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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18335-8.txt b/18335-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a710c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/18335-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7762 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Breath of Life, by John Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Breath of Life + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: May 7, 2006 [EBook #18335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BREATH OF LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Jamie Atiga, Leonard Johnson and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE + +BREATH OF LIFE + + +BY + +JOHN BURROUGHS + +[Illustration] + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +The Riverside Press Cambridge + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY JOHN BURROUGHS + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +_Published May 1915_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more +upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope +that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other +world. In these studies I fancy I am about as far from mastering the +mystery as the ant which I saw this morning industriously exploring a +small section of the garden walk is from getting a clear idea of the +geography of the North American Continent. But the ant was occupied and +was apparently happy, and she must have learned something about a small +fraction of that part of the earth's surface. + +I have passed many pleasant summer days in my hay-barn study, or under +the apple trees, exploring these questions, and though I have not solved +them, I am satisfied with the clearer view I have given myself of the +mystery that envelops them. I have set down in these pages all the +thoughts that have come to me on this subject. I have not aimed so much +at consistency as at clearness and definiteness of statement, letting my +mind drift as upon a shoreless sea. Indeed, what are such questions, and +all other ultimate questions, but shoreless seas whereon the chief +reward of the navigator is the joy of the adventure? + +Sir Thomas Browne said, over two hundred years ago, that in philosophy +truth seemed double-faced, by which I fancy he meant that there was +always more than one point of view of all great problems, often +contradictory points of view, from which truth is revealed. In the +following pages I am aware that two ideas, or principles, struggle in my +mind for mastery. One is the idea of the super-mechanical and the +super-chemical character of living things; the other is the idea of the +supremacy and universality of what we call natural law. The first +probably springs from my inborn idealism and literary habit of mind; the +second from my love of nature and my scientific bent. It is hard for me +to reduce the life impulse to a level with common material forces that +shape and control the world of inert matter, and it is equally hard for +me to reconcile my reason to the introduction of a new principle, or to +see anything in natural processes that savors of the _ab-extra_. It is +the working of these two different ideas in my mind that seems to give +rise to the obvious contradictions that crop out here and there +throughout this volume. An explanation of life phenomena that savors of +the laboratory and chemism repels me, and an explanation that savors of +the theological point of view is equally distasteful to me. I crave and +seek a natural explanation of all phenomena upon this earth, but the +word "natural" to me implies more than mere chemistry and physics. The +birth of a baby, and the blooming of a flower, are natural events, but +the laboratory methods forever fail to give us the key to the secret of +either. + +I am forced to conclude that my passion for nature and for all open-air +life, though tinged and stimulated by science, is not a passion for pure +science, but for literature and philosophy. My imagination and ingrained +humanism are appealed to by the facts and methods of natural history. I +find something akin to poetry and religion (using the latter word in its +non-mythological sense, as indicating the sum of mystery and reverence +we feel in the presence of the great facts of life and death) in the +shows of day and night, and in my excursions to fields and woods. The +love of nature is a different thing from the love of science, though the +two may go together. The Wordsworthian sense in nature, of "something +far more deeply interfused" than the principles of exact science, is +probably the source of nearly if not quite all that this volume holds. +To the rigid man of science this is frank mysticism; but without a sense +of the unknown and unknowable, life is flat and barren. Without the +emotion of the beautiful, the sublime, the mysterious, there is no art, +no religion, no literature. How to get from the clod underfoot to the +brain and consciousness of man without invoking something outside of, +and superior to, natural laws, is the question. For my own part I +content myself with the thought of some unknown and doubtless unknowable +tendency or power in the elements themselves--a kind of universal mind +pervading living matter and the reason of its living, through which the +whole drama of evolution is brought about. + +This is getting very near to the old teleological conception, as it is +also near to that of Henri Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge. Our minds +easily slide into the groove of supernaturalism and spiritualism because +they have long moved therein. We have the words and they mould our +thoughts. But science is fast teaching us that the universe is complete +in itself; that whatever takes place in matter is by virtue of the force +of matter; that it does not defer to or borrow from some other universe; +that there is deep beneath deep in it; that gross matter has its +interior in the molecule, and the molecule has its interior in the atom, +and the atom has its interior in the electron, and that the electron is +matter in its fourth or non-material state--the point where it touches +the super-material. The transformation of physical energy into vital, +and of vital into mental, doubtless takes place in this invisible inner +world of atoms and electrons. The electric constitution of matter is a +deduction of physics. It seems in some degree to bridge over the chasm +between what we call the material and the spiritual. If we are not +within hailing distance of life and mind, we seem assuredly on the road +thither. The mystery of the transformation of the ethereal, imponderable +forces into the vital and the mental seems quite beyond the power of the +mind to solve. The explanation of it in the bald terms of chemistry and +physics can never satisfy a mind with a trace of idealism in it. + +The greater number of the chapters of this volume are variations upon a +single theme,--what Tyndall called "the mystery and the miracle of +vitality,"--and I can only hope that the variations are of sufficient +interest to justify the inevitable repetitions which occur. I am no more +inclined than Tyndall was to believe in miracles unless we name +everything a miracle, while at the same time I am deeply impressed with +the inadequacy of all known material forces to account for the phenomena +of living things. + +That word of evil repute, materialism, is no longer the black sheep in +the flock that it was before the advent of modern transcendental +physics. The spiritualized materialism of men like Huxley and Tyndall +need not trouble us. It springs from the new conception of matter. It +stands on the threshold of idealism or mysticism with the door ajar. +After Tyndall had cast out the term "vital force," and reduced all +visible phenomena of life to mechanical attraction and repulsion, after +he had exhausted physics, and reached its very rim, a mighty mystery +still hovered beyond him. He recognized that he had made no step toward +its solution, and was forced to confess with the philosophers of all +ages that + + "We are such stuff + As dreams are made on, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep." + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE BREATH OF LIFE 1 + +II. THE LIVING WAVE 24 + +III. A WONDERFUL WORLD 46 + +IV. THE BAFFLING PROBLEM 71 + +V. SCIENTIFIC VITALISM 104 + +VI. A BIRD OF PASSAGE 115 + +VII. LIFE AND MIND 131 + +VIII. LIFE AND SCIENCE 159 + +IX. THE JOURNEYING ATOMS 188 + +X. THE VITAL ORDER 212 + +XI. THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIT 244 + +XII. THE NATURALIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 254 + + INDEX 291 + +The reproduction of the bust of Mr. Burroughs which appears as the +frontispiece to this volume is used by courtesy of the sculptor, C. S. +Pietro. + + + + +I + +THE BREATH OF LIFE + + +I + +When for the third or fourth time during the spring or summer I take my +hoe and go out and cut off the heads of the lusty burdocks that send out +their broad leaves along the edge of my garden or lawn, I often ask +myself, "What is this thing that is so hard to scotch here in the +grass?" I decapitate it time after time and yet it forthwith gets itself +another head. We call it burdock, but what is burdock, and why does it +not change into yellow dock, or into a cabbage? What is it that is so +constant and so irrepressible, and before the summer is ended will be +lying in wait here with its ten thousand little hooks to attach itself +to every skirt or bushy tail or furry or woolly coat that comes along, +in order to get free transportation to other lawns and gardens, to green +fields and pastures new? + +It is some living thing; but what is a living thing, and how does it +differ from a mechanical and non-living thing? If I smash or overturn +the sundial with my hoe, or break the hoe itself, these things stay +smashed and broken, but the burdock mends itself, renews itself, and, if +I am not on my guard, will surreptitiously mature some of the burs +before the season is passed. + +Evidently a living thing is radically different from a mechanical thing; +yet modern physical science tells me that the burdock is only another +kind of machine, and manifests nothing but the activity of the +mechanical and chemical principles that we see in operation all about us +in dead matter; and that a little different mechanical arrangement of +its ultimate atoms would turn it into a yellow dock or into a cabbage, +into an oak or into a pine, into an ox or into a man. + +I see that it is a machine in this respect, that it is set going by a +force exterior to itself--the warmth of the sun acting upon it, and upon +the moisture in the soil; but it is unmechanical in that it repairs +itself and grows and reproduces itself, and after it has ceased running +can never be made to run again. After I have reduced all its activities +to mechanical and chemical principles, my mind seems to see something +that chemistry and mechanics do not explain--something that avails +itself of these forces, but is not of them. This may be only my +anthropomorphic way of looking at things, but are not all our ways of +looking at things anthropomorphic? How can they be any other? They +cannot be deific since we are not gods. They may be scientific. But what +is science but a kind of anthropomorphism? Kant wisely said, "It sounds +at first singular, but is none the less certain, that the understanding +does not derive its laws from nature, but prescribes them to nature." +This is the anthropomorphism of science. + +If I attribute the phenomenon of life to a vital force or principle, am +I any more unscientific than I am when I give a local habitation and a +name to any other causal force, as gravity, chemical affinity, cohesion, +osmosis, electricity, and so forth? These terms stand for certain +special activities in nature and are as much the inventions of our own +minds as are any of the rest of our ideas. + +We can help ourselves out, as Haeckel does, by calling the physical +forces--such as the magnet that attracts the iron filings, the powder +that explodes, the steam that drives the locomotive, and the +like--"living inorganics," and looking upon them as acting by "living +force as much as the sensitive mimosa does when it contracts its leaves +at touch." But living force is what we are trying to differentiate from +mechanical force, and what do we gain by confounding the two? We can +only look upon a living body as a machine by forming new conceptions of +a machine--a machine utterly unmechanical, which is a contradiction of +terms. + +A man may expend the same kind of force in thinking that he expends in +chopping his wood, but that fact does not put the two kinds of activity +on the same level. There is no question but that the food consumed is +the source of the energy in both cases, but in the one the energy is +muscular, and in the other it is nervous. When we speak of mental or +spiritual force, we have as distinct a conception as when we speak of +physical force. It requires physical force to produce the effect that we +call mental force, though how the one can result in the other is past +understanding. The law of the correlation and conservation of energy +requires that what goes into the body as physical force must come out in +some form of physical force--heat, light, electricity, and so forth. + +Science cannot trace force into the mental realm and connect it with our +states of consciousness. It loses track of it so completely that men +like Tyndall and Huxley and Spencer pause before it as an inscrutable +mystery, while John Fiske helps himself out with the conception of the +soul as quite independent of the body, standing related to it as the +musician is related to his instrument. This idea is the key to Fiske's +proof of the immortality of the soul. Finding himself face to face with +an insoluble mystery, he cuts the knot, or rather, clears the chasm, by +this extra-scientific leap. Since the soul, as we know it, is +inseparably bound up with physical conditions, it seems to me that a +more rational explanation of the phenomenon of mentality is the +conception that the physical force and substance that we use up in a +mental effort or emotional experience gives rise, through some unknown +kind of molecular activity, to something which is analogous to the +electric current in a live wire, and which traverses the nerves and +results in our changing states of consciousness. This is the mechanistic +explanation of mind, consciousness, etc., but it is the only one, or +kind of one, that lends itself to scientific interpretation. Life, +spirit, consciousness, may be a mode of motion as distinct from all +other modes of motion, such as heat, light, electricity, as these are +distinct from each other. + +When we speak of force of mind, force of character, we of course speak +in parables, since the force here alluded to is an experience of our own +minds entirely and would not suffice to move the finest dust-particle in +the air. + +There could be no vegetable or animal life without the sunbeam, yet when +we have explained or accounted for the growth of a tree in terms of the +chemistry and physics of the sunbeam, do we not have to figure to +ourselves something in the tree that avails itself of this chemistry, +that uses it and profits by it? After this mysterious something has +ceased to operate, or play its part, the chemistry of the sunbeam is no +longer effective, and the tree is dead. + +Without the vibrations that we call light, there would have been no eye. +But, as Bergson happily says, it is not light passively received that +makes the eye; it is light meeting an indwelling need in the organism, +which amounts to an active creative principle, that begets the eye. With +fish in underground waters this need does not arise; hence they have no +sight. Fins and wings and legs are developed to meet some end of the +organism, but if the organism were not charged with an expansive or +developing force or impulse, would those needs arise? + +Why should the vertebrate series have risen through the fish, the +reptile, the mammal, to man, unless the manward impulse was inherent in +the first vertebrate; something that struggled, that pushed on and up +from the more simple to the more complex forms? Why did not unicellular +life always remain unicellular? Could not the environment have acted +upon it endlessly without causing it to change toward higher and more +complex forms, had there not been some indwelling aboriginal tendency +toward these forms? How could natural selection, or any other process of +selection, work upon species to modify them, if there were not something +in species pushing out and on, seeking new ways, new forms, in fact some +active principle that is modifiable? + +Life has risen by stepping-stones of its dead self to higher things. Why +has it risen? Why did it not keep on the same level, and go through the +cycle of change, as the inorganic does, without attaining to higher +forms? Because, it may be replied, it was life, and not mere matter and +motion--something that lifts matter and motion to a new plane. + +Under the influence of the life impulse, the old routine of matter--from +compound to compound, from solid to fluid, from fluid to gaseous, from +rock to soil, the cycle always ending where it began--is broken into, +and cycles of a new order are instituted. From the stable equilibrium +which dead matter is always seeking, the same matter in the vital +circuit is always seeking the state of unstable equilibrium, or rather +is forever passing between the two, and evolving the myriad forms of +life in the passage. It is hard to think of the process as the work of +the physical and chemical forces of inorganic nature, without +supplementing them with a new and different force. + +The forces of life are constructive forces, and they are operative in a +world of destructive or disintegrating forces which oppose them and +which they overcome. The physical and chemical forces of dead matter are +at war with the forces of life, till life overcomes and uses them. + +The mechanical forces go on repeating or dividing through the same +cycles forever and ever, seeking a stable condition, but the vital force +is inventive and creative and constantly breaks the repose that organic +nature seeks to impose upon it. + +External forces may modify a body, but they cannot develop it unless +there is something in the body waiting to be developed, craving +development, as it were. The warmth and moisture in the soil act alike +upon the grains of sand and upon the seed-germs; the germ changes into +something else, the sand does not. These agents liberate a force in the +germ that is not in the grain of sand. The warmth of the brooding fowl +does not spend itself upon mere passive, inert matter (unless there is a +china egg in the nest), but upon matter straining upon its leash, and in +a state of expectancy. We do not know how the activity of the molecules +of the egg differs from the activity of the molecules of the pebble, +under the influence of warmth, but we know there must be a difference +between the interior movements of organized and unorganized matter. + +Life lifts inert matter up into a thousand varied and beautiful forms +and holds it there for a season,--holds it against gravity and chemical +affinity, though you may say, if you please, not without their aid,--and +then in due course lets go of it, or abandons it, and lets it fall back +into the great sea of the inorganic. Its constant tendency is to fall +back; indeed, in animal life it does fall back every moment; it rises on +the one hand, serves its purpose of life, and falls back on the other. +In going through the cycle of life the mineral elements experience some +change that chemical analysis does not disclose--they are the more +readily absorbed again by life. It is as if the elements had profited +in some way under the tutelage of life. Their experience has been a +unique and exceptional one. Only a small fraction of the sum total of +the inert matter of the globe can have this experience. It must first go +through the vegetable cycle before it can be taken up by the animal. The +only things we can take directly from the inorganic world are water and +air; and the function of water is largely a mechanical one, and the +function of air a chemical one. + +I think of the vital as flowing out of the physical, just as the +psychical flows out of the vital, and just as the higher forms of animal +life flow out of the lower. It is a far cry from man to the dumb brutes, +and from the brutes to the vegetable world, and from the vegetable to +inert matter; but the germ and start of each is in the series below it. +The living came out of the not-living. If life is of physico-chemical +origin, it is so by transformations and translations that physics cannot +explain. The butterfly comes out of the grub, man came out of the brute, +but, as Darwin says, "not by his own efforts," any more than the child +becomes the man by its own efforts. + +The push of life, of the evolutionary process, is back of all and in +all. We can account for it all by saying the Creative Energy is immanent +in matter, and this gives the mind something to take hold of. + + +II + +According to the latest scientific views held on the question by such +men as Professor Loeb, the appearance of life on the globe was a purely +accidental circumstance. The proper elements just happened to come +together at the right time in the right proportions and under the right +conditions, and life was the result. It was an accident in the thermal +history of the globe. Professor Loeb has lately published a volume of +essays and addresses called "The Mechanistic Conception of Life," +enforcing and illustrating this view. He makes war on what he terms the +metaphysical conception of a "life-principle" as the key to the problem, +and urges the scientific conception of the adequacy of +mechanico-chemical forces. In his view, we are only chemical mechanisms; +and all our activities, mental and physical alike, are only automatic +responses to the play of the blind, material forces of external nature. +All forms of life, with all their wonderful adaptations, are only the +chance happenings of the blind gropings and clashings of dead matter: +"We eat, drink, and reproduce [and, of course, think and speculate and +write books on the problems of life], not because mankind has reached an +agreement that this is desirable, but because, machine-like, we are +compelled to do so!" + +He reaches the conclusion that all our inner subjective life is +amenable to physico-chemical analysis, because many cases of simple +animal instinct and will can be explained on this basis--the basis of +animal tropism. Certain animals creep or fly to the light, others to the +dark, because they cannot help it. This is tropism. He believes that the +origin of life can be traced to the same physico-chemical activities, +because, in his laboratory experiments, he has been able to dispense +with the male principle, and to fertilize the eggs of certain low forms +of marine life by chemical compounds alone. "The problem of the +beginning and end of individual life is physico-chemically clear"--much +clearer than the first beginnings of life. All individual life begins +with the egg, but where did we get the egg? When chemical synthesis will +give us this, the problem is solved. We can analyze the material +elements of an organism, but we cannot synthesize them and produce the +least spark of living matter. That all forms of life have a mechanical +and chemical basis is beyond question, but when we apply our analysis to +them, life evaporates, vanishes, the vital processes cease. But apply +the same analysis to inert matter, and only the form is changed. + +Professor Loeb's artificially fathered embryo and starfish and +sea-urchins soon die. If his chemism could only give him the +mother-principle also! But it will not. The mother-principle is at the +very foundations of the organic world, and defies all attempts of +chemical synthesis to reproduce it. + +It would be presumptive in the extreme for me to question Professor +Loeb's scientific conclusions; he is one of the most eminent of living +experimental biologists. I would only dissent from some of his +philosophical conclusions. I dissent from his statement that only the +mechanistic conception of life can throw light on the source of ethics. +Is there any room for the moral law in a world of mechanical +determinism? There is no ethics in the physical order, and if humanity +is entirely in the grip of that order, where do moral obligations come +in? A gun, a steam-engine, knows no ethics, and to the extent that we +are compelled to do things, are we in the same category. Freedom of +choice alone gives any validity to ethical consideration. I dissent from +the idea to which he apparently holds, that biology is only applied +physics and chemistry. Is not geology also applied physics and +chemistry? Is it any more or any less? Yet what a world of difference +between the two--between a rock and a tree, between a man and the soil +he cultivates. Grant that the physical and the chemical forces are the +same in both, yet they work to such different ends in each. In one case +they are tending always to a deadlock, to the slumber of a static +equilibrium; in the other they are ceaselessly striving to reach a state +of dynamic activity--to build up a body that hangs forever between a +state of integration and disintegration. What is it that determines this +new mode and end of their activities? + +In all his biological experimentation, Professor Loeb starts with living +matter and, finding its processes capable of physico-chemical analysis, +he hastens to the conclusion that its genesis is to be accounted for by +the action and interaction of these principles alone. + +In the inorganic world, everything is in its place through the operation +of blind physical forces; because the place of a dead thing, its +relation to the whole, is a matter of indifference. The rocks, the +hills, the streams are in their place, but any other place would do as +well. But in the organic world we strike another order--an order where +the relation and subordination of parts is everything, and to speak of +human existence as a "matter of chance" in the sense, let us say, that +the forms and positions of inanimate bodies are matters of chance, is to +confuse terms. + +Organic evolution upon the earth shows steady and regular progression; +as much so as the growth and development of a tree. If the evolutionary +impulse fails on one line, it picks itself up and tries on another, it +experiments endlessly like an inventor, but always improves on its last +attempts. Chance would have kept things at a standstill; the principle +of chance, give it time enough, must end where it began. Chance is a +man lost in the woods; he never arrives; he wanders aimlessly. If +evolution pursued a course equally fortuitous, would it not still be +wandering in the wilderness of the chaotic nebulæ? + + +III + +A vastly different and much more stimulating view of life is given by +Henri Bergson in his "Creative Evolution." Though based upon biological +science, it is a philosophical rather than a scientific view, and +appeals to our intuitional and imaginative nature more than to our +constructive reason. M. Bergson interprets the phenomena of life in +terms of spirit, rather than in terms of matter as does Professor Loeb. +The word "creative" is the key-word to his view. Life is a creative +impulse or current which arose in matter at a certain time and place, +and flows through it from form to form, from generation to generation, +augmenting in force as it advances. It is one with spirit, and is +incessant creation; the whole organic world is filled, from bottom to +top, with one tremendous effort. It was long ago felicitously stated by +Whitman in his "Leaves of Grass," "Urge and urge, always the procreant +urge of the world." + +This conception of the nature and genesis of life is bound to be +challenged by modern physical science, which, for the most part, sees in +biology only a phase of physics; but the philosophic mind and the +trained literary mind will find in "Creative Evolution" a treasure-house +of inspiring ideas, and engaging forms of original artistic expression. +As Mr. Balfour says, "M. Bergson's 'Evolution Créatrice' is not merely a +philosophical treatise, it has all the charm and all the audacities of a +work of art, and as such defies adequate reproduction." + +It delivers us from the hard mechanical conception of determinism, or of +a closed universe which, like a huge manufacturing plant, grinds out +vegetables and animals, minds and spirits, as it grinds out rocks and +soils, gases and fluids, and the inorganic compounds. + +With M. Bergson, life is the flowing metamorphosis of the poets,--an +unceasing becoming,--and evolution is a wave of creative energy +overflowing through matter "upon which each visible organism rides +during the short interval of time given it to live." In his view, matter +is held in the iron grip of necessity, but life is freedom itself. +"Before the evolution of life ... the portals of the future remain wide +open. It is a creation that goes on forever in virtue of an initial +movement. This movement constitutes the unity of the organized world--a +prolific unity, of an infinite richness, superior to any that the +intellect could dream of, for the intellect is only one of its aspects +or products." + +What a contrast to Herbert Spencer's view of life and evolution! +"Life," says Spencer, "consists of inner action so adjusted as to +balance outer action." True enough, no doubt, but not interesting. If +the philosopher could tell us what it is that brings about the +adjustment, and that profits by it, we should at once prick up our ears. +Of course, it is life. But what is life? It is inner action so adjusted +as to balance outer action! + +A recent contemptuous critic of M. Bergson's book, Hugh S. R. Elliot, +points out, as if he were triumphantly vindicating the physico-chemical +theory of the nature and origin of life, what a complete machine a +cabbage is for converting solar energy into chemical and vital +energy--how it takes up the raw material from the soil by a chemical and +mechanical process, how these are brought into contact with the light +and air through the leaves, and thus the cabbage is built up. In like +manner, a man is a machine for converting chemical energy derived from +the food he eats into motion, and the like. As if M. Bergson, or any one +else, would dispute these things! In the same way, a steam-engine is a +machine for converting the energy latent in coal into motion and power; +but what force lies back of the engine, and was active in the +construction? + +The final question of the cabbage and the man still remains--Where did +you get them? + +You assume vitality to start with--how did you get it? Did it arise +spontaneously out of dead matter? Mechanical and chemical forces do all +the work of the living body, but who or what controls and directs them, +so that one compounding of the elements begets a cabbage, and another +compounding of the same elements begets an oak--one mixture of them and +we have a frog, another and we have a man? Is there not room here for +something besides blind, indifferent forces? If we make the molecules +themselves creative, then we are begging the question. The creative +energy by any other name remains the same. + + +IV + +If life itself is not a force or a form of energy, yet behold what +energy it is capable of exerting! It seems to me that Sir Oliver Lodge +is a little confusing when he says in a recent essay that "life does not +exert force--not even the most microscopical force--and certainly does +not supply energy." Sir Oliver is thinking of life as a distinct +entity--something apart from the matter which it animates. But even in +this case can we not say that the mainspring of the energy of living +bodies is the life that is in them? + +Apart from the force exerted by living animal bodies, see the force +exerted by living plant bodies. I thought of the remark of Sir Oliver +one day not long after reading it, while I was walking in a beech wood +and noted how the sprouting beechnuts had sent their pale radicles down +through the dry leaves upon which they were lying, often piercing two +or three of them, and forcing their way down into the mingled soil and +leaf-mould a couple of inches. Force was certainly expended in doing +this, and if the life in the sprouting nut did not exert it or expend +it, what did? + +When I drive a peg into the ground with my axe or mallet, is the life in +my arm any more strictly the source (the secondary source) of the energy +expended than is the nut in this case? Of course, the sun is the primal +source of the energy in both cases, and in all cases, but does not life +exert the force, use it, bring it to bear, which it receives from the +universal fount of energy? + +Life cannot supply energy _de novo_, cannot create it out of nothing, +but it can and must draw upon the store of energy in which the earth +floats as in a sea. When this energy or force is manifest through a +living body, we call it vital force; when it is manifest through a +mechanical contrivance, we call it mechanical force; when it is +developed by the action and reaction of chemical compounds, we call it +chemical force; the same force in each case, but behaving so differently +in the one case from what it does in the other that we come to think of +it as a new and distinct entity. Now if Sir Oliver or any one else could +tell us what force is, this difference between the vitalists and the +mechanists might be reconciled. + +Darwin measured the force of the downward growth of the radicle, such as +I have alluded to, as one quarter of a pound, and its lateral pressure +as much greater. We know that the roots of trees insert themselves into +seams in the rocks, and force the parts asunder. This force is +measurable and is often very great. Its seat seems to be in the soft, +milky substance called the cambium layer under the bark. These minute +cells when their force is combined may become regular rock-splitters. + +One of the most remarkable exhibitions of plant force I ever saw was in +a Western city where I observed a species of wild sunflower forcing its +way up through the asphalt pavement; the folded and compressed leaves of +the plant, like a man's fist, had pushed against the hard but flexible +concrete till it had bulged up and then split, and let the irrepressible +plant through. The force exerted must have been many pounds. I think it +doubtful if the strongest man could have pushed his fist through such a +resisting medium. If it was not life which exerted this force, what was +it? Life activities are a kind of explosion, and the slow continued +explosions of this growing plant rent the pavement as surely as powder +would have done. It is doubtful if any cultivated plant could have +overcome such odds. It required the force of the untamed hairy plant of +the plains to accomplish this feat. + +That life does not supply energy, that is, is not an independent source +of energy, seems to me obvious enough, but that it does not manifest +energy, use energy, or "exert force," is far from obvious. If a growing +plant or tree does not exert force by reason of its growing, or by +virtue of a specific kind of activity among its particles, which we name +life, and which does not take place in a stone or in a bar of iron or in +dead timber, then how can we say that any mechanical device or explosive +compound exerts force? The steam-engine does not create force, neither +does the exploding dynamite, but these things exert force. We have to +think of the sum total of the force of the universe, as of matter +itself, as a constant factor, that can neither be increased nor +diminished. All activity, organic and inorganic, draws upon this force: +the plant and tree, as well as the engine and the explosive--the winds, +the tides, the animal, the vegetable alike. I can think of but one +force, but of any number of manifestations of force, and of two distinct +kinds of manifestations, the organic and the inorganic, or the vital and +the physical,--the latter divisible into the chemical and the +mechanical, the former made up of these two working in infinite +complexity because drawn into new relations, and lifted to higher ends +by this something we call life. + +We think of something in the organic that lifts and moves and +redistributes dead matter, and builds it up into the ten thousand new +forms which it would never assume without this something; it lifts lime +and iron and silica and potash and carbon, against gravity, up into +trees and animal forms, not by a new force, but by an old force in the +hands of a new agent. + +The cattle move about the field, the drift boulders slowly creep down +the slopes; there is no doubt that the final source of the force is in +both cases the same; what we call gravity, a name for a mystery, is the +form it takes in the case of the rocks, and what we call vitality, +another name for a mystery, is the form it takes in the case of the +cattle; without the solar and stellar energy, could there be any motion +of either rock or beast? + +Force is universal, it pervades all nature, one manifestation of it we +call heat, another light, another electricity, another cohesion, +chemical affinity, and so on. May not another manifestation of it be +called life, differing from all the rest more radically than they differ +from one another; bound up with all the rest and inseparable from them +and identical with them only in its ultimate source in the Creative +Energy that is immanent in the universe? I have to think of the Creative +Energy as immanent in all matter, and the final source of all the +transformations and transmutations we see in the organic and the +inorganic worlds. The very nature of our minds compels us to postulate +some power, or some principle, not as lying back of, but as active in, +all the changing forms of life and nature, and their final source and +cause. + +The mind is satisfied when it finds a word that gives it a hold of a +thing or a process, or when it can picture to itself just how the thing +occurs. Thus, for instance, to account for the power generated by the +rushing together of hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, we have to +conceive of space between the atoms of these elements, and that the +force generated comes from the immense velocity with which the +infinitesimal atoms rush together across this infinitesimal space. It is +quite possible that this is not the true explanation at all, but it +satisfies the mind because it is an explanation in terms of mechanical +forces that we know. + +The solar energy goes into the atoms or corpuscles one thing, and it +comes out another; it goes in as inorganic force, and it comes out as +organic and psychic. The change or transformation takes place in those +invisible laboratories of the infinitesimal atoms. It helps my mental +processes to give that change a name--vitality--and to recognize it as a +supra-mechanical force. Pasteur wanted a name for it and called it +"dissymmetric force." + +We are all made of one stuff undoubtedly, vegetable and animal, man and +woman, dog and donkey, and the secret of the difference between us, and +of the passing along of the difference from generation to generation +with but slight variations, may be, so to speak, in the way the +molecules and atoms of our bodies take hold of hands and perform their +mystic dances in the inner temple of life. But one would like to know +who or what pipes the tune and directs the figures of the dance. + +In the case of the beechnuts, what is it that lies dormant in the +substance of the nuts and becomes alive, under the influence of the +warmth and moisture of spring, and puts out a radicle that pierces the +dry leaves like an awl? The pebbles, though they contain the same +chemical elements, do not become active and put out a radicle. + +The chemico-physical explanation of the universe goes but a little way. +These are the tools of the creative process, but they are not that +process, nor its prime cause. Start the flame of life going, and the +rest may be explained in terms of chemistry; start the human body +developing, and physiological processes explain its growth; but why it +becomes a man and not a monkey--what explains that? + + + + +II + +THE LIVING WAVE + + +I + +If one attempts to reach any rational conclusion on the question of the +nature and origin of life on this planet, he soon finds himself in close +quarters with two difficulties. He must either admit of a break in the +course of nature and the introduction of a new principle, the vital +principle, which, if he is a man of science, he finds it hard to do; or +he must accept the theory of the physico-chemical origin of life, which, +as a being with a soul, he finds it equally hard to do. In other words, +he must either draw an arbitrary line between the inorganic and the +organic when he knows that drawing arbitrary lines in nature, and +fencing off one part from another, is an unscientific procedure, and one +that often leads to bewildering contradictions; or he must look upon +himself with all his high thoughts and aspirations, and upon all other +manifestations of life, as merely a chance product of the blind +mechanical and chemical action and interaction of the inorganic forces. + +Either conclusion is distasteful. One does not like to think of himself +as a chance hit of the irrational physical elements; neither does he +feel at ease with the thought that he is the result of any break or +discontinuity in natural law. He likes to see himself as vitally and +inevitably related to the physical order as is the fruit to the tree +that bore it, or the child to the mother that carried it in her womb, +and yet, if only mechanical and chemical forces entered into his +genesis, he does not feel himself well fathered and mothered. + +One may evade the difficulty, as Helmholtz did, by regarding life as +eternal--that it had no beginning in time; or, as some other German +biologists have done, that the entire cosmos is alive and the earth a +living organism. + +If biogenesis is true, and always has been true,--no life without +antecedent life,--then the question of a beginning is unthinkable. It is +just as easy to think of a stick with only one end. + +Such stanch materialists and mechanists as Haeckel and Verworn seem to +have felt compelled, as a last resort, to postulate a psychic principle +in nature, though of a low order. Haeckel says that most chemists and +physicists will not hear a word about a "soul" in the atom. "In my +opinion, however," he says, "in order to explain the simplest physical +and chemical processes, we must necessarily assume a low order of +psychical activity among the homogeneous particles of plasm, rising a +very little above that of the crystal." In crystallization he sees a +low degree of sensation and a little higher degree in the plasm. + +Have we not in this rudimentary psychic principle which Haeckel ascribes +to the atom a germ to start with that will ultimately give us the mind +of man? With this spark, it seems to me, we can kindle a flame that will +consume Haeckel's whole mechanical theory of creation. Physical science +is clear that the non-living or inorganic world was before the living or +organic world, but that the latter in some mysterious way lay folded in +the former. Science has for many years been making desperate efforts to +awaken this slumbering life in its laboratories, but has not yet +succeeded, and probably never will succeed. Life without antecedent life +seems a biological impossibility. The theory of spontaneous generation +is rejected by the philosophical mind, because our experience tells us +that everything has its antecedent, and that there is and can be no end +to the causal sequences. + +Spencer believes that the organic and inorganic fade into each other by +insensible gradations--that no line can be drawn between them so that +one can say, on this side is the organic, on that the inorganic. In +other words, he says it is not necessary for us to think of an absolute +commencement of organic life, or of a first organism--organic matter was +not produced all at once, but was reached through steps or gradations. +Yet it puzzles one to see how there can be any gradations or degrees +between being and not being. Can there be any halfway house between +something and nothing? + + +II + +There is another way out of the difficulty that besets our rational +faculties in their efforts to solve this question, and that is the +audacious way of Henri Bergson in his "Creative Evolution." It is to +deny any validity to the conclusion of our logical faculties upon this +subject. Our intellect, Bergson says, cannot grasp the true nature of +life, nor the meaning of the evolutionary movement. With the emphasis of +italics he repeats that "_the intellect is characterized by a natural +inability to comprehend life_." He says this in a good many pages and in +a good many different ways; the idea is one of the main conclusions of +his book. Our intuitions, our spiritual nature, according to this +philosopher, are more _en rapport_ with the secrets of the creative +energy than are our intellectual faculties; the key to the problem is to +be found here, rather than in the mechanics and chemistry of the latter. +Our intellectual faculties can grasp the physical order because they are +formed by a world of solids and fluids and give us the power to deal +with them and act upon them. But they cannot grasp the nature and the +meaning of the vital order. + +"We treat the living like the lifeless, and think all reality, however +fluid, under the form of the sharply defined solid. We are at ease only +in the discontinuous, in the immobile, in the dead. Perceiving in an +organism only parts external to parts, the understanding has the choice +between two systems of explanation only: either to regard the infinitely +complex (and thereby infinitely well contrived) organization as a +fortuitous concatenation of atoms, or to relate it to the +incomprehensible influence of an external force that has grouped its +elements together." + +"Everything is obscure in the idea of creation, if we think of things +which are created and a thing which creates." If we follow the lead of +our logical, scientific faculties, then, we shall all be mechanists and +materialists. Science can make no other solution of the problem because +it sees from the outside. But if we look from the inside, with the +spirit or "with that faculty of seeing which is immanent in the faculty +of acting," we shall escape from the bondage of the mechanistic view +into the freedom of the larger truth of the ceaseless creative view; we +shall see the unity of the creative impulse which is immanent in life +and which, "passing through generations, links individuals with +individuals, species with species, and makes of the whole series of the +living one single immense wave flowing over matter." + +I recall that Tyndall, who was as much poet as scientist, speaks of +life as a wave "which at no two consecutive moments of its existence is +composed of the same particles." In his more sober scientific mood +Tyndall would doubtless have rejected M. Bergson's view of life, yet his +image of the wave is very Bergsonian. But what different meanings the +two writers aim to convey: Tyndall is thinking of the fact that a living +body is constantly taking up new material on the one side and dropping +dead or outworn material on the other. M. Bergson's mind is occupied +with the thought of the primal push or impulsion of matter which travels +through it as the force in the wave traverses the water. The wave +embodies a force which lifts the water up in opposition to its tendency +to seek and keep a level, and travels on, leaving the water behind. So +does this something we call life break the deadlock of inert matter and +lift it into a thousand curious and beautiful forms, and then, passing +on, lets it fall back again into a state of dead equilibrium. + +Tyndall was one of the most eloquent exponents of the materialistic +theory of the origin of life, and were he living now would probably feel +little or no sympathy with the Bergsonian view of a primordial life +impulse. He found the key to all life phenomena in the hidden world of +molecular attraction and repulsion. He says: "Molecular forces determine +the form which the solar energy will assume. [What a world of mystery +lies in that determinism of the hidden molecular forces!] In the +separation of the carbon and oxygen this energy may be so conditioned as +to result in one case in the formation of a cabbage and in another case +in the formation of an oak. So also as regards the reunion of the carbon +and the oxygen [in the animal organism] the molecular machinery through +which the combining energy acts may in one case weave the texture of a +frog, while in another it may weave the texture of a man." + +But is not this molecular force itself a form of solar energy, and can +it differ in kind from any other form of physical force? If molecular +forces determine whether the solar energy shall weave a head of a +cabbage or a head of a Plato or a Shakespeare, does it not meet all the +requirements of our conception of creative will? + +Tyndall thinks that a living man--Socrates, Aristotle, Goethe, Darwin, I +suppose--could be produced directly from inorganic nature in the +laboratory if (and note what a momentous "if" this is) we could put +together the elements of such a man in the same relative positions as +those which they occupy in his body, "with the selfsame forces and +distribution of forces, the selfsame motions and distribution of +motions." Do this and you have a St. Paul or a Luther or a Lincoln. Dr. +Verworn said essentially the same thing in a lecture before one of our +colleges while in this country a few years ago--easy enough to +manufacture a living being of any order of intellect if you can +reproduce in the laboratory his "internal and external _vital +conditions_." (The italics are mine.) To produce those vital conditions +is where the rub comes. Those vital conditions, as regards the minutest +bit of protoplasm, science, with all her tremendous resources, has not +yet been able to produce. The raising of Lazarus from the dead seems no +more a miracle than evoking vital conditions in dead matter. External +and internal vital conditions are no doubt inseparably correlated, and +when we can produce them we shall have life. Life, says Verworn, is like +fire, and "is a phenomenon of nature which appears as soon as the +complex of its conditions is fulfilled." We can easily produce fire by +mechanical and chemical means, but not life. Fire is a chemical process, +it is rapid oxidation, and oxidation is a disintegrating process, while +life is an integrating process, or a balance maintained between the two +by what we call the vital force. Life is evidently a much higher form of +molecular activity than combustion. The old Greek Heraclitus saw, and +the modern scientist sees, very superficially in comparing the two. + +I have no doubt that Huxley was right in his inference "that if the +properties of matter result from the nature and disposition of its +component molecules, then there is no intelligible ground for refusing +to say that the properties of protoplasm result from the nature and +disposition of its molecules." It is undoubtedly in that nature and +disposition of the biological molecules that Tyndall's whole "mystery +and miracle of vitality" is wrapped up. If we could only grasp what it +is that transforms the molecule of dead matter into the living molecule! +Pasteur called it "dissymmetric force," which is only a new name for the +mystery. He believed there was an "irrefragable physical barrier between +organic and inorganic nature"--that the molecules of an organism +differed from those of a mineral, and for this difference he found a +name. + + +III + +There seems to have been of late years a marked reaction, even among men +of science, from the mechanistic conception of life as held by the band +of scientists to which I have referred. Something like a new vitalism is +making headway both on the Continent and in Great Britain. Its exponents +urge that biological problems "defy any attempt at a mechanical +explanation." These men stand for the idea "of the creative +individuality of organisms" and that the main factors in organic +evolution cannot be accounted for by the forces already operative in the +inorganic world. + +There is, of course, a mathematical chance that in the endless changes +and permutations of inert matter the four principal elements that make +up a living body may fall or run together in just that order and number +that the kindling of the flame of life requires, but it is a disquieting +proposition. One atom too much or too little of any of them,--three of +oxygen where two were required, or two of nitrogen where only one was +wanted,--and the face of the world might have been vastly different. Not +only did much depend on their coming together, but upon the order of +their coming; they must unite in just such an order. Insinuate an atom +or corpuscle of hydrogen or carbon at the wrong point in the ranks, and +the trick is a failure. Is there any chance that they will hit upon a +combination of things and forces that will make a machine--a watch, a +gun, or even a row of pins? + +When we regard all the phenomena of life and the spell it seems to put +upon inert matter, so that it behaves so differently from the same +matter before it is drawn into the life circuit, when we see how it +lifts up a world of dead particles out of the soil against gravity into +trees and animals; how it changes the face of the earth; how it comes +and goes while matter stays; how it defies chemistry and physics to +evoke it from the non-living; how its departure, or cessation, lets the +matter fall back to the inorganic--when we consider these and others +like them, we seem compelled to think of life as something, some force +or principle in itself, as M. Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge do, existing +apart from the matter it animates. + +Sir Oliver Lodge, famous physicist that he is, yet has a vein of +mysticism and idealism in him which sometimes makes him recoil from the +hard-and-fast interpretations of natural phenomena by physical science. +Like M. Bergson, he sees in life some tendency or impetus which arose in +matter at a definite time and place, "and which has continued to +interact with and incarnate itself in matter ever since." + +If a living body is a machine, then we behold a new kind of machine with +new kinds of mechanical principles--a machine that repairs itself, that +reproduces itself, a clock that winds itself up, an engine that stokes +itself, a gun that aims itself, a machine that divides and makes two, +two unite and make four, a million or more unite and make a man or a +tree--a machine that is nine tenths water, a machine that feeds on other +machines, a machine that grows stronger with use; in fact, a machine +that does all sorts of unmechanical things and that no known combination +of mechanical and chemical principles can reproduce--a vital machine. +The idea of the vital as something different from and opposed to the +mechanical must come in. Something had to be added to the mechanical and +chemical to make the vital. + +Spencer explains in terms of physics why an ox is larger than the sheep, +but he throws no light upon the subject of the individuality of these +animals--what it is that makes an ox an ox or a sheep a sheep. These +animals are built up out of the same elements by the same processes, and +they may both have had the same stem form in remote biologic time. If +so, what made them diverge and develop into such totally different +forms? After the living body is once launched many, if not all, of its +operations and economies can be explained on principles of mechanics and +chemistry, but the something that avails itself of these principles and +develops an ox in the one case and a sheep in the other--what of that? + +Spencer is forced into using the terms "amount of vital capital." How +much more of it some men, some animals, some plants have than others! +What is it? What did Spencer mean by it? This capital augments from +youth to manhood, and then after a short or long state of equilibrium +slowly declines to the vanishing-point. + +Again, what a man does depends upon what he is, and what he is depends +upon what he does. Structure determines function, and function reacts +upon structure. This interaction goes on throughout life; cause and +effect interchange or play into each other's hands. The more power we +spend within limits the more power we have. This is another respect in +which life is utterly unmechanical. A machine does not grow stronger by +use as our muscles do; it does not store up or conserve the energy it +expends. The gun is weaker by every ball it hurls; not so the baseball +pitcher; he is made stronger up to the limit of his capacity for +strength. + +It is plain enough that all living beings are machines in this +respect--they are kept going by the reactions between their interior and +their exterior; these reactions are either mechanical, as in flying, +swimming, walking, and involve gravitation, or they are chemical and +assimilative, as in breathing and eating. To that extent all living +things are machines--some force exterior to themselves must aid in +keeping them going; there is no spontaneous or uncaused movement in +them; and yet what a difference between a machine and a living thing! + +True it is that a man cannot live and function without heat and oxygen, +nor long without food, and yet his relation to his medium and +environment is as radically different from that of the steam-engine as +it is possible to express. His driving-wheel, the heart, acts in +response to some stimulus as truly as does the piston of the engine, and +the principles involved in circulation are all mechanical; and yet the +main thing is not mechanical, but vital. Analyze the vital activities +into principles of mechanics and of chemistry, if you will, yet there is +something involved that is neither mechanical nor chemical, though it +may be that only the imagination can grasp it. + +The type that prints the book is set up and again distributed by a +purely mechanical process, but that which the printed page signifies +involves something not mechanical. The mechanical and chemical +principles operative in men's bodies are all the same; the cell +structure is the same, and yet behold the difference between men in +size, in strength, in appearance, in temperament, in disposition, in +capacities! All the processes of respiration, circulation, and nutrition +in our bodies involve well-known mechanical principles, and the body is +accurately described as a machine; and yet if there were not something +in it that transcends mechanics and chemistry would you and I be here? A +machine is the same whether it is in action or repose, but when a body +ceases to function, it is not the same. It cannot be set going like a +machine; the motor power has ceased to be. But if the life of the body +were no more than the sum of the reactions existing between the body and +the medium in which it lives, this were not so. A body lives as long as +there is a proper renewal of the interior medium through exchanges with +its environment. + +Mechanical principles are operative in every part of the body--in the +heart, in the arteries, in the limbs, in the joints, in the bowels, in +the muscles; and chemical principles are operative in the lungs, in the +stomach, in the liver, in the kidneys; but to all these things do we not +have to add something that is not mechanical or chemical to make the +man, to make the plant? A higher mechanics, a higher chemistry, if you +prefer, a force, but a force differing in kind from the physical forces. + +The forces of life are constructive forces, and work in a world of +disintegrating or destructive forces which oppose them and which they +overcome. The mechanical and the chemical forces of dead matter are the +enemies of the forces of life till life overcomes and uses them; as much +so as gravity, fire, frost, water are man's enemies till he has learned +how to subdue and use them. + + +IV + +It is a significant fact that the four chief elements which in various +combinations make up living bodies are by their extreme mobility well +suited to their purpose. Three of these are gaseous; only the carbon is +a solid. This renders them facile and adaptive in the ever-changing +conditions of organic evolution. The solid carbon forms the vessel in +which the precious essence of life is carried. Without carbon we should +evaporate or flow away and escape. Much of the oxygen and hydrogen +enters into living bodies as water; nine tenths of the human body is +water; a little nitrogen and a few mineral salts make up the rest. So +that our life in its final elements is little more than a stream of +water holding in solution carbonaceous and other matter and flowing, +forever flowing, a stream of fluid and solid matter plus something else +that scientific analysis cannot reach--some force or principle that +combines and organizes these elements into the living body. + +If a man could be reduced instantly into his constituent elements we +should see a pail or two of turbid fluid that would flow down the bank +and soon be lost in the soil. That which gives us our form and stability +and prevents us from slowly spilling down the slope at all times is the +mysterious vital principle or force which knits and marries these +unstable elements together and raises up a mobile but more or less +stable form out of the world of fluids. Venus rising from the sea is a +symbol of the genesis of every living thing. + +Inorganic matter seeks only rest. "Let me alone," it says; "do not break +my slumbers." But as soon as life awakens in it, it says: "Give me room, +get out of my way. Ceaseless activity, ceaseless change, a thousand new +forms are what I crave." As soon as life enters matter, matter meets +with a change of heart. It is lifted to another plane, the +supermechanical plane; it behaves in a new way; its movements from being +calculable become incalculable. A straight line has direction, that is +mechanics; what direction has the circle? That is life, a change of +direction every instant. An aeroplane is built entirely on mechanical +principles, but something not so built has to sit in it and guide it; in +fact, had to build it and adjust it to its end. + +Mechanical forces seek an equilibrium or a state of rest. The whole +inorganic world under the influence of gravity would flow as water +flows, if it could, till it reached a state of absolute repose. But +vital forces struggle against a state of repose, which to them means +death. They are vital by virtue of their tendency to resist the repose +of inert matter; chemical activity disintegrates a stone or other metal, +but the decay of organized matter is different in kind; living organisms +decompose it and resolve it into its original compounds. + +Vital connections and mechanical connections differ in kind. You can +treat mechanical principles mathematically, but can you treat life +mathematically? Will your formulas and equations apply here? You can +figure out the eclipses of the sun and moon for centuries to come, but +who can figure out the eclipses of nations or the overthrow of parties +or the failures of great men? And it is not simply because the problem +is so vastly more complex; it is because you are in a world where +mathematical principles do not apply. Mechanical forces will determine +the place and shape of every particle of inert matter any number of +years or centuries hence, but they will not determine the place and +condition of matter imbued with the principle of life. + +We can graft living matter, we can even graft a part of one animal's +body into another animal's body, but the mechanical union which we +bring about must be changed into vital union to be a success, the +spirit of the body has to second our efforts. The same in grafting a +tree or anything else: the mechanical union which we effect must become +a vital union; and this will not take place without some degree of +consanguinity, the live scion must be recognized and adapted by the +stock in which we introduce it. + +Living matter may be symbolized by a stream; it is ever and never the +same; life is a constant becoming; our minds and our bodies are never +the same at any two moments of time; life is ceaseless change. + +No doubt it is between the stable and the unstable