting from knowing
and feeling, nor his activity from himself; although you can
distinguish each from the others. They are different, but their
difference is embraced within a oneness. So it is with religion and
science and philosophy. They are all results of man's activity in
relation to a reality of innumerable aspects and unfathomable depth;
and they may all be means by which he ascends the ladder of his
experience of God.
Therefore the Christian does his own sacramental and
incarnational principles a grave injustice if and when he tries to turn
away from science and philosophy. Not only this—he cannot really
do it. When he succeeds in turning away from that which he believes
to be all there is of science and philosophy, he does not cut out from
his creed and his theology the science and philosophy incorporated
in them—a science and a philosophy which undoubtedly need
correction that they may move and grow with the movement and the
growth of experience. It is only the science and philosophy grown to
new ripeness and new truth since the day when the great bulk of his
Christian tradition was laid down in written words to be transmitted
to him, that as a matter of fact he is rejecting. And he is able to
reject these just and only because he has already in this tradition
such science and philosophy as serves to make for him some sort of
a Weltanschauung, a world-picture, you may say. It is useless to
protest that a man can be religious without having a world-picture;
he cannot even be a man without one. And the only question for him
is whether it shall or shall not be as wide in its extent and as good
as he can make it, whether he shall or shall not include within it all
the knowledge and vision of God he might include.
Plainly—that is, plainly to the Christian—if the scientific man or the
philosopher does not include in his view of the world what the
Christian knows and sees, he is the loser. His picture is not all it
might be. But the same, mutatis mutandis, is true of the Christian.
For all is God's and of God. And if we never before discovered this,
we see it when we discover the point where science and religion
meet, where the scientific knowledge of the world passes into the
sacramental, and the scientific knowledge of man, as part of the
world, passes into the incarnational; each to be crowned there, each
to be interpreted and fulfilled.
To this discovery there is only one theoretic obstacle which is
insuperable. It is the acceptance of mechanism as a root-principle in
either science or religion. I say nothing of philosophy, because there
is now-a-days no mechanistic philosophy (that is, no materialistic
philosophy) that need be feared. But in science and in religion
mechanism is still a danger, and the acceptance of it as the
fundamental principle of working and construction in a world-picture
is an obstacle that cannot be passed. There is nothing to be done
except to overturn it.
In regard to science much (as we have seen) has already been
done; more is being done. How is it in regard to religion? What
about mechanism there?
 CHAPTER III

The religions of all nations are derived from each

nation's different reception of the poetic genius,
which is everywhere called the spirit of prophecy.
Blake.

T he Christian has not escaped the dangers of the common lot. He

too, despite his own contrary principles, has, from the beginning
of the Christian Church, been tempted as we all are to trust to
mechanism and even to sacrifice in its favour the powers of life. We
ought not to be surprised; what else can reasonably be expected? A
good machine, whether it be made of steel and brass, or of
language, or of settled formulae and plans, or of any other product
of life, is an admirable servant. It is convenient; it brings satisfaction
to widespread and deeply-rooted needs of life itself. Moreover there
is nothing mysterious (so it seems), or even problematic, about it.
The plain man is not called upon to question or wonder or speculate
in regard to anything behind it, any powers or vague connexions
with powers, not understood. The good machine does what it has to
do and there's an end of it. A man knows where he is when he has
such a thing—or when it has him. There is even a sense of comfort
and security in being ruled and cared for by it, as, for example, in
the case of the machinery of a State.
In this difficult world there seems, indeed there is, need for
something of the kind to supply a considerable part of our religious
demand. We are social beings; we are, as we are beginning to see
more plainly, brothers in a community; we must organize our religion
as we organize everything else in which the community of persons
has its common interest. And God, the Christian may say, and has
said, would not leave us, has not left us, to uncertainty and to our
questioning and wondering and speculative adventure. He has
provided answers to our questions, facts in response to our
wondering, an open view for our speculation. Or, to put it in another
way, he has given us a 'plan' or 'scheme,' or an ecclesiastical
apparatus, of salvation; he has revealed religious truth to us and
marked out an established method of approaching him and securing
our own safety in respect of his judgement and our destiny at his
hands. Nothing of so great importance has been left, could have
been left, in the hands of men, to find out or not find out—poor
creatures that we are.
Now, there is truth behind this, both as to the part of God and as
to the part of man in the matter. We are social, we are brethren, we
must organize. God, so all Christians say and many philosophers, no
more leaves us to ourselves than he leaves to itself any part of his
worlds. But Christians formally declare in their Creed that he is no
machine-maker; he is Lord and Giver of Life. They complain, too,
against science on the ground that (as they have come to believe) it
must of its constant character set material mechanism above life in
the order of the world. They are pledged to oppose this; and when
they complain against science for a fault and failure which is soon—
so many biologists and philosophers declare—to be a fault and a
failure of the past, they are faithful to their pledge. But they are
men, with the faults and failures of men. Habit has its snares for
them; the complication of needs that meets them in their effort to
maintain themselves, body, mind and spirit, in the world, entangles
them. The short cut, the provided means, everything and anything
that seems to make matters easy or safe—in short, the logical or
legalistic or institutional machine—is attractive. And for most men
this machine in any of its protean forms, is perhaps only the more
attractive the more valued is the treasure it seems to ensure or to
protect. The faith once for all delivered—how precious that is!
Salvation in this world and the next—can anything be of greater
import for man? Let us make these things secure, whatever else we
risk. Only fools or the reckless would embrace chances of adventure
where so much is at stake.
So, in spite of the Christian avowal of the superiority and the
supremacy of life over its instruments, Christianity has everywhere
given disastrous place to the letter and the tool.
Against this the first prophet and the last, in every religion, must
always protest. It is the enemy of enemies for all prophets. You can
see war waged against it in the Old Testament; you can see that war
carried to the utmost in the Gospel of the New. Now the challenge
rings among us more clearly than it has rung for this long time. And,
as ever, it has new notes and a new phrasing of its music.... That,
perhaps, is why so many of us fail to recognize it for what it is. That,
certainly, is why the due honour paid to prophets of the past does
not prevent men from stoning or neglecting those of the present.
The voice is always different, because it is the voice of life.
The use and need for the prophet is a fact not only in religion but
in all the arts and in philosophy. He alone keeps any one of these in
touch with life, or rather recalls it to life when it has been
encumbered or perhaps even arrested by that which life has made.
He is, in very deed, the voice of the encumbered spirit making itself
heard, proclaiming in one fashion or another that the pursuit of
beauty and truth as well as of holiness is of the spirit, and must have
the spirit's liberty or it will altogether fail. In the arts and in
philosophy we do not call him a prophet, but often, in the arts, we
speak of him (when we have recovered from the shock he gives) as
'inspired,' and in philosophy we call him 'great.' Great he is and
inspired—we could hardly choose better and more deeply significant
words. He is the enlarger of life and the bearer of the spirit, whether
he uses the language of philosophy, of poetry, painting or music, or
of religion. But always he comes waging war upon our superstitious
devotion to the things that have once been made, proclaiming either
divine truth or divine beauty or divine holiness (according to his
mission), as that for the sake of which they must ever be remade.