condition of the +molecules of matter that life is born. The static condition to which all +things tend is death. Matter in an unstable condition tends either to +explode or to grow or to disintegrate. So that an explosion bears some +analogy to life, only it is quickly over and the static state of the +elements is restored. Life is an infinitely slower explosion, or a +prolonged explosion, during which some matter of the organism is being +constantly burned up, and thus returned to a state of inorganic repose, +while new matter is taken in and kindled and consumed by the fires of +life. One can visualize all this and make it tangible to the intellect. +Get your fire of life started and all is easy, but how to start it is +the rub. Get your explosive compound, and something must break the +deadlock of the elements before it will explode. So in life, what is it +that sets up this slow gentle explosion that makes the machinery of our +vital economies go--that draws new matter into the vortex and casts the +used-up material out--in short, that creates and keeps up the unstable +condition, the seesaw upon which life depends? To enable the mind to +grasp it we have to invent or posit some principle, call it the vital +force, as so many have done and still do, or call it molecular force, as +Tyndall does, or the power of God, as our orthodox brethren do, it +matters not. We are on the border-land between the knowable and the +unknowable, where the mind can take no further step. There is no life +without carbon and oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, but there is a world +of these elements without life. What must be added to them to set up the +reaction we call life? Nothing that chemistry can disclose. + +New tendencies and activities are set up among these elements, but the +elements themselves are not changed; oxygen is still oxygen and carbon +still carbon, yet behold the wonder of their new workmanship under the +tutelage of life! + +Life only appears when the stable passes into the unstable, yet this +change takes place all about us in our laboratories, and no life +appears. We can send an electric spark through a room full of oxygen and +hydrogen gas, and with a tremendous explosion we have water--an element +of life, but not life. + +Some of the elements seem nearer life than others. Water is near life; +heat, light, the colloid state are near life; osmosis, oxidation, +chemical reactions are near life; the ashes of inorganic bodies are +nearer life than the same minerals in the rocks and soil; but none of +these things is life. + +The chemical mixture of some of the elements gives us our high +explosives--gunpowder, guncotton, and the like; their organic mixture +gives a slower kind of explosive--bread, meat, milk, fruit, which, when +acted upon by the vital forces of the body, yield the force that is the +equivalent of the work the body does. But to combine them in the +laboratory so as to produce the compounds out of which the body can +extract force is impossible. We can make an unstable compound that will +hurl a ton of iron ten miles, but not one that when exploded in the +digestive tract of the human body will lift a hair. + +We may follow life down to the ground, yes, under the ground, into the +very roots of matter and motion, yea, beyond the roots, into the +imaginary world of molecules and atoms, and their attractions and +repulsions and not find its secret. Indeed, science--the new +science--pursues matter to the vanishing-point, where it ceases to +become matter and becomes pure force or spirit. What takes place in that +imaginary world where ponderable matter ends and becomes disembodied +force, and where the hypothetical atoms are no longer divisible, we may +conjecture but may never know. We may fancy the infinitely little going +through a cycle of evolution like that of the infinitely great, and +solar systems developing and revolving inside of the ultimate atoms, but +the Copernicus or the Laplace of the atomic astronomy has not yet +appeared. The atom itself is an invention of science. To get the mystery +of vitality reduced to the atom is getting it in very close quarters, +but it is a very big mystery still. Just how the dead becomes alive, +even in the atom, is mystery enough to stagger any scientific mind. It +is not the volume of the change; it is the quality or kind. Chemistry +and mechanics we have always known, and they always remain chemistry and +mechanics. They go into our laboratories and through our devices +chemistry and mechanics, and they come out chemistry and mechanics. They +will never come out life, conjure with them as we will, and we can get +no other result. We cannot inaugurate the mystic dance among the atoms +that will give us the least throb of life. + +The psychic arises out of the organic and the organic arises out of the +inorganic, and the inorganic arises out of--what? The relation of each +to the other is as intimate as that of the soul to the body; we cannot +get between them even in thought, but the difference is one of kind and +not of degree. The vital transcends the mechanical, and the psychic +transcends the vital--is on another plane, and yet without the sun's +energy there could be neither. Thus are things knit together; thus does +one thing flow out of or bloom out of another. We date from the rocks, +and the rocks date from the fiery nebulæ, and the loom in which the +texture of our lives was woven is the great loom of vital energy about +us and in us; but what hand guided the shuttle and invented the +pattern--who knows? + + + + +III + +A WONDERFUL WORLD + + +I + +Science recognizes a more fundamental world than that of matter. This is +the electro-magnetic world which underlies the material world and which, +as Professor Soddy says, probably completely embraces it, and has no +mechanical analogy. To those accustomed only to the grosser ideas of +matter and its motions, says the British scientist, this +electro-magnetic world is as difficult to conceive of as it would be for +us to walk upon air. Yet many times in our lives is this world in +overwhelming evidence before us. During a thunderstorm we get an inkling +of how fearfully and wonderfully the universe in which we live is made, +and what energy and activity its apparent passivity and opacity mark. A +flash of lightning out of a storm-cloud seems instantly to transform the +whole passive universe into a terrible living power. This slow, opaque, +indifferent matter about us and above us, going its silent or noisy +round of mechanical and chemical change, ponderable, insensate, +obstructive, slumbering in the rocks, quietly active in the soil, gently +rustling in the trees, sweetly purling in the brooks, slowly, invisibly +building and shaping our bodies--how could we ever dream that it held in +leash such a terrible, ubiquitous, spectacular thing as this of the +forked lightning? If we were to see and hear it for the first time, +should we not think that the Judgment Day had really come? that the +great seals of the Book of Fate were being broken? + +What an awakening it is! what a revelation! what a fearfully dramatic +actor suddenly leaps upon the stage! Had we been permitted to look +behind the scenes, we could not have found him; he was not there, except +potentially; he was born and equipped in a twinkling. One stride, and +one word which shakes the house, and he is gone; gone as quickly as he +came. Look behind the curtain and he is not there. He has vanished more +completely than any stage ghost ever vanished--he has withdrawn into the +innermost recesses of the atomic structure of matter, and is diffused +through the clouds, to be called back again, as the elemental drama +proceeds, as suddenly as before. + +All matter is charged with electricity, either actual or potential; the +sun is hot with it, and doubtless our own heart-beats, our own thinking +brains, are intimately related to it; yet it is palpable and visible +only in this sudden and extraordinary way. It defies our analysis, it +defies our definitions; it is inscrutable and incomprehensible, yet it +will do our errands, light our houses, cook our dinners, and pull our +loads. + +How humdrum and constant and prosaic the other forces--gravity, +cohesion, chemical affinity, and capillary attraction--seem when +compared with this force of forces, electricity! How deep and prolonged +it slumbers at one time, how terribly active and threatening at another, +bellowing through the heavens like an infuriated god seeking whom he may +destroy! + +The warring of the elements at such times is no figure of speech. What +has so disturbed the peace in the electric equilibrium, as to make +possible this sudden outburst, this steep incline in the stream of +energy, this ethereal Niagara pouring from heaven to earth? Is a +thunderstorm a display of the atomic energy of which the physicists +speak, and which, were it available for our use, would do all the work +of the world many times over? + +How marvelous that the softest summer breeze, or the impalpable currents +of the calmest day, can be torn asunder with such suddenness and +violence, by the accumulated energy that slumbers in the imaginary +atoms, as to give forth a sound like the rending of mountains or the +detonations of earthquakes! + +Electricity is the soul of matter. If Whitman's paradox is true, that +the soul and body are one, in the same sense the scientific paradox is +true: that matter and electricity are one, and both are doubtless a +phase of the universal ether--a reality which can be described only in +terms of the negation of matter. In a flash of lightning we see pure +disembodied energy--probably that which is the main-spring of the +universe. Modern science is more and more inclined to find the +explanation of all vital phenomena in electrical stress and change. We +know that an electric current will bring about chemical changes +otherwise impracticable. Nerve force, if not a form of electricity, is +probably inseparable from it. Chemical changes equivalent to the +combustion of fuel and the corresponding amount of available energy +released have not yet been achieved outside of the living body without +great loss. The living body makes a short cut from fuel to energy, and +this avoids the wasteful process of the engine. What part electricity +plays in this process is, of course, only conjectural. + + +II + +Our daily lives go on for the most part in two worlds, the world of +mechanical transposition and the world of chemical transformations, but +we are usually conscious only of the former. This is the visible, +palpable world of motion and change that rushes and roars around us in +the winds, the storms, the floods, the moving and falling bodies, and +the whole panorama of our material civilization; the latter is the +world of silent, invisible, unsleeping, and all-potent chemical +reactions that take place all about us and is confined to the atoms and +molecules of matter, as the former is confined to its visible +aggregates. + +Mechanical forces and chemical affinities rule our physical lives, and +indirectly our psychic lives as well. When we come into the world and +draw our first breath, mechanics and chemistry start us on our career. +Breathing is a mechanical, or a mechanico-vital, act; the mechanical +principle involved is the same as that involved in the working of a +bellows, but the oxidation of the blood when the air enters the lungs is +a chemical act, or a chemico-vital act. The air gives up a part of its +oxygen, which goes into the arterial circulation, and its place is taken +by carbonic-acid gas and watery vapor. The oxygen feeds and keeps going +the flame of life, as literally as it feeds and keeps going the fires in +our stoves and furnaces. + +Hence our most constant and vital relation to the world without is a +chemical one. We can go without food for some days, but we can exist +without breathing only a few moments. Through these spongy lungs of ours +we lay hold upon the outward world in the most intimate and constant +way. Through them we are rooted to the air. The air is a mechanical +mixture of two very unlike gases--nitrogen and oxygen; one very inert, +the other very active. Nitrogen is like a cold-blooded, lethargic +person--it combines with other substances very reluctantly and with but +little energy. Oxygen is just its opposite in this respect: it gives +itself freely; it is "Hail, fellow; well met!" with most substances, and +it enters into co-partnership with them on such a large scale that it +forms nearly one half of the material of the earth's crust. This +invisible gas, this breath of air, through the magic of chemical +combination, forms nearly half the substance of the solid rocks. Deprive +it of its affinity for carbon, or substitute nitrogen or hydrogen in its +place, and the air would quickly suffocate us. That changing of the dark +venous blood in our lungs into the bright, red, arterial blood would +instantly cease. Fancy the sensation of inhaling an odorless, +non-poisonous atmosphere that would make one gasp for breath! We should +be quickly poisoned by the waste of our own bodies. All things that live +must have oxygen, and all things that burn must have oxygen. Oxygen does +not burn, but it supports combustion. + +And herein is one of the mysteries of chemistry again. This support +which the oxygen gives is utterly unlike any support we are acquainted +with in the world of mechanical forces. Oxygen supports combustion by +combining chemically with carbon, and the evolution of heat and light is +the result. And this is another mystery--this chemical union which takes +place in the ultimate particles of matter and which is so radically +different from a mechanical mixture. In a chemical union the atoms are +not simply in juxtaposition; they are, so to speak, inside of one +another--each has swallowed another and lost its identity, an impossible +feat, surely, viewed in the light of our experiences with tangible +bodies. In the visible, mechanical world no two bodies can occupy the +same place at the same time, but apparently in chemistry they can and +do. An atom of oxygen and one of carbon, or of hydrogen, unite and are +lost in each other; it is a marriage wherein the two or three become +one. In dealing with the molecules and atoms of matter we are in a world +wherein the laws of solid bodies do not apply; friction is abolished, +elasticity is perfect, and place and form play no part. We have escaped +from matter as we know it, the solid, fluid, or gaseous forms, and are +dealing with it in its fourth or ethereal estate. In breathing, the +oxygen goes into the blood, not to stay there, but to unite with and +bring away the waste of the system in the shape of carbon, and re-enter +the air again as one of the elements of carbonic-acid gas, CO_{2}. Then +the reverse process takes place in the vegetable world, the leaves +breathe this poisonous gas, release the oxygen under the chemistry of +the sun's rays, and appropriate and store up the carbon. Thus do the +animal and vegetable worlds play into each other's hands. The animal is +dependent upon the vegetable for its carbon, which it releases again, +through the life processes, as carbonic-acid gas, to be again drawn into +the cycle of vegetable life. + +The act of breathing well illustrates our mysterious relations to +Nature--the cunning way in which she plays the principal part in our +lives without our knowledge. How certain we are that we draw the air +into our lungs--that we seize hold of it in some way as if it were a +continuous substance, and pull it into our bodies! Are we not also +certain that the pump sucks the water up through the pipe, and that we +suck our iced drinks through a straw? We are quite unconscious of the +fact that the weight of the superincumbent air does it all, that +breathing is only to a very limited extent a voluntary act. It is +controlled by muscular machinery, but that machinery would not act in a +vacuum. We contract the diaphragm, or the diaphragm contracts under +stimuli received through the medulla oblongata from those parts of the +body which constantly demand oxygen, and a vacuum tends to form in the +chest, which is constantly prevented by the air rushing in to fill it. +The expansive force of the air under its own weight causes the lungs to +fill, just as it causes the bellows of the blacksmith to fill when he +works the lever, and the water to rise in the pump when we force out the +air by working the handle. Another unconscious muscular effort under the +influence of nerve stimulus, and the air is forced out of the lungs, +charged with the bodily waste which it is the function to relieve. But +the wonder of it all is how slight a part our wills play in the process, +and how our lives are kept going by a mechanical force from without, +seconded or supplemented by chemical and vital forces from within. + +The one chemical process with which we are familiar all our lives, but +which we never think of as such, is fire. Here on our own hearthstones +goes on this wonderful spectacular and beneficent transformation of +matter and energy, and yet we are grown so familiar with it that it +moves us not. We can describe combustion in terms of chemistry, just as +we can describe the life-processes in similar terms, yet the mystery is +no more cleared up in the one case than in the other. Indeed, it seems +to me that next to the mystery of life is the mystery of fire. The +oxidizing processes are identical, only one is a building up or +integrating process, and the other is a pulling down or disintegrating +process. More than that, we can evoke fire any time, by both mechanical +and chemical means, from the combustible matter about us; but we cannot +evoke life. The equivalents of life do not slumber in our tools as do +the equivalents of fire. Hence life is the deeper mystery. The ancients +thought of a spirit of fire as they did of a spirit of health and of +disease, and of good and bad spirits all about them, and as we think of +a spirit of life, or of a creative life principle. Are we as wide of +the mark as they were? So think many earnest students of living things. +When we do not have to pass the torch of life along, but can kindle it +in our laboratories, then this charge will assume a different aspect. + + +III + +Nature works with such simple means! A little more or a little less of +this or that, and behold the difference! A little more or a little less +heat, and the face of the world is changed. + + "And the little more, and how much it is, + And the little less, and what worlds away!" + +At one temperature water is solid, at another it is fluid, at another it +is a visible vapor, at a still higher it is an invisible vapor that +burns like a flame. All possible shades of color lurk in a colorless ray +of light. A little more or a little less heat makes all the difference +between a nebula and a sun, and between a sun and a planet. At one +degree of heat the elements are dissociated; at a lower degree they are +united. At one point in the scale of temperatures life appears; at +another it disappears. With heat enough the earth would melt like a +snowball in a furnace, with still more it would become a vapor and float +away like a cloud. More or less heat only makes the difference between +the fluidity of water and the solidity of the rocks that it beats +against, or of the banks that hold it. + +The physical history of the universe is written in terms of heat and +motion. Astronomy is the story of cooling suns and worlds. At a low +enough temperature all chemical activity ceases. In our own experience +we find that frost will blister like flame. In the one case heat passes +into the tissues so quickly and in such quantity that a blister ensues; +in the other, heat is abstracted so quickly and in such quantity that a +like effect is produced. In one sense, life is a thermal phenomenon; so +are all conditions of fluids and solids thermal phenomena. + +Great wonders Nature seems to achieve by varying the arrangement of the +same particles. Arrange or unite the atoms of carbon in one way and you +have charcoal; assemble the same atoms in another order, and you have +the diamond. The difference between the pearl and the oyster-shell that +holds it is one of structure or arrangement of the same particles of +matter. Arrange the atoms of silica in one way and you have a quartz +pebble, in another way and you have a precious stone. The chemical +constituents of alcohol and ether are the same; the difference in their +qualities and properties arises from the way the elements are +compounded--the way they take hold of hands, so to speak, in that +marriage ceremony which constitutes a chemical compound. Compounds +identical in composition and in molecular formulæ may yet differ widely +in physical properties; the elements are probably grouped in different +ways, the atoms of carbon or of hydrogen probably carry different +amounts of potential energy, so that the order in which they stand +related to one another accounts for the different properties of the same +chemical compounds. Different groupings of the same atoms of any of the +elements result in a like difference of physical properties. + +The physicists tell us that what we call the qualities of things, and +their structure and composition, are but the expressions of internal +atomic movements. A complex substance simply means a whirl, an intricate +dance, of which chemical composition, histological structure, and gross +configuration are the figures. How the atoms take hold of hands, as it +were, the way they face, the poses they assume, the speed of their +gyrations, the partners they exchange, determine the kinds of phenomena +we are dealing with. + +There is a striking analogy between the letters of our alphabet and +their relation to the language of the vast volume of printed books, and +the eighty or more primary elements and their relation to the vast +universe of material things. The analogy may not be in all respects a +strictly true one, but it is an illuminating one. Our twenty-six letters +combined and repeated in different orders give us the many thousand +words our language possesses, and these words combined and repeated in +different orders give us the vast body of printed books in our +libraries. The ultimate parts--the atoms and molecules of all +literature, so to speak--are the letters of the alphabet. How often by +changing a letter in a word, by reversing their order, or by +substituting one letter for another, we get a word of an entirely +different meaning, as in umpire and empire, petrifaction and +putrefaction, malt and salt, tool and fool. And by changing the order of +the words in a sentence we express all the infinite variety of ideas and +meanings that the books of the world hold. + +The eighty or more primordial elements are Nature's alphabet with which +she writes her "infinite book of secrecy." Science shows pretty +conclusively that the character of the different substances, their +diverse qualities and properties, depend upon the order in which the +atoms and molecules are combined. Change the order in which the +molecules of the carbon and oxygen are combined in alcohol, and we get +ether--the chemical formula remaining the same. Or take ordinary spirits +of wine and add four more atoms of carbon to the carbon molecules, and +we have the poison, carbolic acid. Pure alcohol is turned into a deadly +poison by taking from it one atom of carbon and two of hydrogen. With +the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, by combining them in +different proportions and in different orders, Nature produces such +diverse bodies as acetic acid, alcohol, sugar, starch, animal fats, +vegetable oils, glycerine, and the like. So with the long list of +hydrocarbons--gaseous, liquid, and solid--called paraffins, that are +obtained from petroleum and that are all composed of hydrogen and +carbon, but with a different number of atoms of each, like a different +number of a's or b's or c's in a word. + +What an enormous number of bodies Nature forms out of oxygen by uniting +it chemically with other primary elements! Thus by uniting it with the +element silica she forms half of the solid crust of the globe; by +uniting it with hydrogen in the proportion of two to one she forms all +the water of the globe. With one atom of nitrogen united chemically with +three atoms of hydrogen she forms ammonia. With one atom of carbon +united with four atoms of hydrogen she spells marsh gas; and so on. +Carbon occurs in inorganic nature in two crystalline forms,--the diamond +and black lead, or graphite,--their physical differences evidently being +the result of their different molecular structure. Graphite is a good +conductor of heat and electricity, and the diamond is not. Carbon in the +organic world, where it plays such an important part, is +non-crystalline. Under the influence of life its molecules are +differently put together, as in sugar, starch, wood, charcoal, etc. +There are also two forms of phosphorus, but not two kinds; the same +atoms are probably united differently in each. The yellow waxy variety +has such an affinity for oxygen that it will burn in water, and it is +poisonous. Bring this variety to a high temperature away from the air, +and its molecular structure seems to change, and we have the red +variety, which is tasteless, odorless, and non-poisonous, and is not +affected by contact with the air. Such is the mystery of chemical +change. + + +IV + +Science has developed methods and implements of incredible delicacy. Its +"microbalance" can estimate "the difference of weight of the order of +the millionth of a milligram." Light travels at the speed of 186,000 +miles a second, yet science can follow it with its methods, and finds +that it travels faster with the current of running water than against +it. Science has perfected a thermal instrument by which it can detect +the heat of a lighted candle six miles away, and the warmth of the human +face several miles distant. It has devised a method by which it can +count the particles in the alpha rays of radium that move at a velocity +of twenty thousand kilometers a second, and a method by which, through +the use of a screen of zinc-sulphide, it can see the flashes produced by +the alpha atoms when they strike this screen. It weighs and counts and +calculates the motions of particles of matter so infinitely small that +only the imagination can grasp them. Its theories require it to treat +the ultimate particles into which it resolves matter, and which are so +small that they are no longer divisible, as if they were solid bodies +with weight and form, with centre and circumference, colliding with one +another like billiard-balls, or like cosmic bodies in the depths of +space, striking one another squarely, and, for aught I know, each going +through another, or else grazing one another and glancing off. To +particles of matter so small that they can no longer be divided or made +smaller, the impossible feat of each going through the centre of +another, or of each enveloping the other, might be affirmed of them +without adding to their unthinkableness. The theory is that if we divide +a molecule of water the parts are no longer water, but atoms of hydrogen +and oxygen--real bodies with weight and form, and storehouses of energy, +but no longer divisible. + +Indeed, the atomic theory of matter leads us into a non-material world, +or a world the inverse of the solid, three-dimensioned world that our +senses reveal to us, or to matter in a fourth estate. We know solids and +fluids and gases; but emanations which are neither we know only as we +know spirits and ghosts--by dreams or hearsay. Yet this fourth or +ethereal estate of matter seems to be the final, real, and fundamental +condition. + +How it differs from spirit is not easy to define. The beta ray of radium +will penetrate solid iron a foot thick, a feat that would give a spirit +pause. The ether of space, which science is coming more and more to look +upon as the mother-stuff of all things, has many of the attributes of +Deity. It is omnipresent and all-powerful. Neither time nor space has +dominion over it. It is the one immutable and immeasurable thing in the +universe. From it all things arise and to it they return. It is +everywhere and nowhere. It has none of the finite properties of +matter--neither parts, form, nor dimension; neither density nor tenuity; +it cannot be compressed nor expanded nor moved; it has no inertia nor +mass, and offers no resistance; it is subject to no mechanical laws, and +no instrument or experiment that science has yet devised can detect its +presence; it has neither centre nor circumference, neither extension nor +boundary. And yet science is as convinced of its existence as of the +solid ground beneath our feet. It is the one final reality in the +universe, if we may not say that it is the universe. Tremors or +vibrations in it reach the eye and make an impression that we call +light; electrical oscillations in it are the source of other phenomena. +It is the fountain-head of all potential energy. The ether is an +invention of the scientific imagination. We had to have it to account +for light, gravity, and the action of one body upon another at a +distance, as well as to account for other phenomena. The ether is not a +body, it is a medium. All bodies are in motion; matter moves; the ether +is in a state of absolute rest. Says Sir Oliver Lodge, "The ether is +strained, and has the property of exerting strain and recoil." An +electron is like a knot in the ether. The ether is the fluid of fluids, +yet its tension or strain is so great that it is immeasurably more dense +than anything else--a phenomenon that may be paralleled by a jet of +water at such speed that it cannot be cut with a sword or severed by a +hammer. It is so subtle or imponderable that solid bodies are as vacuums +to it, and so pervasive that all conceivable space is filled with it; +"so full," says Clerk Maxwell, "that no human power can remove it from +the smallest portion of space, or produce the slightest flaw in its +infinite continuity." + +The scientific imagination, in its attempts to master the workings of +the material universe, has thus given us a creation which in many of its +attributes rivals Omnipotence. It is the sum of all contradictions, and +the source of all reality. The gross matter which we see and feel is one +state of it; electricity, which is without form and void, is another +state of it; and our minds and souls, Sir Oliver Lodge intimates, may be +still another state of it. But all these theories of physical science +are justified by their fruits. The atomic theory of matter, and the +kinetic theory of gases, are mathematically demonstrated. However unreal +and fantastic they may appear to our practical faculties, conversant +only with ponderable bodies, they bear the test of the most rigid and +exact experimentation. + + +V + +After we have marveled over all these hidden things, and been impressed +by the world within world of the material universe, do we get any nearer +to the mystery of life? Can we see where the tremendous change from the +non-living to the living takes place? Can we evoke life from the +omnipotent ether, or see it arise in the whirling stream of atoms and +electrons? Molecular science opens up to us a world where the infinitely +little matches the infinitely great, where matter is dematerialized and +answers to many of the conceptions of spirit; but does it bring us any +nearer the origin of life? Is radio-active matter any nearer living +matter than is the clod under foot? Are the darting electrons any more +vital than the shooting-stars? Can a flash of radium emanations on a +zinc-sulphide plate kindle the precious spark? It is probably just as +possible to evoke vitality out of the clash of billiard-balls as out of +the clash of atoms and electrons. This allusion to billiard-balls +recalls to my mind a striking passage from Tyndall's famous Belfast +Address which he puts in the mouth of Bishop Butler in his imaginary +argument with Lucretius, and which shows how thoroughly Tyndall +appreciated the difficulties of his own position in advocating the +theory of the physico-chemical origin of life. + +The atomic and electronic theory of matter admits one to a world that +does indeed seem unreal and fantastic. "If my bark sinks," says the +poet, "'t is to another sea." If the mind breaks through what we call +gross matter, and explores its interior, it finds itself indeed in a +vast under or hidden world--a world almost as much a creation of the +imagination as that visited by Alice in Wonderland, except that the +existence of this world is capable of demonstration. It is a world of +the infinitely little which science interprets in terms of the +infinitely large. Sir Oliver Lodge sees the molecular spaces that +separate the particles of any material body relatively like the +interstellar spaces that separate the heavenly bodies. Just as all the +so-called solid matter revealed by our astronomy is almost infinitesimal +compared with the space through which it is distributed, so the +electrons which compose the matter with which we deal are comparable to +the bodies of the solar system moving in vast spaces. It is indeed a +fantastic world where science conceives of bodies a thousand times +smaller than the hydrogen atom--the smallest body known to science; +where it conceives of vibrations in the ether millions of millions times +a second; where we are bombarded by a shower of corpuscles from a +burning candle, or a gas-jet, or a red-hot iron surface, moving at the +speed of one hundred thousand miles a second! But this almost omnipotent +ether has, after all, some of the limitations of the finite. It takes +time to transmit the waves of light from the sun and the stars. This +measurable speed, says Sir Oliver Lodge, gives the ether away, and shows +its finite character. + +It seems as if the theory of the ether must be true, because it fits in +so well with the enigmatic, contradictory, incomprehensible character of +the universe as revealed to our minds. We can affirm and deny almost +anything of the ether--that it is immaterial, and yet the source of all +material; that it is absolutely motionless, yet the cause of all motion; +that it is the densest body in nature, and yet the most rarified; that +it is everywhere, but defies detection; that it is as undiscoverable as +the Infinite itself; that our physics cannot prove it, though they +cannot get along without it. The ether inside a mass of iron or of lead +is just as dense as the ether outside of it--which means that it is not +dense at all, in our ordinary use of the term. + + +VI + +There are physical changes in matter, there are chemical changes, and +there is a third change, as unlike either of these as they are unlike +each other. I refer to atomic change, as in radio-activity, which gives +us lead from helium--a spontaneous change of the atoms. The energy that +keeps the earth going, says Soddy, is to be sought for in the individual +atoms; not in the great heaven-shaking voice of thunder, but in the +still small voice of the atoms. Radio-activity is the mainspring of the +universe. The only elements so far known that undergo spontaneous change +are uranium and thorium. One pound of uranium contains and slowly gives +out the same amount of energy that a hundred tons of coal evolves in its +combustion, but only one ten-billionth part of this amount is given out +every year. + +Man, of course, reaps where he has not sown. How could it be otherwise? +It takes energy to sow or plant energy. We are exhausting the coal, the +natural gas, the petroleum of the rocks, the fertility of the soil. But +we cannot exhaust the energy of the winds or the tides, or of falling +water, because this energy is ever renewed by gravity and the sun. There +can be no exhaustion of our natural mechanical and chemical resources, +as some seem to fear. + +I recently visited a noted waterfall in the South where electric power +is being developed on a large scale. A great column of water makes a +vertical fall of six hundred feet through a steel tube, and in the fall +develops two hundred and fifty thousand horse-power. The water comes out +of the tunnel at the bottom, precisely the same water that went in at +the top; no change whatever has occurred in it, yet a vast amount of +power has been taken out of it, or, rather, generated by its fall. +Another drop of six hundred feet would develop as much more; in fact, +the process may be repeated indefinitely, the same amount of power +resulting each time, without effecting any change in the character of +the water. The pull of gravity is the source of the power which is +distributed hundreds of miles across the country as electricity. Two +hundred and fifty thousand invisible, immaterial, noiseless horses are +streaming along these wires with incredible speed to do the work of men +and horses in widely separated parts of the country. A river of sand +falling down those tubes, if its particles moved among themselves with +the same freedom that those of the water do, would develop the same +power. The attraction of gravitation is not supposed to be electricity, +and yet here out of its pull upon the water comes this enormous voltage! +The fact that such a mysterious and ubiquitous power as electricity can +be developed from the action of matter without any alteration in its +particles, suggests the question whether or not this something that we +call life, or life-force, may not slumber in matter in the same way; but +the secret of its development we have not yet learned, as we have that +of electricity. + +Radio-activity is uninfluenced by external conditions; hence we are thus +far unable to control it. Nothing that is known will effect the +transmutation of one element into another. It is spontaneous and +uncontrollable. May not life be spontaneous in the same sense? + +The release of the energy associated with the structure of the atoms is +not available by any of our mechanical appliances. The process of +radio-activity involves the expulsion of atoms of helium with a velocity +three hundred times greater than that ever previously known for any +material mass or particle, and this power we are incompetent to use. The +atoms remain unchanged amid the heat and pressure of the laboratory of +nature. Iron and oxygen and so forth remain the same in the sun as here +on the earth. + +Science strips gross matter of its grossness. When it is done with it, +it is no longer the obstructive something we know and handle; it is +reduced to pure energy--the line between it and spirit does not exist. +We have found that bodies are opaque only to certain rays; the X-ray +sees through this too too solid flesh. Bodies are ponderable only to our +dull senses; to a finer hand than this the door or the wall might offer +no obstruction; a finer eye than this might see the emanations from the +living body; a finer ear might hear the clash of electrons in the air. +Who can doubt, in view of what we already know, that forces and +influences from out the heavens above, and from the earth beneath, that +are beyond our ken, play upon us constantly? + +The final mystery of life is no doubt involved in conditions and forces +that are quite outside of or beyond our conscious life activities, in +forces that play about us and upon and through us, that we know not of, +because a knowledge of them is not necessary to our well-being. "Our +eye takes in only an octave of the vibrations we call light," because no +more is necessary for our action or our dealing with things. The +invisible rays of the spectrum are potent, but they are beyond the ken +of our senses. There are sounds or sound vibrations that we do not hear; +our sense of touch cannot recognize a gossamer, or the gentler air +movements. + +I began with the contemplation of the beauty and terror of the +thunderbolt--"God's autograph," as one of our poets (Joel Benton) said, +"written upon the sky." Let me end with an allusion to another aspect of +the storm that has no terror in it--the bow in the clouds: a sudden +apparition, a cosmic phenomenon no less wonderful and startling than the +lightning's flash. The storm with terror and threatened destruction on +one side of it, and peace and promise on the other! The bow appears like +a miracle, but it is a commonplace of nature; unstable as life, and +beautiful as youth. The raindrops are not changed, the light is not +changed, the laws of the storms are not changed; and yet, behold this +wonder! + +But all these strange and beautiful phenomena springing up in a world of +inert matter are but faint symbols of the mystery and the miracle of the +change of matter from the non-living to the living, from the elements in +the clod to the same elements in the brain and heart of man. + + + + +IV + +THE BAFFLING PROBLEM + + +I + +Still the problem of living things haunts my mind and, let me warn my +reader, will continue to haunt it throughout the greater part of this +volume. The final truth about it refuses to be spoken. Every effort to +do so but gives one new evidence of how insoluble the problem is. + +In this world of change is there any other change to be compared with +that in matter, from the dead to the living?--a change so great that +most minds feel compelled to go outside of matter and invoke some +super-material force or agent to account for it. The least of living +things is so wonderful, the phenomena it exhibits are so fundamentally +unlike those of inert matter, that we invent a word for it, _vitality_; +and having got the word, we conceive of a vital force or principle to +explain vital phenomena. Hence vitalism--a philosophy of living things, +more or less current in the world from Aristotle's time down to our own. +It conceives of something in nature super-mechanical and super-chemical, +though inseparably bound up with these things. There is no life without +material and chemical forces, but material and chemical forces do not +hold the secret of life. This is vitalism as opposed to mechanism, or +scientific materialism, which is the doctrine of the all-sufficiency of +the physical forces operating in the inorganic world to give rise to all +the phenomena of the organic world--a doctrine coming more and more in +vogue with the progress of physical science. Without holding to any +belief in the supernatural or the teleological, and while adhering to +the idea that there has been, and can be, no break in the causal +sequence in this world, may one still hold to some form of vitalism, and +see in life something more than applied physics and chemistry? + +Is biology to be interpreted in the same physical and chemical terms as +geology? Are biophysics and geophysics one and the same? One may freely +admit that there cannot be two kinds of physics, nor two kinds of +chemistry--not one kind for a rock, and another kind for a tree, or a +man. There are not two species of oxygen, nor two of carbon, nor two of +hydrogen and nitrogen--one for living and one for dead matter. The water +in the human body is precisely the same as the water that flows by in +the creek or that comes down when it rains; and the sulphur and the lime +and the iron and the phosphorus and the magnesium are identical, so far +as chemical analysis can reveal, in the organic and the inorganic +worlds. But are we not compelled to think of a kind of difference +between a living and a non-living body that we cannot fit into any of +the mechanical or chemical concepts that we apply to the latter? +Professor Loeb, with his "Mechanistic Conception of Life"; Professor +Henderson, of Harvard, with his "Fitness of the Environment"; Professor +Le Dantec, of the Sorbonne in Paris, with his volume on "The Nature and +Origin of Life," published a few years since; Professor Schäfer, +President of the British Association, Professor Verworn of Bonn, and +many others find in the laws and properties of matter itself a +sufficient explanation of all the phenomena of life. They look upon the +living body as only the sum of its physical and chemical activities; +they do not seem to feel the need of accounting for life itself--for +that something which confers vitality upon the heretofore non-vital +elements. That there is new behavior, that there are new chemical +compounds called organic,--tens of thousands of them not found in +inorganic nature,--that there are new processes set up in aggregates of +matter,--growth, assimilation, metabolism, reproduction, thought, +emotion, science, civilization,--no one denies. + +How are we going to get these things out of the old physics and +chemistry without some new factor or agent or force? To help ourselves +out here with a "vital principle," or with spirit, or a creative +impulse, as Bergson does, seems to be the only course open to certain +types of mind. Positive science cannot follow us in this step, because +science is limited to the verifiable. The stream of forces with which it +deals is continuous; it must find the physical equivalents of all the +forces that go into the body in the output of the body, and it cannot +admit of a life force which it cannot trace to the physical forces. + +What has science done to clear up this mystery of vitality? Professor +Loeb, our most eminent experimental biologist, has succeeded in +fertilizing the eggs of some low forms of sea life by artificial means; +and in one instance, at least, it is reported that the fatherless form +grew to maturity. This is certainly an interesting fact, but takes us no +nearer the solution of the mystery of vitality than the fact that +certain chemical compounds may stimulate the organs of reproduction +helps to clear up the mystery of generation; or the fact that certain +other chemical compounds help the digestive and assimilative processes +and further the metabolism of the body assists in clearing up the +mystery that attaches to these things. In all such cases we have the +living body to begin with. The egg of the sea-urchin and the egg of the +jelly-fish are living beings that responded to certain chemical +substances, so that a process is set going in their cell life that is +equivalent to fertilization. It seems to me that the result of all +Professor Loeb's valuable inquiries is only to give us a more intimate +sense of how closely mechanical and chemical principles are associated +and identified with all the phenomena of life and with all animal +behavior. Given a living organism, mechanics and chemistry will then +explain much of its behavior--practically all the behavior of the lower +organisms, and much of that of the higher. Even when we reach man, our +reactions to the environment and to circumstances play a great part in +our lives; but dare we say that will, liberty of choice, ideation, do +not play a part also? How much reality there is in the so-called animal +will, is a problem; but that there is a foundation for our belief in the +reality of the human will, I, for one, do not for a moment doubt. The +discontinuity here is only apparent and not real. We meet with the same +break when we try to get our mental states, our power of thought--a +poem, a drama, a work of art, a great oration--out of the food we eat; +but life does it, though our science is none the wiser for it. Our +physical life forms a closed circle, science says, and what goes into +our bodies as physical force, must come out in physical force, or as +some of its equivalents. Well, one of the equivalents, transformed by +some unknown chemism within us, is our psychic force, or states of +consciousness. The two circles, the physical and the psychical, are not +concentric, as Fiske fancied, but are linked in some mysterious way. + +Professor Loeb is a master critic of the life processes; he and his +compeers analyze them as they have never been analyzed before; but the +solution of the great problem of life that we are awaiting does not +come. A critic may resolve all of Shakespeare's plays into their +historic and other elements, but that will not account for Shakespeare. +Nature's synthesis furnishes occasions for our analysis. Most assuredly +all psychic phenomena have a physical basis; we know the soul only +through the body; but that they are all of physico-chemical origin, is +another matter. + + +II + +Biological science has hunted the secret of vitality like a detective; +and it has done some famous work; but it has not yet unraveled the +mystery. It knows well the part played by carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen +in organic chemistry, that without water and carbon dioxide there could +be no life; it knows the part played by light, air, heat, gravity, +osmosis, chemical affinity, and all the hundreds or thousands of organic +compounds; it knows the part played by what are called the enzymes, or +ferments, in all living bodies, but it does not know the secret of these +ferments; it knows the part played by colloids, or jelly-like compounds, +that there is no living body without colloids, though there are colloid +bodies that are not living; it knows the part played by oxidation, that +without it a living body ceases to function, though everywhere all about +us is oxidation without life; it knows the part played by chlorophyll in +the vegetable kingdom, and yet how chlorophyll works such magic upon the +sun's rays, using the solar energy to fix the carbon of carbonic acid in +the air, and thereby storing this energy as it is stored in wood and +coal and in much of the food we consume, is a mystery. Chemistry cannot +repeat the process in its laboratories. The fungi do not possess this +wonderful chlorophyllian power, and hence cannot use the sunbeam to +snatch their carbon from the air; they must get it from decomposed +vegetable matter; they feed, as the animals do, upon elements that have +gone through the cycle of vegetable life. The secret of vegetable life, +then, is in the green substance of the leaf where science is powerless +to unlock it. Conjure with the elements as it may, it cannot produce the +least speck of living matter. It can by synthesis produce many of the +organic compounds, but only from matter that has already been through +the organic cycle. It has lately produced rubber, but from other +products of vegetable life. + +As soon as the four principal elements, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and +nitrogen, that make up the living body, have entered the world of living +matter, their activities and possible combinations enormously increase; +they enter into new relations with one another and form compounds of +great variety and complexity, characterized by the instability which +life requires. The organic compounds are vastly more sensitive to light +and heat and air than are the same elements in the inorganic world. What +has happened to them? Chemistry cannot tell us. Oxidation, which is only +slow combustion, is the main source of energy in the body, as it is in +the steam-engine. The storing of the solar energy, which occurs only in +the vegetable, is by a process of reduction, that is, the separation of +the carbon and oxygen in carbonic acid and water. The chemical reactions +which liberate energy in the body are slow; in dead matter they are +rapid and violent, or explosive and destructive. It is the chemistry in +the leaf of the plant that diverts or draws the solar energy into the +stream of life, and how it does it is a mystery. + +The scientific explanations of life phenomena are all after the fact; +they do not account for the fact; they start with the ready-made +organism and then reduce its activities and processes to their physical +equivalents. Vitality is given, and then the vital processes are fitted +into mechanical and chemical concepts, or into moulds derived from inert +matter--not a difficult thing to do, but no more an explanation of the +mystery of vitality than a painting or a marble bust of Tyndall would be +an explanation of that great scientist. + +All Professor Loeb's experiments and criticisms throw light upon the +life processes, or upon the factors that take part in them, but not upon +the secret of the genesis of the processes themselves. Amid all the +activities of his mechanical and chemical factors, there is ever present +a factor which he ignores, which his analytical method cannot seize; +namely, what Verworn calls "the specific energy of living substance." +Without this, chemism and mechanism would work together to quite other +ends. The water in the wave, and the laws that govern it, do not differ +at all from the water and its laws that surround it; but unless one +takes into account the force that makes the wave, an analysis of the +phenomena will leave one where he began. + +Professor Le Dantec leaves the subject where he took it up, with the +origin of life and the life processes unaccounted for. His work is a +description, and not an explanation. All our ideas about vitality, or an +unknown factor in the organic world, he calls "mystic" and unscientific. +A sharp line of demarcation between living and non-living bodies is not +permissible. This, he says, is the anthropomorphic error which puts some +mysterious quality or force in all bodies considered to be living. To Le +Dantec, the difference between the quick and the dead is of the same +order as the difference which exists between two chemical compounds--for +example, as that which exists between alcohol and an aldehyde, a liquid +that has two less atoms of hydrogen in its composition. Modify your +chemistry a little, add or subtract an atom or two, more or less, of +this or that gas, and dead matter thrills into life, or living matter +sinks to the inert. In other words, life is the gift of chemistry, its +particular essence is of the chemical order--a bold inference from the +fact that there is no life without chemical reactions, no life without +oxidation. Yet chemical reactions in the laboratory cannot produce life. +With Le Dantec, biology, like geology and astronomy, is only applied +mechanics and chemistry. + + +III + +Such is the result of the rigidly objective study of life--the only +method analytical science can pursue. The conception of vitality as a +factor in itself answers to nothing that the objective study of life can +disclose; such a study reveals a closed circle of physical forces, +chemical and mechanical, into which no immaterial force or principle can +find entrance. "The fact of being conscious," Le Dantec says with +emphasis, "does not intervene in the slightest degree in directing vital +movements." But common sense and everyday observation tell us that +states of consciousness do influence the bodily processes--influence the +circulation, the digestion, the secretions, the respiration. + +An objective scientific study of a living body yields results not +unlike those which we might get from an objective study of a book +considered as something fabricated--its materials, its construction, its +typography, its binding, the number of its chapters and pages, and so +on--without giving any heed to the meaning of the book--its ideas, the +human soul and personality that it embodies, the occasion that gave rise +to it, indeed all its subjective and immaterial aspects. All these +things, the whole significance of the volume, would elude scientific +analysis. It would seem to be a manufactured article, representing only +so much mechanics and chemistry. It is the same with the living body. +Unless we permit ourselves to go behind the mere facts, the mere +mechanics and chemistry of life phenomena, and interpret them in the +light of immaterial principles, in short, unless we apply some sort of +philosophy to them, the result of our analysis will be but dust in our +eyes, and ashes in our mouths. Unless there is something like mind or +intelligence pervading nature, some creative and transforming impulse +that cannot be defined by our mechanical concepts, then, to me, the +whole organic world is meaningless. If man is not more than an "accident +in the history of the thermic evolution of the globe," or the result of +the fortuitous juxtaposition and combination of carbonic acid gas and +water and a few other elements, what shall we say? It is at least a +bewildering proposition. + +Could one by analyzing a hive of bees find out the secret of its +organization--its unity as an aggregate of living insects? Behold its +wonderful economics, its division of labor, its complex social +structure,--the queen, the workers, the drones,--thousands of bees +without any head or code of laws or directing agent, all acting as one +individual, all living and working for the common good. There is no +confusion or cross-purpose in the hive. When the time of swarming comes, +they are all of one mind and the swarm comes forth. Who or what decides +who shall stay and who shall go? When the honey supply fails, or if it +fail prematurely, on account of a drought, the swarming instinct is +inhibited, and the unhatched queens are killed in their cells. Who or +what issues the regicide order? We can do no better than to call it the +Spirit of the Hive, as Maeterlinck has done. It is a community of mind. +What one bee knows and feels, they all know and feel at the same +instant. Something like that is true of a living body; the cells are +like the bees: they work together, they build up the tissues and organs, +some are for one thing and some for another, each community of cells +plays its own part, and they all pull together for the good of the +whole. We can introduce cells and even whole organs, for example a +kidney from another living body, and all goes well; and yet we cannot +find the seat of the organization. Can we do any better than to call it +the Spirit of the Body? + + +IV + +Our French biologist is of the opinion that the artificial production of +that marvel of marvels, the living cell, will yet take place in the +laboratory. But the enlightened mind, he says, does not need such proof +to be convinced that there is no essential difference between living and +non-living matter. + +Professor Henderson, though an expounder of the mechanistic theory of +the origin of life, admits that he does not know of a biological chemist +to whom the "mechanistic origin of a cell is scientifically imaginable." +Like Professor Loeb, he starts with the vital; how he came by it we get +no inkling; he confesses frankly that the biological chemist cannot even +face the problem of the origin of life. He quotes with approval a remark +of Liebig's, as reported by Lord Kelvin, that he (Liebig) could no more +believe that a leaf or a flower could be formed or could grow by +chemical forces "than a book on chemistry, or on botany, could grow out +of dead matter." Is not this conceding to the vitalists all that they +claim? The cell is the unit of life; all living bodies are but vast +confraternities of cells, some billions or trillions of them in the +human body; the cell builds up the tissues, the tissues build up the +organs, the organs build up the body. Now if it is not thinkable that +chemism could beget a cell, is it any more thinkable that it could build +a living tissue, and then an organ, and then the body as a whole? If +there is an inscrutable something at work at the start, which organizes +that wonderful piece of vital mechanism, the cell, is it any the less +operative ever after, in all life processes, in all living bodies and +their functions,--the vital as distinguished from the mechanical and +chemical? Given the cell, and you have only to multiply it, and organize +these products into industrial communities, and direct them to specific +ends,--certainly a task which we would not assign to chemistry or +physics any more than we would assign to them the production of a work +on chemistry or botany,--and you have all the myriad forms of +terrestrial life. + +The cell is the parent of every living thing on the globe; and if it is +unthinkable that the material and irrational forces of inert matter +could produce it, then mechanics and chemistry must play second fiddle +in all that whirl and dance of the atoms that make up life. And that is +all the vitalists claim. The physico-chemical forces do play second +fiddle; that inexplicable something that we call vitality dominates and +leads them. True it is that a living organism yields to scientific +analysis only mechanical and chemical forces--a fact which only limits +the range of scientific analysis, and which by no means exhausts the +possibilities of the living organism. The properties of matter and the +laws of matter are intimately related to life, yea, are inseparable +from it, but they are by no means the whole story. Professor Henderson +repudiates the idea of any extra-physical influence as being involved in +the processes of life, and yet concedes that the very foundation of all +living matter, yea, the whole living universe in embryo--the cell--is +beyond the possibilities of physics and chemistry alone. Mechanism and +chemism are adequate to account for astronomy and geology, and +therefore, he thinks, are sufficient to account for biology, without +calling in the aid of any Bergsonian life impulse. Still these forces +stand impotent before that microscopic world, the cell, the foundation +of all life. + +Our professor makes the provisional statement, not in obedience to his +science, but in obedience to his philosophy, that something more than +mechanics and chemistry may have had a hand in shaping the universe, +some primordial tendency impressed upon or working in matter "just +before mechanism begins to act"--"a necessary and preëstablished +associate of mechanism." So that if we start with the universe, with +life, and with this tendency, mechanism will do all the rest. But this +is not science, of course, because it is not verifiable; it is +practically the philosophy of Bergson. + +The cast-iron conclusions of physical science do pinch the Harvard +professor a bit, and he pads them with a little of the Bergsonian +philosophy. Bergson himself is not pinched at all by the conclusions of +positive science. He sees that we, as human beings, cannot live in this +universe without supplementing our science with some sort of philosophy +that will help us to escape from the fatalism of matter and force into +the freedom of the spiritual life. If we are merely mechanical and +chemical accidents, all the glory of life, all the meaning of our moral +and spiritual natures, go by the board. + +Professor Henderson shows us how well this planet, with its oceans and +continents, and its mechanical and chemical forces and elements, is +suited to sustain life, but he brings us no nearer the solution of the +mystery than we were before. His title, to begin with, is rather +bewildering. Has the "fitness of the environment" ever been questioned? +The environment is fit, of course, else living bodies would not be here. +We are used to taking hold of the other end of the problem. In living +nature the foot is made to fit the shoe, and not the shoe the foot. The +environment is the mould in which the living organism is cast. Hence, it +seems to me, that seeking to prove the fitness of the environment is +very much like seeking to prove the fitness of water for fish to swim +in, or the fitness of the air for birds to fly in. The implication seems +to be made that the environment anticipates the organism, or meets it +half way. But the environment is rather uncompromising. Man alone +modifies his environment by the weapon of science; but not radically; in +the end he has to fit himself to it. Life has been able to adjust +itself to the universal forces and so go along with them; otherwise we +should not be here. We may say, humanly speaking, that the water is +friendly to the swimmer, if he knows how to use it; if not, it is his +deadly enemy. The same is true of all the elements and forces of nature. +Whether they be for or against us, depends upon ourselves. The wind is +never tempered to the shorn lamb, the shorn lamb must clothe itself +against the wind. Life is adaptive, and this faculty of adaptation to +the environment, of itself takes it out of the category of the +physico-chemical. The rivers and seas favor navigation, if we have +gumption enough to use and master their forces. The air is good to +breathe, and food to eat, for those creatures that are adapted to them. +Bergson thinks, not without reason, that life on other planets may be +quite different from what it is on our own, owing to a difference in +chemical and physical conditions. Change the chemical constituents of +sea water, and you radically change the lower organisms. With an +atmosphere entirely of oxygen, the processes of life would go on more +rapidly and perhaps reach a higher form of development. Life on this +planet is limited to a certain rather narrow range of temperature; the +span may be the same in other worlds, but farther up or farther down the +scale. Had the air been differently constituted, would not our lungs +have been different? The lungs of the fish are in his gills: he has to +filter his air from a much heavier medium. The nose of the pig is fitted +for rooting; shall we say, then, that the soil was made friable that +pigs might root in it? The webbed foot is fitted to the water; shall we +say, then, that water is liquid in order that geese and ducks may swim +in it? One more atom of oxygen united to the two atoms that go to make +the molecule of air, and we should have had ozone instead of the air we +now breathe. How unsuited this would have made the air for life as we +know it! Oxidation would have consumed us rapidly. Life would have met +this extra atom by some new device. + +One wishes Professor Henderson had told us more about how life fits +itself to the environment--how matter, moved and moulded only by +mechanical and chemical forces, yet has some power of choice that a +machine does not have, and can and does select the environment best +suited to its well-being. In fact, that it should have, or be capable +of, any condition of well-being, if it is only a complex of physical and +chemical forces, is a problem to wrestle with. The ground we walk on is +such a complex, but only the living bodies it supports have conditions +of well-being. + +Professor Henderson concedes very little to the vitalists or the +teleologists. He is a thorough mechanist. "Matter and energy," he says, +"have an original property, assuredly not by chance, which organizes +the universe in space and time." Where or how matter got this organizing +property, he offers no opinion. "Given the universe, life, and the +tendency [the tendency to organize], mechanism is inductively proved +sufficient to account for all phenomena." Biology, then, is only +mechanics and chemistry engaged in a new rôle without any change of +character; but what put them up to this new rôle? "The whole +evolutionary process, both cosmic and organic, is one, and the biologist +may now rightly regard the universe in its very essence as biocentric." + + +V + +Another Harvard voice is less pronounced in favor of the mechanistic +conception of life. Professor Rand thinks that in a mechanically +determined universe, "our conscious life becomes a meaningless replica +of an inexorable physical concatenation"--the soul the result of a +fortuitous concourse of atoms. Hence all the science and art and +literature and religion of the world are merely the result of a +molecular accident. + +Dr. Rand himself, in wrestling with the problem of organization in a +late number of "Science," seems to hesitate whether or not to regard man +as a molecular accident, an appearance presented to us by the results of +the curious accidents of molecules--which is essentially Professor +Loeb's view; or whether to look upon the living body as the result of a +"specific something" that organizes, that is, of "dominating organic +agencies," be they psychic or super-mundane, which dominate and +determine the organization of the different parts of the body into a +whole. Yet he is troubled with the idea that this specific something may +be "nothing more than accidental chemical peculiarities of cells." But +would these accidental peculiarities be constant? Do accidents happen +millions of times in the same way? The cell is without variableness or +shadow of turning. The cells are the minute people that build up all +living forms, and what prompts them to build a man in the one case, and +the man's dog in another, is the mystery that puzzles Professor Rand. +"Tissue cells," he says, "are not structures like stone blocks +laboriously carved and immovably cemented in place. They are rather like +the local eddies in an ever-flowing and ever-changing stream of fluids. +Substance which was at one moment a part of a cell, passes out and a new +substance enters. What is it that prevents the local whirl in this +unstable stream from changing its form? How is it that a million muscle +cells remain alike, collectively ready to respond to a nerve impulse?" +According to one view, expressed by Professor Rand, "Organization is +something that we read into natural phenomena. It is in itself nothing." +The alternative view holds that there is a specific organizing agent +that brings about the harmonious operation of all the organs and parts +of the system--a superior dynamic force controlling and guiding all the +individual parts. + +A most determined and thorough-going attempt to hunt down the secret of +vitality, and to determine how far its phenomena can be interpreted in +terms of mechanics and chemistry, is to be found in Professor H. W. +Conn's volume entitled "The Living Machine." Professor Conn justifies +his title by defining a machine as "a piece of apparatus so designed +that it can change one kind of energy into another for a definite +purpose." Of course the adjective "living" takes it out of the category +of all mere mechanical devices and makes it super-mechanical, just as +Haeckel's application of the word "living" to his inorganics ("living +inorganics"), takes them out of the category of the inorganic. In every +machine, properly so called, all the factors are known; but do we know +all the factors in a living body? Professor Conn applies his searching +analysis to most of the functions of the human body, to digestion, to +assimilation, to circulation, to respiration, to metabolism, and so on, +and he finds in every function something that does not fall within his +category--some force not mechanical nor chemical, which he names vital. + +In following the processes of digestion, all goes well with his +chemistry and his mechanics till he comes to the absorption of +food-particles, or their passage through the walls of the intestines +into the blood. Here, the ordinary physical forces fail him, and living +matter comes to his aid. The inner wall of the intestine is not a +lifeless membrane, and osmosis will not solve the mystery. There is +something there that seizes hold of the droplets of oil by means of +little extruded processes, and then passes them through its own body to +excrete them on an inner surface into the blood-vessels. "This fat +absorption thus appears to be a vital process and not one simply +controlled by physical forces like osmosis. Here our explanation runs +against what we call 'vital power' of the ultimate elements of the +body." Professor Conn next analyzes the processes of circulation, and +his ready-made mechanical concepts carry him along swimmingly, till he +tries to explain by them the beating of the heart, and the contraction +of the small blood-vessels which regulate the blood-supply. Here comes +in play the mysterious vital power again. He comes upon the same power +when he tries to determine what it is that enables the muscle-fibre to +take from the lymph the material needed for its use, and to discard the +rest. The fibre acts as if it knew what it wanted--a very unmechanical +attribute. + +Then Professor Conn applies his mechanics and chemistry to the +respiratory process and, of course, makes out a very clear case till he +comes to the removal of the waste, or ash. The steam-engine cannot +remove its own ash; the "living machine" can. Much of this ash takes +the form of urea, and "the seizing upon the urea by the kidney cells is +a vital phenomenon." Is not the peristaltic movement of the bowels, by +which the solid matter is removed, also a vital phenomenon? Is not the +conception of a pipe or a tube that forces semi-fluid matter along its +hollow interior, by the contraction of its walls, quite beyond the reach +of mechanics? The force is as mechanical as the squeezing of the bulb of +a syringe by the hand, but in the case of the intestines, what does the +squeezing? The vital force? + +When the mechanical and chemical concepts are applied to the phenomena +of the nervous system, they work very well till we come to mental +phenomena. When we try to correlate physical energy with thought or +consciousness, we are at the end of our tether. Here is a gulf we cannot +span. The theory of the machine breaks down. Some other force than +material force is demanded here, namely, psychical,--a force or +principle quite beyond the sphere of the analytic method. + +Hence Professor Conn concludes that there are vital factors and that +they are the primal factors in the organism. The mechanical and chemical +forces are the secondary factors. It is the primal factors that elude +scientific analysis. Why a muscle contracts, or why a gland secretes, or +"why the oxidation of starch in the living machine gives rise to motion, +growth, and reproduction, while if the oxidation occurs in the +chemist's laboratory ... it simply gives rise to heat," are questions he +cannot answer. In all his inquiries into the parts played by mechanical +and chemical laws in the organism, he is compelled to "assume as their +foundation the simple vital properties of living phenomena." + + +VI + +It should not surprise nor disturb us that the scientific interpretation +of life leads to materialism, or to the conviction of the +all-sufficiency of the mechanical and chemical forces of dead matter to +account for all living phenomena. It need not surprise us because +positive science, as such, can deal only with physical and chemical +forces. If there is anything in this universe besides physical and +chemical force, science does not know it. It does not know it because it +is absolutely beyond the reach of its analysis. When we go beyond the +sphere of the concrete, the experimental, the verifiable, only our +philosophy can help us. The world within us, the world of psychic +forces, is beyond the ken of science. It can analyze the living body, +trace all its vital processes, resolve them into their mechanical and +chemical equivalents, show us the parts played by the primary elements, +the part played by the enzymes, or ferments, and the like, and yet it +cannot tell us the secret of life--of that which makes organic chemistry +so vastly different from inorganic. It discloses to us the wonders of +the cell--a world of mystery by itself; it analyzes the animal body into +organs, and the organs into tissues, and the tissues into cells, but the +secret of organization utterly baffles it. After Professor Wilson had +concluded his masterly work on the cell, he was forced to admit that the +final mystery of the cell eluded him, and that his investigation "on the +whole seemed to widen rather than to narrow the enormous gap that +separates even the lowest forms of life from the inorganic world." + +All there is outside the sphere of physical science belongs to religion, +to philosophy, to art, to literature. Huxley spoke strictly and honestly +as a man of science, when he related consciousness to the body, as the +sound of a clock when it strikes is related to the machinery of the +clock. The scientific analysis of a living body reveals nothing but the +action of the mechanical and chemical principles. If you analyze it by +fire or by cremation, you get gases and vapors and mineral ash, that is +all; the main thing about the live body--its organization, its life--you +do not get. Of course science knows this; and to account for this +missing something, it philosophizes, and relegates it to the interior +world of molecular physics--it is all in the way the ultimate particles +of matter were joined or compounded, were held together in the bonds of +molecular matrimony. What factor or agent or intelligence is active or +directive in this molecular marriage of the atoms, science does not +inquire. Only philosophy can deal with that problem. + +What can science see or find in the brain of man that answers to the +soul? Only certain movements of matter in the brain cortex. What +difference does it find between inert matter and a living organism? Only +a vastly more complex mechanics and chemistry in the latter. A wide +difference, not of kind, but of degree. The something we call vitality, +that a child recognizes, science does not find; vitality is something +_sui generis_. Scientific analysis cannot show us the difference between +the germ cell of a starfish and the germ cell of a man; and yet think of +what a world of difference is hidden in those microscopic germs! What +force is there in inert matter that can build a machine by the +adjustment of parts to each other? We can explain the most complex +chemical compounds by the action of chemical forces and chemical +affinity, but they cannot explain that adjustment of parts to each +other, the coördination of their activities that makes a living machine. + +In organized matter there is something that organizes. "The cell itself +is an organization of smaller units," and to drive or follow the +organizing principle into the last hiding-place is past the power of +biological chemistry. What constitutes the guiding force or principle of +a living body, adjusting all its parts, making them pull together, +making of the circulation one system in which the heart, the veins, the +arteries, the lungs, all work to one common end, coördinating several +different organs into a digestive system, and other parts into the +nervous system, is a mystery that no objective analysis of the body can +disclose. + +To refer vitality to complexity alone, is to dodge the question. +Multiplying the complexity of a machine, say of a watch, any conceivable +number of times would not make it any the less a machine, or change it +from the automatic order to the vital order. A motor-car is a vastly +more complex mechanism than a wheelbarrow, and yet it is not the less a +machine. On the other hand, an amoeba is a far simpler animal than a +man, and yet it is just as truly living. To refer life to complexity +does not help us; we want to know what lies back of the complexity--what +makes it a new species of complexity. + +We cannot explain the origin of living matter by the properties which +living matter possesses. There are three things that mechanics and +chemistry cannot explain: the relation of the psychical to the physical +through the law of the conservation and correlation of forces; the agent +or principle that guides the blind chemical and physical forces so as to +produce the living body; and the kind of forces that have contributed to +the origin of that morphological unit--the cell. + +A Western university professor in a recent essay sounds quite a +different note on this subject from the one that comes to us from +Harvard. Says Professor Otto C. Glaser, of the University of Michigan, +in a recent issue of the "Popular Science Monthly": "Does not the +fitness of living things; the fact that they perform acts useful to +themselves in an environment which is constantly shifting, and often +very harsh; the fact that in general everything during development, +during digestion, during any of the complicated chains of processes +which we find, happens at the right time, in the right place, and to the +proper extent; does not all this force us to believe that there is +involved something more than mere chemistry and physics?--something, not +consciousness necessarily, yet its analogue--a vital _x_?" + +There is this suggestive fact about these recent biological experiments +of Dr. Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute: they seem to prove that the +life of a man is not merely the sum of the life of the myriad cells of +his body. Stab the man to death, and the cells of his body still live +and will continue to live if grafted upon another live man. Probably +every part of the body would continue to live and grow indefinitely, in +the proper medium. That the cell life should continue after the soul +life has ceased is very significant. It seems a legitimate inference +from this fact that the human body is the organ or instrument of some +agent that is not of the body. The functional or physiological life of +the body as a whole, also seems quite independent of our conscious +volitional or psychic life. That which repairs and renews the body, +heals its wounds, controls and coordinates its parts, adapts it to its +environment, carries on its processes during sleep, in fact in all our +involuntary life, seems quite independent of the man himself. Is the +spirit of a race or a nation, or of the times in which we live, another +illustration of the same mysterious entity? + +If the vital principle, or vital force, is a fiction, invented to give +the mind something to take hold of, we are in no worse case than we are +in some other matters. Science tells us that there is no such _thing_ as +heat, or light; these are only modes of activity in matter. + +In the same way we seem forced to think of life, vitality, as an +entity--a fact as real as electricity or light, though it may be only a +mode of motion. It may be of physico-chemical origin, as much so as +heat, or light; and yet it is something as distinctive as they are among +material things, and is involved in the same mystery. Is magnetism or +gravitation a real thing? or, in the moral world, is love, charity, or +consciousness itself? The world seems to be run by nonentities. Heat, +light, life, seem nonentities. That which organizes the different parts +or organs of the human body into a unit, and makes of the many organs +one organism, is a nonentity. That which makes an oak an oak, and a +pine a pine, is a nonentity. That which makes a sheep a sheep, and an ox +an ox, is to science a nonentity. To physical science the soul is a +nonentity. + +There is something in the cells of the muscles that makes them contract, +and in the cells of the heart that makes it beat; that something is not +active in the other cells of the body. But it is a nonentity. The body +is a machine and a laboratory combined, but that which coördinates them +and makes them work together--what is that? Another nonentity. That +which distinguishes a living machine from a dead machine, science has no +name for, except molecular attraction and repulsion, and these are names +merely; they are nonentities. Is there not molecular attraction and +repulsion in a steam-engine also? And yet it is not alive. What has to +supplement the mechanical and the chemical to make matter alive? We have +no name for it but the vital, be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no +name for a flash of lightning but electricity, be it an entity or a +nonentity. We have no name for that which distinguishes a man from a +brute, but mind, soul, be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no name +for that which distinguishes the organic from the inorganic but +vitality, be it an entity or a nonentity. + + +VII + +Without metaphysics we can do nothing; without mental concepts, where +are we? Natural selection is as much a metaphysical phrase as is +consciousness, or the subjective and the objective. Natural selection is +not an entity, it is a name for what we conceive of as a process. It is +natural rejection as well. The vital principle is a metaphysical +concept; so is instinct; so is reason; so is the soul; so is God. + +Many of our concepts have been wrong. The concept of witches, of disease +as the work of evil spirits, of famine and pestilence as the visitation +of the wrath of God, and the like, were unfounded. Science sets us right +about all such matters. It corrects our philosophy, but it cannot +dispense with the philosophical attitude of mind. The philosophical must +supplement the experimental. + +In fact, in considering this question of life, it is about as difficult +for the unscientific mind to get along without postulating a vital +principle or force--which, Huxley says, is analogous to the idea of a +principle of aquosity in water--as it is to walk upon the air, or to +hang one's coat upon a sunbeam. It seems as if something must breathe +upon the dead matter, as at the first, to make it live. Yet if there is +a distinct vital force it must be correlated with physical force, it +must be related causally to the rest. The idea of a vital force as +something new and distinct and injected into matter from without at a +given time and place in the earth's history, must undoubtedly be given +up. Instead of escaping from mechanism, this notion surrenders one into +the hands of mechanism, since to supplement or reinforce a principle +with some other principle from without, is strictly a mechanical +procedure. But the conception of vitality as potential in matter, or of +the whole universe as permeated with spirit, which to me is the same +thing, is a conception that takes life out of the categories of the +fortuitous and the automatic. + +No doubt but that all things in the material world are causally related, +no doubt of the constancy of matter and force, no doubt but that all +phenomena are the result of natural principles, no doubt that the living +arose from the non-living, no doubt that the evolution process was +inherent in the constitution of the world; and yet there is a mystery +about it all that is insoluble. The miracle of vitality takes place +behind a veil that we cannot penetrate, in the inmost sanctuary of the +molecules of matter, in that invisible, imaginary world on the +borderland between the material and the immaterial. We may fancy that it +is here that the psychical effects its entrance into the physical--that +spirit weds matter--that the creative energy kindles the spark we call +vitality. At any rate, vitality evidently begins in that inner world of +atoms and molecules; but whether as the result of their peculiar and +very complex compounding or as the cause of the compounding--how are we +ever to know? Is it not just as scientific to postulate a new principle, +the principle of vitality, as to postulate a new process, or a new +behavior of an old principle? In either case, we are in the world of the +unverifiable; we take a step in the dark. Most of us, I fancy, will +sympathize with George Eliot, who says in one of her letters: "To me the +Development Theory, and all other explanations of processes by which +things came to be, produce a feeble impression compared with the mystery +that lies under the processes." + + + + +V + +SCIENTIFIC VITALISM + +I + + +All living bodies, when life leaves them, go back to the earth from +whence they came. What was it in the first instance that gathered their +elements from the earth and built them up into such wonderful +mechanisms? If we say it was nature, do we mean by nature a physical +force or an immaterial principle? Did the earth itself bring forth a +man, or did something breathe upon the inert clay till it became a +living spirit? + +As life is a physical phenomenon, appearing in a concrete physical +world, it is, to that extent, within the domain of physical science, and +appeals to the scientific mind. Physical science is at home only in the +experimental, the verifiable. Its domain ends where that of philosophy +begins. + +The question of how life arose in a universe of dead matter is just as +baffling a question to the ordinary mind, as how the universe itself +arose. If we assume that the germs of life drifted to us from other +spheres, propelled by the rays of the sun, or some other celestial +agency, as certain modern scientific philosophers have assumed, we have +only removed the mystery farther away from us. If we assume that it +came by spontaneous generation, as Haeckel and others assume, then we +are only cutting a knot which we cannot untie. The god of spontaneous +generation is as miraculous as any other god. We cannot break the causal +sequence without a miracle. If something came from nothing, then there +is not only the end of the problem, but also the end of our boasted +science. + +Science is at home in discussing all the material manifestations of +life--the parts played by colloids and ferments, by fluids and gases, +and all the organic compounds, and by mechanical and chemical +principles; it may analyze and tabulate all life processes, and show the +living body as a most wonderful and complex piece of mechanism, but +before the question of the origin of life itself it stands dumb, and, +when speaking through such a man as Tyndall, it also stands humble and +reverent. After Tyndall had, to his own satisfaction, reduced all like +phenomena to mechanical attraction and repulsion, he stood with +uncovered head before what he called the "mystery and miracle of +vitality." The mystery and miracle lie in the fact that in the organic +world the same elements combine with results so different from those of +the inorganic world. Something seems to have inspired them with a new +purpose. In the inorganic world, the primary elements go their ceaseless +round from compound to compound, from solid to fluid or gaseous, and +back again, forming the world of inert matter as we know it, but in the +organic world the same elements form thousands of new combinations +unknown to them before, and thus give rise to the myriad forms of life +that inhabit the earth. + +The much-debated life question has lately found an interesting exponent +in Professor Benjamin Moore, of the University of Liverpool. His volume +on the subject in the "Home University Library" is very readable, and, +in many respects, convincing. At least, so far as it is the word of +exact science on the subject it is convincing; so far as it is +speculative, or philosophical, it is or is not convincing, according to +the type of mind of the reader. Professor Moore is not a bald mechanist +or materialist like Professor Loeb, or Ernst Haeckel, nor is he an +idealist or spiritualist, like Henri Bergson or Sir Oliver Lodge. He may +be called a scientific vitalist. He keeps close to lines of scientific +research as these lines lead him through the maze of the primordial +elements of matter, from electron to atom, from atom to molecule, from +molecule to colloid, and so up to the border of the living world. His +analysis of the processes of molecular physics as they appear in the +organism leads him to recognize and to name a new force, or a new +manifestation of force, which he hesitates to call vital, because of the +associations of this term with a prescientific age, but which he calls +"biotic energy." + +Biotic energy is peculiar to living bodies, and "there are precisely the +same criteria for its existence," says Professor Moore, "as for the +existence of any one of the inorganic energy types, viz., a set of +discrete phenomena; and its nature is as mysterious to us as the cause +of any one of these inorganic forms about which also we know so little. +It is biotic energy which guides the development of the ovum, which +regulates the exchanges of the cell, and causes such phenomena as nerve +impulse, muscular contraction, and gland secretion, and it is a form of +energy which arises in colloidal structures, just as magnetism appears +in iron, or radio-activity in uranium or radium, and in its +manifestations it undergoes exchanges with other forms of energy, in the +same manner as these do among one another." + +Like Professor Henderson, Professor Moore concedes to the vitalists +about all they claim--namely, that there is some form of force or +manifestation of energy peculiar to living bodies, and one that cannot +be adequately described in terms of physics and chemistry. Professor +Moore says this biotic energy "arises in colloidal structures," and so +far as biochemistry can make out, arises _spontaneously_ and gives rise +to that marvelous bit of mechanism, the cell. In the cell appears "a +form of energy unknown outside life processes which leads the mazy dance +of life from point to point, each new development furnishing a starting +point for the next one." It not only leads the dance along our own line +of descent from our remote ancestors--it leads the dance along the long +road of evolution from the first unicellular form in the dim palæozoic +seas to the complex and highly specialized forms of our own day. + +The secret of this life force, or biotic energy, according to Professor +Moore, is in the keeping of matter itself. The steps or stages from the +depths of matter by which life arose, lead up from that imaginary +something, the electron, to the inorganic colloids, or to the +crystallo-colloids, which are the threshold of life, each stage showing +some new transformation of energy. There must be an all-potent energy +transformation before we can get chemical energy out of physical energy, +and then biotic energy out of chemical energy. This transformation of +inorganic energy into life energy cannot be traced or repeated in the +laboratory, yet science believes the secret will sometime be in its +hands. It is here that the materialistic philosophers, such as +Professors Moore and Loeb, differ from the spiritualistic philosophers, +such as Bergson, Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Thompson, and others. + +Professor Moore has no sympathy with those narrow mechanistic views that +see in the life processes "no problems save those of chemistry and +physics." "Each link in the living chain may be physico-chemical, but +the chain as a whole, and its purpose, is something else." He draws an +analogy from the production of music in which purely physical factors +are concerned; the laws of harmonics account for all; but back of all is +something that is not mechanical and chemical--there is the mind of the +composer, and the performers, and the auditors, and something that takes +cognizance of the whole effect. A complete human philosophy cannot be +built upon physical science alone. He thinks the evolution of life from +inert matter is of the same type as the evolution of one form of matter +from another, or the evolution of one form of energy from another--a +mystery, to be sure, but little more startling in the one case than in +the other. "The fundamental mystery lies in the existence of those +entities, or things, which we call matter and energy," out of the play +and interaction of which all life phenomena have arisen. Organic +evolution is a series of energy exchanges and transformations from lower +to higher, but science is powerless to go behind the phenomena presented +and name or verify the underlying mystery. Only philosophy can do this. +And Professor Moore turns philosopher when he says there is beauty and +design in it all, "and an eternal purpose which is ever progressing." + +Bergson sets forth his views of evolution in terms of literature and +philosophy. Professor Moore embodies similar views in his volume, set +forth in terms of molecular science. Both make evolution a creative and +a continuous process. Bergson lays the emphasis upon the cosmic spirit +interacting with matter. Professor Moore lays the emphasis upon the +indwelling potencies of matter itself (probably the same spirit +conceived of in different terms). Professor Moore philosophizes as truly +as does Bergson when he says "there must exist a whole world of living +creatures which the microscope has never shown us, leading up to the +bacteria and the protozoa. The brink of life lies not at the production +of protozoa and bacteria, which are highly developed inhabitants of our +world, but away down among the colloids; and the beginning of life was +not a fortuitous event occurring millions of years ago and never again +repeated, but one which in its primordial stages keeps on repeating +itself all the time in our generation. So that if all intelligent +creatures were by some holocaust destroyed, up out of the depths in +process of millions of years, intelligent beings would once more +emerge." This passage shows what a speculative leap or flight the +scientific mind is at times compelled to take when it ventures beyond +the bounds of positive methods. It is good philosophy, I hope, but we +cannot call it science. Thrilled with cosmic emotion, Walt Whitman made +a similar daring assertion:-- + + "There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage, + If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, + were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would + not avail in the long run, + We should surely bring up again where we now stand, + And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther." + + +II + +Evolution is creative, whether it works in matter--as Bergson describes, +or whether its path lies up through electrons and atoms and molecules, +as Professor Moore describes. There is something that creates and makes +matter plastic to its will. Whether we call matter "the living garment +of God," as Goethe did, or a reservoir of creative energy, as Tyndall +and his school did, and as Professor Moore still does, we are paying +homage to a power that is super-material. Life came to our earth, says +Professor Moore, through a "well-regulated orderly development," and it +"comes to every mother earth of the universe in the maturity of her +creation when the conditions arrive within suitable limits." That no +intelligent beings appeared upon the earth for millions upon millions of +years, that for whole geologic ages there was no creature with more +brains than a snail possesses, shows the almost infinitely slow progress +of development, and that there has been no arbitrary or high-handed +exercise of creative power. The universe is not run on principles of +modern business efficiency, and man is at the head of living forms, not +by the fiat of some omnipotent power, some superman, but as the result +of the operation of forces that balk at no delay, or waste, or failure, +and that are dependent upon the infinitely slow ripening and +amelioration of both cosmic and terrestrial conditions. + +We do not get rid of God by any such dictum, but we get rid of the +anthropomorphic views which we have so long been wont to read into the +processes of nature. We dehumanize the universe, but we do not render it +the less grand and mysterious. Professor Moore points out to us how life +came to a cooling planet as soon as the temperature became low enough +for certain chemical combinations to appear. There must first be oxides +and saline compounds, there must be carbonates of calcium and magnesium, +and the like. As the temperature falls, more and more complex compounds, +such as life requires, appear; till, in due time, carbon dioxide and +water are at hand, and life can make a start. At the white heat of some +of the fixed stars, the primary chemical elements are not yet evolved; +but more and more elements appear, and more and more complex compounds +are formed as the cooling process progresses. + +"This note cannot be too strongly sounded, that as matter is allowed +capacity for assuming complex forms, those complex forms appear. As soon +as oxides can be there, oxides appear; when temperature admits of +carbonates, then carbonates are forthwith formed. These are experiments +which any chemist can to-day repeat in a crucible. And on a cooling +planet, as soon as temperature will admit the presence of life, then +life appears, as the evidence of geology shows us." When we speak of the +beginning of life, it is not clear just what we mean. The unit of all +organized bodies is the cell, but the cell is itself an organized body, +and must have organic matter to feed upon. Hence the cell is only a more +complex form of more primitive living matter. As we go down the scale +toward the inorganic, can we find the point where the living and the +non-living meet and become one? "Life had to surge a long way up from +the depths before a green plant cell came into being." When the green +plant cell was found, life was fairly launched. This plant cell, in the +form of chlorophyll, by the aid of water and the trace of carbon dioxide +in the air, began to store up the solar energy in fruit and grain and +woody tissue, and thus furnish power to run all forms of life machinery. + +The materialists or naturalists are right in urging that we live in a +much more wonderful universe than we have ever imagined, and that in +matter itself sleep potencies and possibilities not dreamt of in our +philosophy. The world of complex though invisible activities which +science reveals all about us, the solar and stellar energies raining +upon us from above, the terrestrial energies and influences playing +through us from below, the transformations and transmutations taking +place on every hand, the terrible alertness and potency of the world of +inert matter as revealed by a flash of lightning, the mysteries of +chemical affinity, of magnetism, of radio-activity, all point to deep +beneath deep in matter itself. It is little wonder that men who dwell +habitually upon these things and are saturated with the spirit and +traditions of laboratory investigation, should believe that in some way +matter itself holds the mystery of the origin of life. On the other +hand, a different type of mind, the more imaginative, artistic, and +religious type, recoils from the materialistic view. + +The sun is the source of all terrestrial energy, but the different forms +that energy takes--in the plant, in the animal, in the brain of +man--this type of mind is bound to ask questions about that. Gravity +pulls matter down; life lifts it up; chemical forces pull it to pieces; +vital forces draw it together and organize it; the winds and the waters +dissolve and scatter it; vegetation recaptures and integrates it and +gives it new qualities. At every turn, minds like that of Sir Oliver +Lodge are compelled to think of life as a principle or force doing +something with matter. The physico-chemical forces will not do in the +hands of man what they do in the hands of Nature. Such minds, therefore, +feel justified in thinking that something which we call "the hands of +Nature," plays a part--some principle or force which the hands of man do +not hold. + + + + +VI + +A BIRD OF PASSAGE + +I + + +There is one phase of the much-discussed question of the nature and +origin of life which, so far as I know, has not been considered either +by those who hold a brief for the physico-chemical view or by those who +stand for some form of vitalism or idealism. I refer to the small part +that life plays in the total scheme of things. The great cosmic machine +would go on just as well without it. Its relation to the whole appears +to be little different from that of a man to the train in which he +journeys. Life rides on the mechanical and chemical forces, but it does +not seem to be a part of them, nor identical with them, because they +were before it, and will continue after it is gone. + +The everlasting, all-inclusive thing in this universe seems to be inert +matter with the energy it holds; while the slight, flitting, casual +thing seems to be living matter. The inorganic is from all eternity to +all eternity; it is distributed throughout all space and endures through +all time, while the organic is, in comparison, only of the here and the +now; it was not here yesterday, and it may not be here to-morrow; it +comes and goes. Life is like a bird of passage which alights and tarries +for a time and is gone, and the places where it perched and nested and +led forth its brood know it no more. Apparently it flits from world to +world as the great cosmic spring comes to each, and departs as the +cosmic winter returns to each. It is a visitor, a migrant, a frail, +timid thing, which waits upon the seasons and flees from the coming +tempests and vicissitudes. + +How casual, uncertain, and inconsequential the vital order seems in our +own solar system--a mere incident or by-product in its cosmic evolution! +Astronomy sounds the depths of space, and sees only mechanical and +chemical forces at work there. It is almost certain that only a small +fraction of the planetary surfaces is the abode of life. On the earth +alone, of all the great family of planets and satellites, is the vital +order in full career. It may yet linger upon Mars, but it is evidently +waning. On the inferior planets it probably had its day long ago, while +it must be millions of years before it comes to the superior planets, if +it ever comes to them. What a vast, inconceivable outlay of time and +energy for such small returns! Evidently the vital order is only an +episode, a transient or secondary phase of matter in the process of +sidereal evolution. Astronomic space is strewn with dead worlds, as a +New England field is with drift boulders. That life has touched and +tarried here and there upon them can hardly be doubted, but if it is +anything more than a passing incident, an infant crying in the night, a +flush of color upon the cheek, a flower blooming by the wayside, +appearances are against it. + +We read our astronomy and geology in the light of our enormous egotism, +and appropriate all to ourselves; but science sees in our appearance +here a no more significant event than in the foam and bubbles that whirl +and dance for a moment upon the river's current. The bubbles have their +reason for being; all the mysteries of molecular attraction and +repulsion may be involved in their production; without the solar energy, +and the revolution of the earth upon its axis, they would not appear; +and yet they are only bubbles upon the river's current, as we are +bubbles upon the stream of energy that flows through the universe. +Apparently the cosmic game is played for us no more than for the +parasites that infest our bodies, or for the frost ferns that form upon +our window-panes in winter. The making of suns and systems goes on in +the depths of space, and doubtless will go on to all eternity, without +any more reference to the vital order than to the chemical compounds. + +The amount of living matter in the universe, so far as we can penetrate +it, compared with the non-living, is, in amount, like a flurry of snow +that whitens the fields and hills of a spring morning compared to the +miles of rock and soil beneath it; and with reference to geologic time +it is about as fleeting. In the vast welter of suns and systems in the +heavens above us, we see only dead matter, and most of it is in a +condition of glowing metallic vapor. There are doubtless living +organisms upon some of the invisible planetary bodies, but they are +probably as fugitive and temporary as upon our own world. Much of the +surface of the earth is clothed in a light vestment of life, which, back +in geologic time, seems to have more completely enveloped it than at +present, as both the arctic and the antarctic regions bear evidence in +their coal-beds and other fossil remains of luxuriant vegetable growths. + +Strip the earth of its thin pellicle of soil, thinner with reference to +the mass than is the peel to the apple, and you have stripped it of its +life. Or, rob it of its watery vapor and the carbon dioxide in the air, +both stages in its evolution, and you have a dead world. The huge globe +swings through space only as a mass of insensate rock. So limited and +evanescent is the world of living matter, so vast and enduring is the +world of the non-living. Looked at in this way, in the light of physical +science, life, I repeat, seems like a mere passing phase of the cosmic +evolution, a flitting and temporary stage of matter which it passes +through in the procession of changes on the surface of a cooling planet. +Between the fiery mist of the nebula, and the frigid and consolidated +globe, there is a brief span, ranging over about one hundred and twenty +degrees of temperature, where life appears and organic evolution takes +place. Compared with the whole scale of temperature, from absolute zero +to the white heat of the hottest stars, it is about a hand's-breadth +compared to a mile. + +Life processes cease, but chemical and mechanical processes go on +forever. Life is as fugitive and uncertain as the bow in the clouds, +and, like the bow in the clouds, is confined to a limited range of +conditions. Like the bow, also, it is a perpetual creation, a constant +becoming, and its source is not in the matter through which it is +manifested, though inseparable from it. The material substance of life, +like the rain-drops, is in perpetual flux and change; it hangs always on +the verge of dissolution and vanishes when the material conditions fail, +to be renewed again when they return. We know, do we not? that life is +as literally dependent upon the sun as is the rainbow, and equally +dependent upon the material elements; but whether the physical +conditions sum up the whole truth about it, as they do with the bow, is +the insoluble question. Science says "Yes," but our philosophy and our +religion say "No." The poets and the prophets say "No," and our hopes +and aspirations say "No." + + +II + +Where, then, shall we look for the key to this mysterious thing we call +life? Modern biochemistry will not listen to the old notion of a vital +force--that is only a metaphysical will-o'-the-wisp that leaves us +floundering in the quagmire. If I question the forces about me, what +answer do I get? Molecular attraction and repulsion seem to say, "It is +not in us; we are as active in the clod as in the flower." The four +principal elements--oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon--say, "It is +not in us, because we are from all eternity, and life is not; we form +only its physical basis." Warmth and moisture say, "It is not in us; we +are only its faithful nurses and handmaidens." The sun says: "It is not +in me; I shine on dead worlds as well. I but quicken life after it is +planted." The stars say, "It is not in us; we have seen life come and go +among myriads of worlds for untold ages." No questioning of the heavens +above nor of the earth below can reveal to us the secret we are in quest +of. + +I can fancy brute matter saying to life: "You tarry with me at your +peril. You will always be on the firing-line of my blind, contending +forces; they will respect you not; you must take your chances amid my +flying missiles. My forces go their eternal round without variableness +or shadow of turning, and woe to you if you cross their courses. You +may bring all your gods with you--gods of love, mercy, gentleness, +altruism; but I know them not. Your prayers will fall upon ears of +stone, your appealing gesture upon eyes of stone, your cries for mercy +upon hearts of stone. I shall be neither your enemy nor your friend. I +shall be utterly indifferent to you. My floods will drown you, my winds +wreck you, my fires burn you, my quicksands suck you down, and not know +what they are doing. My earth is a theatre of storms and cyclones, of +avalanches and earthquakes, of lightnings and cloudbursts; wrecks and +ruins strew my course. All my elements and forces are at your service; +all my fluids and gases and solids; my stars in their courses will fight +on your side, if you put and keep yourself in right relations to them. +My atoms and electrons will build your houses, my lightning do your +errands, my winds sail your ships, on the same terms. You cannot live +without my air and my water and my warmth; but each of them is a source +of power that will crush or engulf or devour you before it will turn one +hair's-breadth from its course. Your trees will be uprooted by my +tornadoes, your fair fields will be laid waste by floods or fires; my +mountains will fall on your delicate forms and utterly crush and bury +them; my glaciers will overspread vast areas and banish or destroy whole +tribes and races of your handiwork; the shrinking and wrinkling crust of +my earth will fold in its insensate bosom vast forests of your tropical +growths, and convert them into black rock, and I will make rock of the +myriad forms of minute life with which you plant the seas; through +immense geologic ages my relentless, unseeing, unfeeling forces will +drive on like the ploughshare that buries every flower and grass-blade +and tiny creature in its path. My winds are life-giving breezes to-day, +and the besom of destruction to-morrow; my rains will moisten and +nourish you one day, and wash you into the gulf the next; my earthquakes +will bury your cities as if they were ant-hills. So you must take your +chances, but the chances are on your side. I am not all tempest, or +flood, or fire, or earthquake. Your career will be a warfare, but you +will win more battles than you will lose. But remember, you are nothing +to me, while I am everything to you. I have nothing to lose or gain, +while you have everything to gain. Without my soils and moisture and +warmth, without my carbon and oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen, you can +do or be nothing; without my sunshine you perish; but you have these +things on condition of effort and struggle. You have evolution on +condition of pain and failure and the hazard of the warring geologic +ages. Fate and necessity rule in my realm. When you fail, or are crushed +or swallowed by my remorseless forces, do not blame my gods, or your +own; there is no blame, there is only the price to be paid: the hazards +of invading the closed circle of my unseeing forces." + +In California I saw an epitome of the merciless way inorganic Nature +deals with life. An old, dried, and hardened asphalt lake near Los +Angeles tells a horrible tale of animal suffering and failure. It had +been a pit of horrors for long ages; it was Nature concentrated--her +wild welter of struggling and devouring forms through the geologic ages +made visible and tangible in a small patch of mingled pitch and animal +bones. There was nearly as much bone as pitch. The fate of the unlucky +flies that alight upon tangle-foot fly-paper in our houses had been the +fate of the victims that had perished here. How many wild creatures had +turned appealing eyes to the great unheeding void as they felt +themselves helpless and sinking in this all-engulfing pitch! In like +manner how many human beings in storms and disasters at sea and in flood +and fire upon land have turned the same appealing look to the unpitying +heavens! There is no power in the world of physical forces, or apart +from our own kind, that heeds us or turns aside for us, or bestows one +pitying glance upon us. Life has run, and still runs, the gantlet of a +long line of hostile forces, and escapes by dint of fleetness of foot, +or agility in dodging, or else by toughness of fibre. + +Yet here we are; here is love and charity and mercy and intelligence; +the fair face of childhood, the beautiful face of youth, the clear, +strong face of manhood and womanhood, and the calm, benign face of old +age, seen, it is true, as against a background of their opposites, but +seeming to indicate something above chance and change at the heart of +Nature. Here is life in the midst of death; but death forever playing +into the hands of life; here is the organic in the midst of the +inorganic, at strife with it, hourly crushed by it, yet sustained and +kept going by its aid. + + +III + +Vitality is only a word, but it marks a class of phenomena in nature +that stands apart from all merely mechanical manifestations in the +universe. The cosmos is a vast machine, but in this machine--this +tremendous complex of physical forces--there appears, at least on this +earth, in the course of its evolution, this something, or this peculiar +manifestation of energy, that we call vital. Apparently it is a +transient phase of activity in matter, which, unlike other chemical and +physical activities, has its beginning and its ending, and out of which +have arisen all the myriad forms of terrestrial life. The merely +material forces, blind and haphazard from the first, did not arise in +matter; they are inseparable from it; they are as eternal as matter +itself; but the activities called vital arose in time and place, and +must eventually disappear as they arose, while the career of the +inorganic elements goes on as if life had never visited the sphere. Was +it, or is it, a visitation--something _ab extra_ that implies +super-mundane, or supernatural, powers? + +Added to this wonder is the fact that the vital order has gone on +unfolding through the geologic ages, mounting from form to form, or from +order to order, becoming more and more complex, passing from the +emphasis of size of body, to the emphasis of size of brain, and finally +from instinct and reflex activities to free volition, and the reason and +consciousness of man; while the purely physical and chemical forces +remain where they began. There has been endless change among them, +endless shifting of the balance of power, but always the tendency to a +dead equilibrium, while the genius of the organic forces has been in the +power to disturb the equilibrium and to ride into port on the crest of +the wave it has created, or to hang forever between the stable and the +unstable. + +So there we are, confronted by two apparently contrary truths. It is to +me unthinkable that the vital order is not as truly rooted in the +constitution of things as are the mechanical and chemical orders; and +yet, here we are face to face with its limited, fugitive, or +transitional character. It comes and goes like the dews of the morning; +it has all the features of an exceptional, unexpected, extraordinary +occurrence--of miracle, if you will; but if the light which physical +science turns on the universe is not a delusion, if the habit of mind +which it begets is not a false one, then life belongs to the same +category of things as do day and night, rain and sun, rest and motion. +Who shall reconcile these contradictions? + +Huxley spoke for physical science when he said that he did not know what +it was that constituted life--what it was that made the "wonderful +difference between the dead particles and the living particles of matter +appearing in other respects identical." He thought there might be some +bond between physico-chemical phenomena, on the one hand, and vital +phenomena, on the other, which philosophers will some day find out. +Living matter is characterized by "spontaneity of action," which is +entirely absent from inert matter. Huxley cannot or does not think of a +vital force distinct from all other forces, as the cause of life +phenomena, as so many philosophers have done, from Aristotle down to our +day. He finds protoplasm to be the physical basis of life; it is one in +both the vegetable and animal worlds; the animal takes it from the +vegetable, and the vegetable, by the aid of sunlight, takes or +manufactures it from the inorganic elements. But protoplasm is living +matter. Before there was any protoplasm, what brought about the +stupendous change of the dead into the living? Protoplasm makes more +protoplasm, as fire makes more fire, but what kindled the first spark of +this living flame? Here we corner the mystery, but it is still a +mystery that defies us. Cause and effect meet and are lost in each +other. Science cannot admit a miracle, or a break in the continuity of +life, yet here it reaches a point where no step can be taken. Huxley's +illustrations do not help his argument. "Protoplasm," he says, "is the +clay of the potter; which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains +clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick +or sun-dried clod." Clay is certainly the physical basis of the potter's +art, but would there be any pottery in the world if it contained only +clay? Do we not have to think of the potter? In the same way, do we not +have to think of something that fashions these myriad forms of life out +of protoplasm?--and back of that, of something that begat protoplasm out +of non-protoplasmic matter, and started the flame of life going? Life +accounts for protoplasm, but what accounts for life? We have to think of +the living clay as separated by Nature from the inert "sun-dried clod." +There is something in the one that is not in the other. There is really +no authentic analogy between the potter's art and Nature's art of life. + +The force of the analogy, if it has any, drives us to the conclusion +that life is an entity, or an agent, working upon matter and independent +of it. + +There is more wit than science in Huxley's question, "What better +philosophical status has vitality than aquosity?" There is at least this +difference: When vitality is gone, you cannot recall it, or reproduce +it by your chemistry; but you can recombine the two gases in which you +have decomposed water, any number of times, and get your aquosity back +again; it never fails; it is a power of chemistry. But vitality will not +come at your beck; it is not a chemical product, at least in the same +sense that water is; it is not in the same category as the wetness or +liquidity of water. It is a name for a phenomenon--the most remarkable +phenomenon in nature. It is one that the art of man is powerless to +reproduce, while water may be made to go through its cycle of +change--solid, fluid, vapor, gas--and always come back to water. Well +does the late Professor Brooks, of Johns Hopkins, say that "living +things do, in some way and in some degree, control or condition +inorganic nature; that they hold their own by setting the mechanical +properties of matter in opposition to each other, and that this is their +most notable and distinctive characteristic." Does not Ray Lankester, +the irate champion of the mechanistic view of life, say essentially the +same thing when he calls man the great Insurgent in Nature's +camp--"crossing her courses, reversing her processes, and defeating her +ends?" + +Life appears like the introduction of a new element or force or tendency +into the cosmos. Henceforth the elements go new ways, form new +compounds, build up new forms, and change the face of nature. Rivers +flow where they never would have flowed without it, mountains fall in a +space of time during which they never would have fallen; barriers arise, +rough ways are made smooth, a new world appears--the world of man's +physical and mental activities. + +If the gods of the inorganic elements are neither for nor against us, +but utterly indifferent to us, how came we here? Nature's method is +always from the inside, while ours is from the outside; hers is circular +while ours is direct. We think, as Bergson says, of things created, and +of a thing that creates, but things in nature are not created, they are +evolved; they grow, and the thing that grows is not separable from the +force that causes it to grow. The water turns the wheel, and can be shut +off or let on. This is the way of the mechanical world. But the wheels +in organic nature go around from something inside them, a kind of +perpetual motion, or self-supplying power. They are not turned, they +turn; they are not repaired, they repair. The nature of living things +cannot be interpreted by the laws of mechanical and chemical things, +though mechanics and chemistry play the visible, tangible part in them. +If we must discard the notion of a vital force, we may, as Professor +Hartog suggests, make use of the term "vital behavior." + +Of course man tries everything by himself and his own standards. He +knows no intelligence but his own, no prudence, no love, no mercy, no +justice, no economy, but his own, no god but such a one as fits his +conception. + +In view of all these things, how man got here is a problem. Why the +slender thread of his line of descent was not broken in the warrings and +upheavals of the terrible geologic ages, what power or agent took a hand +in furthering his development, is beyond the reach of our biologic +science. + +Man's is the only intelligence, as we understand the word, in the +universe, and his intelligence demands something akin to intelligence in +the nature from which he sprang. + + + + +VII + +LIFE AND MIND + +I + + +There are three kinds of change in the world in which we live--physical +and mechanical change which goes on in time and place among the tangible +bodies about us, chemical change which goes on in the world of hidden +molecules and atoms of which bodies are composed, and vital change which +involves the two former, but which also involves the mysterious +principle or activity which we call life. Life comes and goes, but the +physical and chemical orders remain. The vegetable and animal kingdoms +wax and wane, or disappear entirely, but the physico-chemical forces are +as indestructible as matter itself. This fugitive and evanescent +character of life, the way it uses and triumphs over the material +forces, setting up new chemical activities in matter, sweeping over the +land-areas of the earth like a conflagration, lifting the inorganic +elements up into myriads of changing and beautiful forms, instituting a +vast number of new chemical processes and compounds, defying the +laboratory to reproduce it or kindle its least spark--a flame that +cannot exist without carbon and oxygen, but of which carbon and oxygen +do not hold the secret, a fire reversed, building up instead of pulling +down, in the vegetable with power to absorb and transmute the inorganic +elements into leaves and fruit and tissue; in the animal with power to +change the vegetable products into bone and muscle and nerve and brain, +and finally into thought and consciousness; run by the solar energy and +dependent upon it, yet involving something which the sunlight cannot +give us; in short, an activity in matter, or in a limited part of +matter, as real as the physico-chemical activity, but, unlike it, +defying all analysis and explanation and all our attempts at synthesis. +It is this character of life, I say, that so easily leads us to look +upon it as something _ab extra_, or super-added to matter, and not an +evolution from it. It has led Sir Oliver Lodge to conceive of life as a +distinct entity, existing independent of matter, and it is this +conception that gives the key to Henri Bergson's wonderful book, +"Creative Evolution." + +There is possibly or probably a fourth change in matter, physical in its +nature, but much more subtle and mysterious than any of the physical +changes which our senses reveal to us. I refer to radioactive change, or +to the atomic transformation of one element into another, such as the +change of radium into helium, and the change of helium into lead--a +subject that takes us to the borderland between physics and chemistry +where is still debatable ground. + +I began by saying that there were three kinds of changes in matter--the +physical, the chemical, and the vital. But if we follow up this idea and +declare that there are three kinds of force also, claiming this +distinction for the third term of our proposition, we shall be running +counter to the main current of recent biological science. "The idea that +a peculiar 'vital force' acts in the chemistry of life," says Professor +Soddy, "is extinct." + +"Only chemical and physical agents influence the vital processes," says +Professor Czapek, of the University of Prague, "and we need no longer +take refuge in mysterious 'vital forces' when we want to explain these." + +Tyndall was obliged to think of a force that guided the molecules of +matter into the special forms of a tree. This force was in the ultimate +particles of matter. But when he came to the brain and to consciousness, +he said a new product appeared that defies mechanical treatment. + +The attempt of the biological science of our time to wipe out all +distinctions between the living and the non-living, solely because +scientific analysis reveals no difference, is a curious and interesting +phenomenon. + +Professor Schäfer, in his presidential address before the British +Association in 1912, argued that all the main characteristics of living +matter, such as assimilation and disassimilation, growth and +reproduction, spontaneous and amoeboid movement, osmotic pressure, +karyokinesis, etc., were equally apparent in the non-living; therefore +he concluded that life is only one of the many chemical reactions, and +that it is not improbable that it will yet be produced by chemical +synthesis in the laboratory. The logic of the position taken by +Professor Schäfer and of the school to which he belongs, demands this +artificial production of life--an achievement that seems no nearer than +it did a half-century ago. When it has been attained, the problem will +be simplified, but the mystery of life will by no means have been +cleared up. One follows these later biochemists in working out their +problem of the genesis of life with keen interest, but always with a +feeling that there is more in their conclusions than is justified by +their premises. For my own part, I am convinced that whatever is, is +natural, but to obtain life I feel the need of something of a different +order from the force that evokes the spark from the flint and the steel, +or brings about the reaction of chemical compounds. If asked to explain +what this something is that is characteristic of living matter, I should +say intelligence. + +The new school of biologists start with matter that possesses +extraordinary properties--with matter that seems inspired with the +desire for life, and behaving in a way that it never will behave in the +laboratory. They begin with the earth's surface warm and moist, the +atmosphere saturated with watery vapor and carbon dioxide and many other +complex unstable compounds; then they summon all the material elements +of life--carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with a little sodium, +chlorine, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, and others--and make these run +together to form a jelly-like body called a colloid; then they endow +this jelly mass with the power of growth, and of subdivision when it +gets too large; they make it able to absorb various unstable compounds +from the air, giving it internal stores of energy, "the setting free of +which would cause automatic movements in the lump of jelly." Thus they +lay the foundations of life. This carbonaceous material with properties +of movement and subdivision due to mechanical and physical forces is the +immediate ancestor of the first imaginary living being, the _protobion_. +To get this _protobion_ the chemists summon a reagent known as a +catalyser. The catalyser works its magic on the jelly mass. It sets up a +wonderful reaction by its mere presence, without parting with any of its +substance. Thus, if a bit of platinum which has this catalytic power is +dropped into a vessel containing a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, the +two gases instantly unite and form water. A catalyser introduced in the +primordial jelly liberates energy and gives the substance power to break +up the various complex unstable compounds into food, and promote growth +and subdivision. In fact, it awakens or imparts a vital force and leads +to "indefinite increase, subdivision, and movement." + +With Professor Schäfer there is first "the fortuitous production of life +upon this globe"--the chance meeting or jostling of the elements that +resulted in a bit of living protoplasm, "or a mass of colloid slime" in +the old seas, or on their shores, "possessing the property of +assimilation and therefore of growth." Here the whole mystery is +swallowed at one gulp. "Reproduction would follow as a matter of +course," because all material of this physical nature--fluid or +semi-fluid in character--"has a tendency to undergo subdivision when its +bulk exceeds a certain size." + +"A mass of colloidal slime" that has the power of assimilation and of +growth and reproduction, is certainly a new thing in the world, and no +chemical analysis of it can clear up the mystery. It is easy enough to +produce colloidal slime, but to endow it with these wonderful powers so +that "the promise and the potency of all terrestrial life" slumbers in +it is a staggering proposition. + +Whatever the character of this subdivision, whether into equal parts or +in the form of buds, "every separate part would resemble the parent in +chemical and physical properties, and would equally possess the property +of taking in and assimilating suitable material from its liquid +environment, growing in bulk and reproducing its like by subdivision. +In this way from any beginning of living material a primitive form of +life would spread and would gradually people the globe. The +establishment of life being once effected, all forms of organization +follow under the inevitable laws of evolution." Why all forms of +organization--why the body and brain of man--must inevitably follow from +the primitive bit of living matter, is just the question upon which we +want light. The proposition begs the question. Certainly when you have +got the evolutionary process once started in matter which has these +wonderful powers, all is easy. The professor simply describes what has +taken place and seems to think that the mystery is thereby cleared up, +as if by naming all the parts of a machine and their relation to one +another, the machine is accounted for. What caused the iron and steel +and wood of the machine to take this special form, while in other cases +the iron and steel and wood took other radically different forms, and +vast quantities of these substances took no form at all? + +In working out the evolution of living forms by the aid of the blind +physical and chemical agents alone, Professor Schäfer unconsciously +ascribes the power of choice and purpose to the individual cells, as +when he says that the cells of the external layer sink below the surface +for better protection and better nutrition. It seems to have been a +matter of choice or will that the cells developed a nervous system in +the animal and not in the vegetable. Man came because a few cells in +some early form of life acquired a slightly greater tendency to react to +an external stimulus. In this way they were brought into closer touch +with the outer world and thereby gained the lead of their duller +neighbor cells, and became the real rulers of the body, and developed +the mind. + +It is bewildering to be told by so competent a person as Professor +Schäfer that at bottom there is no fundamental difference between the +living and non-living. We need not urge the existence of a peculiar +vital force, as distinct from all other forces, but all distinctions +between things are useless if we cannot say that a new behavior is set +up in matter which we describe by the word "vital," and that a new +principle is operative in organized matter which we must call +"intelligence." Of course all movements and processes of living beings +are in conformity with the general laws of matter, but does such a +statement necessarily rule out all idea of the operation of an +organizing and directing principle that is not operative in the world of +inanimate things? + +In Schäfer's philosophy evolution is purely a mechanical process--there +is no inborn tendency, no inherent push, no organizing effort, but all +results from the blind groping and chance jostling of the inorganic +elements; from the molecules of undifferentiated protoplasm to the +brain of a Christ or a Plato, is just one series of unintelligent +physical and chemical activities in matter. + +May we not say that all the marks or characteristics of a living body +which distinguish it in our experience from an inanimate body, are of a +non-scientific character, or outside the sphere of experimental science? +We recognize them as readily as we distinguish day from night, but we +cannot describe them in the fixed terms of science. When we say growth, +metabolism, osmosis, the colloidal state, science points out that all +this may be affirmed of inorganic bodies. When we say a life principle, +a vital force or soul or spirit or intelligence, science turns a deaf +ear. + +The difference between the living and the non-living is not so much a +physical difference as a metaphysical difference. Living matter is +actuated by intelligence. Its activities are spontaneous and +self-directing. The rock, and the tree that grows beside it, and the +insects and rodents that burrow under it, may all be made of one stuff, +but their difference to the beholder is fundamental; there is an +intelligent activity in the one that is not in the other. Now no +scientific analysis of a body will reveal the secret of this activity. +As well might your analysis of a phonographic record hope to disclose a +sonata of Beethoven latent in the waving lines. No power of chemistry +could reveal any difference between the gray matter of Plato's brain +and that of the humblest citizen of Athens. All the difference between +man, all that makes a man a man, and an ox an ox, is beyond the reach of +any of your physico-chemical tests. By the same token the gulf that +separates the organic from the inorganic is not within the power of +science to disclose. The biochemist is bound to put life in the category +of the material forces because his science can deal with no other. To +him the word "vital" is a word merely, it stands for no reality, and the +secret of life is merely a chemical reaction. A living body awakens a +train of ideas in our minds that a non-living fails to awaken--a train +of ideas that belong to another order from that awakened by scientific +demonstration. We cannot blame science for ruling out that which it +cannot touch with its analysis, or repeat with its synthesis. The +phenomena of life are as obvious to us as anything in the world; we know +their signs and ways, and witness their power, yet in the alembic of our +science they turn out to be only physico-chemical processes; hence that +is all there is of them. Vitality, says Huxley, has no more reality than +the horology of a clock. Yet Huxley sees three equal realities in the +universe--matter, energy, and consciousness. But consciousness is the +crown of a vital process. Hence it would seem as if there must be +something more real in vitality than Huxley is willing to admit. + + +II + +Nearly all the later biologists or biological philosophers are as shy of +the term "vital force," and even of the word "vitality," as they are of +the words "soul," "spirit," "intelligence," when discussing natural +phenomena. To experimental science such words have no meaning because +the supposed realities for which they stand are quite beyond the reach +of scientific analysis. Ray Lankester, in his "Science from an Easy +Chair," following Huxley, compares vitality with aquosity, and says that +to have recourse to a vital principle or force to explain a living body +is no better philosophy than to appeal to a principle of aquosity to +explain water. Of course words are words, and they have such weight with +us that when we have got a name for a thing it is very easy to persuade +ourselves that the thing exists. The terms "vitality," "vital force," +have long been in use, and it is not easy to convince one's self that +they stand for no reality. Certain it is that living and non-living +matter are sharply separated, though when reduced to their chemical +constituents in the laboratory they are found to be identical. The +carbon, the hydrogen, the nitrogen, the oxygen, and the lime, sulphur, +iron, etc., in a living body are in no way peculiar, but are the same as +these elements in the rocks and the soil. We are all made of one stuff; +a man and his dog are made of one stuff; an oak and a pine are made of +one stuff; Jew and Gentile are made of one stuff. Should we be +justified, then, in saying that there is no difference between them? +There is certainly a moral and an intellectual difference between a man +and his dog, if there is no chemical and mechanical difference. And +there is as certainly as wide or a wider difference between living and +non-living matter, though it be beyond the reach of science to detect. +For this difference we have to have a name, and we use the words +"vital," "vitality," which seem to me to stand for as undeniable +realities as the words heat, light, chemical affinity, gravitation. +There is not a principle of roundness, though "nature centres into +balls," nor of squareness, though crystallization is in right lines, nor +of aquosity, though two thirds of the surface of the earth is covered +with water. Can we on any better philosophical grounds say that there is +a principle of vitality, though the earth swarms with living beings? Yet +the word vitality stands for a reality, it stands for a peculiar +activity in matter--for certain movements and characteristics for which +we have no other term. I fail to see any analogy between aquosity and +that condition of matter we call vital or living. Aquosity is not an +activity, it is a property, the property of wetness; viscosity is a term +to describe other conditions of matter; solidity, to describe still +another condition; and opacity and transparency, to describe still +others--as they affect another of our senses. But the vital activity in +matter is a concrete reality. With it there goes the organizing tendency +or impulse, and upon it hinges the whole evolutionary movement of the +biological history of the globe. We can do all sorts of things with +water and still keep its aquosity. If we resolve it into its constituent +gases we destroy its aquosity, but by uniting these gases chemically we +have the wetness back again. But if a body loses its vitality, its life, +can we by the power of chemistry, or any other power within our reach, +bring the vitality back to it? Can we make the dead live? You may bray +your living body in a mortar, destroy every one of its myriad cells, and +yet you may not extinguish the last spark of life; the protoplasm is +still living. But boil it or bake it and the vitality is gone, and all +the art and science of mankind cannot bring it back again. The physical +and chemical activities remain after the vital activities have ceased. +Do we not then have to supply a non-chemical, a non-physical force or +factor to account for the living body? Is there no difference between +the growth of a plant or an animal, and the increase in size of a +sand-bank or a snow-bank, or a river delta? or between the wear and +repair of a working-man's body and the wear and repair of the machine he +drives? Excretion and secretion are not in the same categories. The +living and the non-living mark off the two grand divisions of matter in +the world in which we live, as no two terms merely descriptive of +chemical and physical phenomena ever can. Life is a motion in matter, +but of another order from that of the physico-chemical, though +inseparable from it. We may forego the convenient term "vital force." +Modern science shies at the term "force." We must have force or energy +or pressure of some kind to lift dead matter up into the myriad forms of +life, though in the last analysis of it it may all date from the sun. +When it builds a living body, we call it a vital force; when it builds a +gravel-bank, or moves a glacier, we call it a mechanical force; when it +writes a poem or composes a symphony, we call it a psychic force--all +distinctions which we cannot well dispense with, though of the ultimate +reality for which these terms stand we can know little. In the latest +science heat and light are not substances, though electricity is. They +are peculiar motions in matter which give rise to sensations in certain +living bodies that we name light and heat, as another peculiar motion in +matter gives rise to a sensation we call sound. Life is another kind of +motion in certain aggregates of matter--more mysterious or inexplicable +than all others because it cannot be described in terms of the others, +and because it defies the art and science of man to reproduce. + +Though the concepts "vital force" and "life principle" have no standing +in the court of modern biological science, it is interesting to observe +how often recourse is had by biological writers to terms that embody +the same idea. Thus the German physiologist Verworn, the determined +enemy of the old conception of life, in his great work on +"Irritability," has recourse to "the specific energy of living +substances." One is forced to believe that without this "specific +energy" his "living substances" would never have arisen out of the +non-living. + +Professor Moore, of Liverpool University, as I have already pointed out +while discussing the term "vital force," invents a new phrase, "biotic +energy," to explain the same phenomena. Surely a force by any other name +is no more and no less potent. Both Verworn and Moore feel the need, as +we all do, of some term, or terms, by which to explain that activity in +matter which we call vital. Other writers have referred to "a peculiar +power of synthesis" in plants and animals, which the inanimate forms do +not possess. + +Ray Lankester, to whom I have already referred in discussing this +subject, helps himself out by inventing, not a new force, but a new +substance in which he fancies "resides the peculiar property of living +matter." He calls this hypothetical substance "plasmogen," and thinks of +it as an ultimate chemical compound hidden in protoplasm. Has this +"ultimate molecule of life" any more scientific or philosophical +validity than the old conception of a vital force? It looks very much +like another name for the same thing--an attempt to give the mind +something to take hold of in dealing with the mystery of living things. +This imaginary "life-stuff" of the British scientist is entirely beyond +the reach of chemical analysis; no man has ever seen it or proved its +existence. In fact it is simply an invention of Ray Lankester to fill a +break in the sequence of observed phenomena. Something seems to possess +the power of starting or kindling that organizing activity in a living +body, and it seems to me it matters little whether we call it +"plasmogen," or a "life principle," or "biotic energy," or what not; it +surely leavens the loaf. Matter takes on new activities under its +influence. Ray Lankester thinks that plasmogen came into being in early +geologic ages, and that the conditions which led to its formation have +probably never recurred. Whether he thinks its formation was merely a +chance hit or not, he does not say. + +We see matter all about us, acted upon by the mechanico-chemical forces, +that never takes on any of the distinctive phenomena of living bodies. +Yet Verworn is convinced that if we could bring the elements of a living +body together as Nature does, in the same order and proportion, and +combine them in the selfsame way, or bring about the vital conditions, a +living being would result. Undoubtedly. It amounts to saying that if we +had Nature's power we could do what she does. _If_ we could marry the +elements as she does, and bless the banns as she seems to, we could +build a man out of a clay-bank. But clearly physics and chemistry alone, +as we know and practice them, are not equal to the task. + + +III + +One of the fundamental characteristics of life is power of adaptation; +it will adapt itself to almost any condition; it is willing and +accommodating. It is like a stream that can be turned into various +channels; the gall insects turn it into channels to suit their ends when +they sting the leaf of a tree or the stalk of a plant, and deposit an +egg in the wound. "Build me a home and a nursery for my young," says the +insect. "With all my heart," says the leaf, and forthwith forgets its +function as a leaf, and proceeds to build up a structure, often of great +delicacy and complexity, to house and cradle its enemy. The current of +life flows on blindly and takes any form imposed upon it. But in the +case of the vegetable galls it takes life to control life. Man cannot +produce these galls by artificial means. But we can take various +mechanical and chemical liberties with embryonic animal life in its +lower sea-forms. Professor Loeb has fertilized the eggs of sea-urchins +by artificial means. The eggs of certain forms may be made to produce +twins by altering the constitution of the sea-water, and the twins can +be made to grow together so as to produce monstrosities by another +chemical change in the sea-water. The eyes of certain fish embryos may +be fused into a single cyclopean eye by adding magnesium chloride to the +water in which they live. Loeb says, "It is _a priori_ obvious that an +unlimited number of pathological variations might be produced by a +variation in the concentration and constitution of the sea water, and +experience confirms this statement." It has been found that when frog's +eggs are turned upside down and compressed between two glass plates for +a number of hours, some of the eggs give rise to twins. Professor Morgan +found that if he destroyed half of a frog's egg after the first +segmentation, the remaining half gave rise to half an embryo, but that +if he put the half-egg upside down, and compressed it between two glass +plates, he got a perfect embryo frog of half the normal size. Such +things show how plastic and adaptive life is. Dr. Carrel's experiments +with living animal tissue immersed in a proper mother-liquid illustrate +how the vital process--cell-multiplication--may be induced to go on and +on, blindly, aimlessly, for an almost indefinite time. The cells +multiply, but they do not organize themselves into a constructive +community and build an organ or any purposeful part. They may be likened +to a lot of blind masons piling up brick and mortar without any +architect to direct their work or furnish them a plan. A living body of +the higher type is not merely an association of cells; it is an +association and coöperation of communities of cells, each community +working to a definite end and building an harmonious whole. The +biochemist who would produce life in the laboratory has before him the +problem of compounding matter charged with this organizing tendency or +power, and doubtless if he ever should evoke this mysterious process +through his chemical reactions, it would possess this power, as this is +what distinguishes the organic from the inorganic. + +I do not see mind or intelligence in the inorganic world in the sense in +which I see it in the organic. In the heavens one sees power, vastness, +sublimity, unspeakable, but one sees only the physical laws working on a +grander scale than on the earth. Celestial mechanics do not differ from +terrestrial mechanics, however tremendous and imposing the result of +their activities. But in the humblest living thing--in a spear of grass +by the roadside, in a gnat, in a flea--there lurks a greater mystery. In +an animate body, however small, there abides something of which we get +no trace in the vast reaches of astronomy, a kind of activity that is +incalculable, indeterminate, and super-mechanical, not lawless, but +making its own laws, and escaping from the iron necessity that rules in +the inorganic world. + +Our mathematics and our science can break into the circle of the +celestial and the terrestrial forces, and weigh and measure and separate +them, and in a degree understand them; but the forces of life defy our +analysis as well as our synthesis. + +Knowing as we do all the elements that make up the body and brain of a +man, all the physiological processes, and all the relations and +interdependence of his various organs, if, in addition, we knew all his +inheritances, his whole ancestry back to the primordial cells from which +he sprang, and if we also knew that of every person with whom he comes +in contact and who influences his life, could we forecast his future, +predict the orbit in which his life would revolve, indicate its +eclipses, its perturbations, and the like, as we do that of an +astronomic body? or could we foresee his affinities and combinations as +we do that of a chemical body? Had we known any of the animal forms in +his line of ascent, could we have foretold man as we know him to-day? +Could we have foretold the future of any form of life from its remote +beginnings? Would our mathematics and our chemistry have been of any +avail in our dealing with such a problem? Biology is not in the same +category with geology and astronomy. In the inorganic world, chemical +affinity builds up and pulls down. It integrates the rocks and, under +changed conditions, it disintegrates them. In the organic world chemical +affinity is equally active, but it plays a subordinate part. It neither +builds up nor pulls down. Vital activities, if we must shun the term +"vital force," do both. Barring accidents, the life of all organisms is +terminated by other organisms. In the order of nature, life destroys +life, and compounds destroy compounds. When the air and soil and water +hold no invisible living germs, organic bodies never decay. It is not +the heat that begets putrefaction, but germs in the air. Sufficient heat +kills the germs, but what disintegrates the germs and reduces them to +dust? Other still smaller organisms? and so on _ad infinitum_? Does the +sequence of life have no end? The destruction of one chemical compound +means the formation of other chemical compounds; chemical affinity +cannot be annulled, but the activity we call vital is easily arrested. A +living body can be killed, but a chemical body can only be changed into +another chemical body. + +The least of living things, I repeat, holds a more profound mystery than +all our astronomy and our geology hold. It introduces us to activities +which our mathematics do not help us to deal with. Our science can +describe the processes of a living body, and name all the material +elements that enter into it, but it cannot tell us in what the peculiar +activity consists, or just what it is that differentiates living matter +from non-living. Its analysis reveals no difference. But this difference +consists in something beyond the reach of chemistry and of physics; it +is active intelligence, the power of self-direction, of self-adjustment, +of self-maintenance, of adapting means to an end. It is notorious that +the hand cannot always cover the flea; this atom has will, and knows +the road to safety. Behold what our bodies know over and above what we +know! Professor Czapek reveals to us a chemist at work in the body who +proceeds precisely like the chemist in his laboratory; they might both +have graduated at the same school. Thus the chemist in the laboratory is +accustomed to dissolve the substance which is to be used in an +experiment to react on other substances. The chemical course in living +cells is the same. All substances destined for reactions are first +dissolved. No compound is taken up in living cells before it is +dissolved. Digestion is essentially identical with dissolving or +bringing into a liquid state. On the other hand, when the chemist wishes +to preserve a living substance from chemical change, he transfers it +from a state of solution into a solid state. The chemist in the living +body does the same thing. Substances which are to be stored up, such as +starch, fat, or protein bodies, are deposited in insoluble form, ready +to be dissolved and used whenever wanted for the life processes. +Poisonous substances are eliminated from living bodies by the same +process of precipitation. Oxalic acid is a product of oxidation in +living cells, and has strong poisonous properties. To get rid of it, the +chemist inside the body, by the aid of calcium salts, forms insoluble +compounds of it, and thus casts it out. To separate substances from each +other by filtration, or by shaking with suitable liquids, is one of the +daily tasks of the chemist. Analogous processes occur regularly in +living cells. Again, when the chemist wishes to finish his filtration +quickly, he uses filters which have a large surface. "In living +protoplasms, this condition is very well fulfilled by the foam-like +structure which affords an immense surface in a very small space." In +the laboratory the chemist mixes his substances by stirring. The body +chemist achieves the same result by the streaming of protoplasm. The +cells know what they want, and how to attain it, as clearly as the +chemist does. The intelligence of the living body, or what we must call +such for want of a better term, is shown in scores of ways--by the means +it takes to protect itself against microbes, by the antitoxins that it +forms. Indeed, if we knew all that our bodies know, what mysteries would +be revealed to us! + + +IV + +Life goes up-stream--goes against the tendency to a static equilibrium +in matter; decay and death go down. What is it in the body that +struggles against poisons and seeks to neutralize their effects? What is +it that protects the body against a second attack of certain diseases, +making it immune? Chemical changes, undoubtedly, but what brings about +the chemical changes? The body is a _colony_ of living units called +cells, that behaves much like a colony of insects when it takes measures +to protect itself against its enemies. The body forms anti-toxins when +it has to. It knows how to do it as well as bees know how to ventilate +the hive, or how to seal up or entomb the grub of an invading moth. +Indeed, how much the act of the body, in encysting a bullet in its +tissues, is like the act of the bees in encasing with wax a worm in the +combs! + +What is that in the body which at great altitudes increases the number +of red corpuscles in the blood, those oxygen-bearers, so as to make up +for the lessened amount of oxygen breathed by reason of the rarity of +the air? Under such conditions, the amount of hæmoglobin is almost +doubled. I do not call this thing a force; I call it an +intelligence--the intelligence that pervades the body and all animate +nature, and does the right thing at the right time. We, no doubt, speak +too loosely of it when we say that it prompts or causes the body to do +this, or to do that; it _is_ the body; the relation of the two has no +human analogy; the two are one. + +Man breaks into the circuit of the natural inorganic forces and arrests +them and controls them, and makes them do his work--turn his wheels, +drive his engines, run his errands, etc.; but he cannot do this in the +same sense with the organic forces; he cannot put a spell upon the pine +tree and cause it to build him a house or a nursery. Only the insects +can do a thing like that; only certain insects can break into the +circuit of vegetable life and divert its forces to serve their special +ends. One kind of an insect stings a bud or a leaf of the oak, and the +tree forthwith grows a solid nutlike protuberance the size of a +chestnut, in which the larvæ of the insect live and feed and mature. +Another insect stings the same leaf and produces the common oak-apple--a +smooth, round, green, shell-like body filled with a network of radiating +filaments, with the egg and then the grub of the insect at the centre. +Still another kind of insect stings the oak bud and deposits its eggs +there, and the oak proceeds to grow a large white ball made up of a kind +of succulent vegetable wool with red spots evenly distributed over its +surface, as if it were some kind of spotted fruit or flower. In June, it +is about the size of a small apple. Cut it in half and you find scores +of small shell-like growths radiating from the bud-stem, like the seeds +of the dandelion, each with a kind of vegetable pappus rising from it, +and together making up the ball as the pappus of the dandelion seeds +makes up the seed-globe of this plant. It is one of the most singular +vegetable products, or vegetable perversions, that I know of. A sham +fruit filled with sham seeds; each seed-like growth contains a grub, +which later in the season pupates and eats its way out, a winged insect. +How foreign to anything we know as mechanical or chemical it all +is!--the surprising and incalculable tricks of life! + +Another kind of insect stings the oak leaf and there develops a pale, +smooth, solid, semi-transparent sphere, the size of a robin's egg, dense +and succulent like the flesh of an apple, with the larvæ of the insect +subsisting in its interior. Each of these widely different forms is +evoked from the oak leaf by the magic of an insect's ovipositor. +Chemically, the constituents of all of them are undoubtedly the same. + +It is one of the most curious and suggestive things in living nature. It +shows how plastic and versatile life is, and how utterly unmechanical. +Life plays so many and such various tunes upon the same instruments; or +rather, the living organism is like many instruments in one; the tones +of all instruments slumber in it to be awakened when the right performer +appears. At least four different insects get four different tunes, so to +speak, out of the oak leaf. + +Certain insects avail themselves of the animal organism also and go +through their cycle of development and metamorphosis within its tissues +or organs in a similar manner. + + +V + +On the threshold of the world of living organisms stands that wonderful +minute body, the cell, the unit of life--a piece of self-regulating and +self-renewing mechanism that holds the key to all the myriads of living +forms that fill the world, from the amoeba up to man. For chemistry +to produce the cell is apparently as impossible as for it to produce a +bird's egg, or a living flower, or the heart and brain of man. The body +is a communal state made up of myriads of cells that all work together +to build up and keep going the human personality. There is the same +coöperation and division of labor that takes place in the civic state, +and in certain insect communities. As in the social and political +organism, thousands of the citizen cells die every day and new cells of +the same kind take their place. Or, it is like an army in battle being +constantly recruited--as fast as a soldier falls another takes his +place, till the whole army is changed, and yet remains the same. The +waste is greatest at the surface of the body through the skin, and +through the stomach and lungs. The worker cells, namely, the tissue +cells, like the worker bees in the hive, pass away the most rapidly; +then, according to Haeckel, there are certain constants, certain cells +that remain throughout life. "There is always a solid groundwork of +conservative cells, the descendants of which secure the further +regeneration." The traditions of the state are kept up by the +citizen-cells that remain, so that, though all is changed in time, the +genius of the state remains; the individuality of the man is not lost. +"The sense of personal identity is maintained across the flight of +molecules," just as it is maintained in the state or nation, by the +units that remain, and by the established order. There is an unwritten +constitution, a spirit that governs, like Maeterlinck's "spirit of the +hive." The traditions of the body are handed down from mother cell to +daughter cell, though just what that means in terms of physiology or +metabolism I do not know. But this we know--that you are you and I am I, +and that human life and personality can never be fully explained or +accounted for in terms of the material forces. + + + + +VIII + +LIFE AND SCIENCE + +I + + +The limited and peculiar activity which arises in matter and which we +call vital; which comes and goes; which will not stay to be analyzed; +which we in vain try to reproduce in our laboratories; which is +inseparable from chemistry and physics, but which is not summed up by +them; which seems to use them and direct them to new ends,--an entity +which seems to have invaded the kingdom of inert matter at some definite +time in the earth's history, and to have set up an insurgent movement +there; cutting across the circuits of the mechanical and chemical +forces; turning them about, pitting one against the other; availing +itself of gravity, of chemical affinity, of fluids and gases, of osmosis +and exosmosis, of colloids, of oxidation and hydration, and yet +explicable by none of these things; clothing itself with garments of +warmth and color and perfume woven from the cold, insensate elements; +setting up new activities in matter; building up myriads of new unstable +compounds; struggling against the tendency of the physical forces to a +dead equilibrium; indeterminate, intermittent, fugitive; limited in +time, limited in space; present in some worlds, absent from others; +breaking up the old routine of the material forces, and instituting new +currents, new tendencies; departing from the linear activities of the +inorganic, and setting up the circular activities of living currents; +replacing change by metamorphosis, revolution by evolution, accretion by +secretion, crystallization by cell-formation, aggregation by growth; +and, finally, introducing a new power into the world--the mind and soul +of man--this wonderful, and apparently transcendental something which we +call life--how baffling and yet how fascinating is the inquiry into its +nature and origin! Are we to regard it as Tyndall did, and as others +before and since his time did and do, as potential in the constitution +of matter, and self-evolved, like the chemical compounds that are +involved in its processes? + +As mechanical energy is latent in coal, and in all combustible bodies, +is vital energy latent in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and so forth, +needing only the right conditions to bring it out? Mechanical energy is +convertible into electrical energy, and _vice versa_. Indeed, the circle +of the physical forces is easily traced, easily broken into, but when or +how these forces merge into the vital and psychic forces, or support +them, or become them--there is the puzzle. If we limit the natural to +the inorganic order, then are living bodies supernatural? +Super-mechanical and super-chemical certainly, and chemics and +mechanics and electro-statics include all the material forces. Is life +outside this circle? It is certain that this circle does not always +include life, but can life exist outside this circle? When it appears it +is always inside it. + +Science can only deal with life as a physical phenomenon; as a psychic +phenomenon it is beyond its scope, except so far as the psychic is +manifested through the physical. Not till it has produced living matter +from dead can it speak with authority upon the question of the origin of +life. Its province is limited to the description and analysis of life +processes, but when it essays to name what institutes the processes, or +to disclose the secret of organization, it becomes philosophy or +theology. When Haeckel says that life originated spontaneously, he does +not speak with the authority of science, because he cannot prove his +assertion; it is his opinion, and that is all. When Helmholtz says that +life had no beginning, he is in the same case. When our later +biophysicists say that life is of physico-chemical origin, they are in +the same case; when Tyndall says that there is no energy in the universe +but solar energy, he is in the same case; when Sir Oliver Lodge says +that life is an entity outside of and independent of matter, he is in +the same case. Philosophy and theology can take leaps in the dark, but +science must have solid ground to go upon. When it speculates or +theorizes, it must make its speculations good. Scientific prophecy is +amenable to the same tests as other prophecy. In the absence of proof by +experiment--scientific proof--to get the living out of the non-living we +have either got to conceive of matter itself as fundamentally creative, +as the new materialism assumes, or else we have got to have an external +Creator, as the old theology assumes. And the difference is more +apparent than real. Tyndall is "baffled and bewildered" by the fact that +out of its molecular vibrations and activities "things so utterly +incongruous with them as sensation, thought, and emotion can be +derived." His science is baffled and bewildered because it cannot, bound +as it is by the iron law of the conservation and correlation of energy, +trace the connection between them. But his philosophy or his theology +would experience little difficulty. Henri Bergson shows no hesitation in +declaring that the fate of consciousness is not involved in the fate of +the brain through which it is manifested, but it is his philosophy and +not his science that inspires this faith. Tyndall deifies matter to get +life out of it--makes the creative energy potential in it. Bergson +deifies or spiritualizes life as a psychic, creative principle, and +makes matter its instrument or vehicle. + +Science is supreme in its own sphere, the sphere, or hemisphere, of the +objective world, but it does not embrace the whole of human life, +because human life is made up of two spheres, or hemispheres, one of +which is the subjective world. There is a world within us also, the +world of our memories, thoughts, emotions, aspirations, imaginings, +which overarches the world of our practical lives and material +experience, as the sky overarches the earth. It is in the spirit of +science that we conquer and use the material world in which we live; it +is in the spirit of art and literature, philosophy and religion, that we +explore and draw upon the immaterial world of our own hearts and souls. +Of course the man of science is also a philosopher--may I not even say +he is also a prophet and poet? Not otherwise could he organize his +scientific facts and see their due relations, see their drift and the +sequence of forces that bind the universe into a whole. As a man of +science he traces out the causes of the tides and the seasons, the +nature and origin of disease, and a thousand and one other things; but +only as a philosopher can he see the body as a whole and speculate about +the mystery of its organization; only as a philosopher can he frame +theories and compare values and interpret the phenomena he sees about +him. + + +II + +We can only know, in the scientific sense, the physical and chemical +phenomena of life; its essence, its origin, we can only know as +philosophy and idealism know them. We have to turn philosophers when we +ask any ultimate question. The feeling we have that the scientific +conception of life is inadequate springs from the philosophical habit of +mind. Yet this habit is quite as legitimate as the scientific habit, and +is bound to supplement the latter all through life. + +The great men of science, like Darwin and Huxley, are philosophers in +their theories and conclusions, and men of science in their observations +and experiments. The limitations of science in dealing with such a +problem are seen in the fact that science can take no step till it has +life to begin with. When it has got the living body, it can analyze its +phenomena and reduce them to their chemical and physical equivalents, +and thus persuade itself that the secret of life may yet be hit upon in +the laboratory. Professor Czapek, of the University of Prague, in his +work on "The Chemical Phenomena of Life" speaks for science when he +says, "What we call life is nothing else but a complex of innumerable +chemical reactions in the living substance which we call protoplasm." +The "living substance" is assumed to begin with, and then we are told +that the secret of its living lies in its chemical and physical +processes. This is in one sense true. No doubt at all that if these +processes were arrested, life would speedily end, but do they alone +account for its origin? Is it not like accounting for a baby in terms of +its breathing and eating? It was a baby before it did either, and it +would seem as if life must in some way ante-date the physical and +chemical processes that attend it, or at least be bound up in them in a +way that no scientific analysis can reveal. + +If life is merely a mode of motion in matter, it is fundamentally unlike +any and all other modes of motion, because, while we can institute all +the others at will, we are powerless to institute this. The mode of +motion we call heat is going on in varying degrees of velocity all about +us at all times and seasons, but the vital motion of matter is limited +to a comparatively narrow circle. We can end it, but we cannot start it. + +The rigidly scientific type of mind sees no greater mystery in the +difference in contour of different animal bodies than a mere difference +in the density of the germ cells: "one density results in a sequence of +cell-densities to form a horse; another a dog; another a cat"; and avers +that if we "repeat the same complex conditions, the same results are as +inevitable as the sequences of forces that result in the formation of +hydrogen monoxide from hydrogen and oxygen." + +Different degrees of density may throw light on the different behavior +of gases and fluids and solids, but can it throw any light on the +question of why a horse is a horse, and a dog a dog? or why one is an +herbivorous feeder, and the other a carnivorous? + +The scientific explanation of life phenomena is analogous to reducing a +living body to its ashes and pointing to them--the lime, the iron, the +phosphorus, the hydrogen, the oxygen, the carbon, the nitrogen--as the +whole secret. + +Professor Czapek is not entirely consistent. He says that it is his +conviction that there is something in physiology that transcends the +chemistry and the physics of inorganic nature. At the same time he +affirms, "It becomes more and more improbable that Life develops forces +which are unknown in inanimate Nature." But psychic forces are a product +of life, and they certainly are not found in inanimate nature. But +without laying stress upon this fact, may we not say that if no new +force is developed by, or is characteristic of, life, certainly new +effects, new processes, new compounds of matter are produced by life? +Matter undergoes some change that chemical analysis does not reveal. The +mystery of isomeric substances appears, a vast number of new compounds +of carbon appear, the face of the earth changes. The appearance of life +in inert matter is a change analogous to the appearance of the mind of +man in animate nature. The old elements and forces are turned to new and +higher uses. Man does not add to the list of forces or elements in the +earth, but he develops them, and turns them to new purposes; they now +obey and serve him, just as the old chemistry and physics obey and +serve life. Czapek tells us of the vast number of what are called +enzymes, or ferments, that appear in living bodies--"never found in +inorganic Nature and not to be gained by chemical synthesis." Orders and +suborders of enzymes, they play a part in respiration, in digestion, in +assimilation. Some act on the fats, some on the carbohydrates, some +produce inversion, others dissolution and precipitation. These enzymes +are at once the products and the agents of life. They must exert force, +chemical force, or, shall we say, they transform chemical force into +life force, or, to use Professor Moore's term, into "biotic energy"? + + +III + +The inorganic seems dreaming of the organic. Behold its dreams in the +fern and tree forms upon the window pane and upon the stone flagging of +a winter morning! In the Brunonian movement of matter in solution, in +crystallization, in chemical affinity, in polarity, in osmosis, in the +growth of flint or chert nodules, in limestone formations--like seeking +like--in these and in other activities, inert matter seems dreaming of +life. + +The chemists have played upon this tendency in the inorganic to parody +or simulate some of the forms of living matter. A noted European +chemist, Dr. Leduc, has produced what he calls "osmotic growths," from +purely unorganized mineral matter--growths in form like seaweed and +polyps and corals and trees. His seeds are fragments of calcium +chloride, and his soil is a solution of the alkaline carbonates, +phosphates, or silicates. When his seeds are sown in these solutions, we +see inert matter germinating, "putting forth bud and stem and root and +branch and leaf and fruit," precisely as in the living vegetable +kingdom. It is not a growth by accretion, as in crystallization, but by +intussusception, as in life. These ghostly things exhibit the phenomena +of circulation and respiration and nutrition, and a crude sort of +reproduction by budding; they repair their injuries, and are able to +perform periodic movements, just as does an animal or a plant; they have +a period of vigorous youthful growth, of old age, of decay, and of +death. In form, in color, in texture, and in cell structure, they +imitate so closely the cell structures of organic growth as to suggest +something uncanny or diabolical. And yet the author of them does not +claim that they are alive. They are not edible, they contain no +protoplasm--no starch or sugar or peptone or fats or carbohydrates. +These chemical creations by Dr. Leduc are still dead matter--dead +colloids--only one remove from crystallization; on the road to life, +fore-runners of life, but not life. If he could set up the +chlorophyllian process in his chemical reactions among inorganic +compounds, the secret of life would be in his hands. But only the green +leaf can produce chlorophyll; and yet, which was first, the leaf or the +chlorophyll? + +Professor Czapek is convinced that "some substances must exist in +protoplasm which are directly responsible for the life processes," and +yet the chemists cannot isolate and identify those substances. + +How utterly unmechanical a living body is, at least how far it +transcends mere mechanics is shown by what the chemists call +"autolysis." Pulverize your watch, and you have completely destroyed +everything that made it a watch except the dead matter; but pulverize or +reduce to a pulp a living plant, and though you have destroyed all cell +structure, you have not yet destroyed the living substance; you have +annihilated the mechanism, but you have not killed the something that +keeps up the life process. Protoplasm takes time to die, but your +machine stops instantly, and its elements are no more potent in a new +machine than they were at first. "In the pulp prepared by grinding down +living organisms in a mortar, some vital phenomena continue for a long +time." The life processes cease, and the substances or elements of the +dead body remain as before. Their chemical reactions are the same. There +is no new chemistry, no new mechanics, no new substance in a live body, +but there is a new tendency or force or impulse acting in matter, +inspiring it, so to speak, to new ends. It is here that idealism parts +company with exact science. It is here that the philosophers go one +way, and the rigid scientists the other. It is from this point of view +that the philosophy of Henri Bergson, based so largely as it is upon +scientific material, has been so bitterly assailed from the scientific +camp. + +The living cell is a wonderful machine, but if we ask which is first, +life or the cell, where are we? There is the synthetical reaction in the +cell, and the analytical or splitting reaction--the organizing, and the +disorganizing processes--what keeps up this seesaw and preserves the +equilibrium? A life force, said the older scientists; only chemical +laws, say the new. A prodigious change in the behavior of matter is +wrought by life, and whether we say it is by chemical laws, or by a life +force, the mystery remains. + +The whole secret of life centres in the cell, in the plant cell; and +this cell does not exceed .005 millimetres in diameter. An enormous +number of chemical reactions take place in this minute space. It is a +world in little. Here are bodies of different shapes whose service is to +absorb carbon dioxide, and form sugar and carbohydrates. Must we go +outside of matter itself, and of chemical reactions, to account for it? +Call this unknown factor "vital force," as has so long been done, or +name it "biotic energy," as Professor Moore has lately done, and the +mystery remains the same. It is a new behavior in matter, call it by +what name we will. + +Inanimate nature seems governed by definite laws; that is, given the +same conditions, the same results always follow. The reactions between +two chemical elements under the same conditions are always the same. The +physical forces go their unchanging ways, and are variable only as the +conditions vary. In dealing with them we know exactly what to expect. We +know at what degree of temperature, under the same conditions, water +will boil, and at what degree of temperature it will freeze. Chance and +probability play no part in such matters. But when we reach the world of +animate nature, what a contrast we behold! Here, within certain limits, +all is in perpetual flux and change. Living bodies are never two moments +the same. Variability is the rule. We never know just how a living body +will behave, under given conditions, till we try it. A late spring frost +may kill nearly every bean stalk or potato plant or hill of corn in your +garden, or nearly every shoot upon your grapevine. The survivors have +greater powers of resistance--a larger measure of that mysterious +something we call vitality. One horse will endure hardships and +exposures that will kill scores of others. What will agitate one +community will not in the same measure agitate another. What will break +or discourage one human heart will sit much more lightly upon another. +Life introduces an element of uncertainty or indeterminateness that we +do not find in the inorganic world. Bodies still have their laws or +conditions of activity, but they are elastic and variable. Among living +things we have in a measure escaped from the iron necessity that holds +the world of dead matter in its grip. Dead matter ever tends to a static +equilibrium; living matter to a dynamic poise, or a balance between the +intake and the output of energy. Life is a peculiar activity in matter. +If the bicyclist stops, his wheel falls down; no mechanical contrivance +could be devised that could take his place on the wheel, and no +combination of purely chemical and physical forces can alone do with +matter what life does with it. The analogy here hinted at is only +tentative. I would not imply that the relation of life to matter is +merely mechanical and external, like that of the rider to his wheel. In +life, the rider and his wheel are one, but when life vanishes, the wheel +falls down. The chemical and physical activity of matter is perpetual; +with a high-power microscope we may see the Brunonian movement in +liquids and gases any time and at all times, but the movement we call +vitality dominates these and turns them to new ends. I suppose the +nature of the activity of the bombarding molecules of gases and liquids +is the same in our bodies as out; that turmoil of the particles goes on +forever; it is, in itself, blind, fateful, purposeless; but life +furnishes, or _is_, an organizing principle that brings order and +purpose out of this chaos. It does not annul any of the mechanical or +chemical principles, but under its tutelage or inspiration they produce +a host of new substances, and a world of new and beautiful and wonderful +forms. + + +IV + +Bergson says the intellect is characterized by a natural inability to +understand life. Certain it is, I think, that science alone cannot grasp +its mystery. We must finally appeal to philosophy; we must have recourse +to ideal values--to a non-scientific or super-scientific principle. We +cannot live intellectually or emotionally upon science alone. Science +reveals to us the relations and inter-dependence of things in the +physical world and their relations to our physical well-being; +philosophy reveals their relations to our mental and spiritual life, +their meanings and their ideal values. Poor, indeed, is the man who has +no philosophy, no commanding outlook over the tangles and contradictions +of the world of sense. There is probably some unknown and unknowable +factor involved in the genesis of life, but that that factor or +principle does not belong to the natural, universal order is +unthinkable. Yet to fail to see that what we must call intelligence +pervades and is active in all organic nature is to be spiritually blind. +But to see it as something foreign to or separable from nature is to do +violence to our faith in the constancy and sufficiency of the natural +order. One star differeth from another in glory. There are degrees of +mystery in the universe. The most mystifying thing in inorganic nature +is electricity,--that disembodied energy that slumbers in the ultimate +particles of matter, unseen, unfelt, unknown, till it suddenly leaps +forth with such terrible vividness and power on the face of the storm, +or till we summon it through the transformation of some other form of +energy. A still higher and more inscrutable mystery is life, that +something which clothes itself in each infinitely varied and beautiful +as well as unbeautiful form of matter. We can evoke electricity at will +from many different sources, but we can evoke life only from other life; +the biogenetic law is inviolable. + +Professor Soddy says, "Natural philosophy may explain a rainbow but not +a rabbit." There is no secret about a rainbow; we can produce it at will +out of perfectly colorless beginnings. "But nothing but rabbits will or +can produce a rabbit, a proof again that we cannot say what a rabbit is, +though we may have a perfect knowledge of every anatomical and +microscopic detail." + +To regard life as of non-natural origin puts it beyond the sphere of +legitimate inquiry; to look upon it as of natural origin, or as bound in +a chain of chemical sequences, as so many late biochemists do, is still +to put it where our science cannot unlock the mystery. If we should ever +succeed in producing living matter in our laboratories, it would not +lessen the mystery any more than the birth of a baby in the household +lessens the mystery of generation. It only brings it nearer home. + + +V + +What is peculiar to organic nature is the living cell. Inside the cell, +doubtless, the same old chemistry and physics go on--the same universal +law of the transformation of energy is operative. In its minute compass +the transmutation of the inorganic into the organic, which constitutes +what Tyndall called "the miracle and the mystery of vitality," is +perpetually enacted. But what is the secret of the cell itself? Science +is powerless to tell us. You may point out to your heart's content that +only chemical and physical forces are discoverable in living matter; +that there is no element or force in a plant that is not in the stone +beside which it grew, or in the soil in which it takes root; and yet, +until your chemistry and your physics will enable you to produce the +living cell, or account for its mysterious self-directed activities, +your science avails not. "Living cells," says a late European authority, +"possess most effective means to accelerate reactions and to cause +surprising chemical results." + +Behold the four principal elements forming stones and soils and water +and air for whole geologic or astronomic ages, and then behold them +forming plants and animals, and finally forming the brains that give us +art and literature and philosophy and modern civilization. What prompted +the elements to this new and extraordinary behavior? Science is dumb +before such a question. + +Living bodies are immersed in physical conditions as in a sea. External +agencies--light, moisture, air, gravity, mechanical and chemical +influences--cause great changes in them; but their power to adapt +themselves to these changes, and profit by them, remains unexplained. +Are morphological processes identical with chemical ones? + +In the inorganic world we everywhere see mechanical adjustment, repose, +stability, equilibrium, through the action and interaction of outward +physical forces; a natural bridge is a striking example of the action of +blind mechanical forces among the rocks. In the organic world we see +living adaptation which involves a non-mechanical principle. An +adjustment is an outward fitting together of parts; an adaptation +implies something flowing, unstable, plastic, compromising; it is a +moulding process; passivity on one side, and activity on the other. +Living things struggle; they struggle up as well as down; they struggle +all round the circle, while the pull of dead matter is down only. + +Behold what a good chemist a plant is! With what skill it analyzes the +carbonic acid in the air, retaining the carbon and returning the oxygen +to the atmosphere! Then the plant can do what no chemist has yet been +able to do; it can manufacture chlorophyll, a substance which is the +basis of all life on the globe. Without chlorophyll (the green substance +in plants) the solar energy could not be stored up in the vegetable +world. Chlorophyll makes the plant, and the plant makes chlorophyll. To +ask which is first is to call up the old puzzle, Which is first, the +egg, or the hen that laid it? + +According to Professor Soddy, the engineer's unit of power, that of the +British cart-horse, has to be multiplied many times in a machine before +it can do the work of a horse. He says that a car which two horses used +to pull, it now takes twelve or fifteen engine-horse to pull. The +machine horse belongs to a different order. He does not respond to the +whip; he has no nervous system; he has none of the mysterious reserve +power which a machine built up of living cells seems to possess; he is +inelastic, non-creative, non-adaptive; he cannot take advantage of the +ground; his pull is a dead, unvarying pull. Living energy is elastic, +adaptive, self-directive, and suffers little loss through friction, or +through imperfect adjustment of the parts. A live body converts its fuel +into energy at a low temperature. One of the great problems of the +mechanics of the future is to develop electricity or power directly from +fuel and thus cut out the enormous loss of eighty or ninety per cent +which we now suffer. The growing body does this all the time; life +possesses this secret; the solar energy stored up in fuel suffers no +loss in being transformed into work by the animal mechanism. + +Soddy asks whether or not the minute cells of the body may not have the +power of taking advantage of the difference in temperature of the +molecules bombarding them, and thus of utilizing energy that is beyond +the capacity of the machinery of the motor-car. Man can make no machine +that can avail itself of the stores of energy in the uniform temperature +of the earth or air or water, or that can draw upon the potential energy +of the atoms, but it may be that the living cell can do this, and thus a +horse can pull more than a one-horse-power engine. Soddy makes the +suggestive inquiry: "If life begins in a single cell, does intelligence? +does the physical distinction between living and dead matter begin in +the jostling molecular crowd? Inanimate molecules, in all their +movements, obey the law of probability, the law which governs the +successive falls of a true die. In the presence of a rudimentary +intelligence, do they still follow that law, or do they now obey another +law--the law of a die that is loaded?" In a machine the energy of fuel +has first to be converted into heat before it is available, but in a +living machine the chemical energy of food undergoes direct +transformation into work, and the wasteful heat-process is cut off. + + +VI + +Professor Soddy, in discussing the relation of life to energy, does not +commit himself to the theory of the vitalistic or non-mechanical origin +of life, but makes the significant statement that there is a consensus +of opinion that the life processes are not bound by the second law of +thermo-dynamics, namely, the law of the non-availability of the energy +latent in low temperatures, or in the chaotic movements of molecules +everywhere around us. To get energy, one must have a fall or an incline +of some sort, as of water from a higher to a lower level, or of +temperature from a higher to a lower degree, or of electricity from one +condition of high stress to another less so. But the living machine +seems able to dispense with this break or incline, or else has the +secret of creating one for itself. + +In the living body the chemical energy of food is directly transformed +into work, without first being converted into heat. Why a horse can do +more work than a one-horse-power engine is probably because his living +cells can and do draw upon this molecular energy. Molecules of matter +outside the living body all obey the law of probability, or the law of +chance; but inside the living body they at least seem to obey some other +law--the law of design, or of dice that are loaded, as Soddy says. They +are more likely always to act in a particular way. Life supplies a +directing agency. Soddy asks if the physical distinction between living +and dead matter begins in the jostling molecular crowd--begins by the +crowd being directed and governed in a particular way. If so, by what? +Ah! that is the question. Science will have none of it, because science +would have to go outside of matter for such an agent, and that science +cannot do. Such a theory implies intelligence apart from matter, or +working in matter. Is that a hard proposition? Intelligence clearly +works in our bodies and brains, and in those of all the animals--a +controlled and directed activity in matter that seems to be life. The +cell which builds up all living bodies behaves not like a machine, but +like a living being; its activities, so far as we can judge, are +spontaneous, its motions and all its other processes are self-prompted. +But, of course, in it the mechanical, the chemical, and the vital are so +blended, so interdependent, that we may never hope to separate them; but +without the activity called vital, there would be no cell, and hence no +body. + +It were unreasonable to expect that scientific analysis should show that +the physics and chemistry of a living body differs from that of the +non-living. What is new and beyond the reach of science to explain is +the _kind of activity_ of these elements. They enter into new compounds; +they build up bodies that have new powers and properties; they people +the seas and the air and the earth with living creatures, they build +the body and brain of man. The secret of the activity in matter that we +call vital is certainly beyond the power of science to tell us. It is +like expecting that the paint and oil used in a great picture must +differ from those in a daub. The great artist mixed his paint with +brains, and the universal elements in a living body are mixed with +something that science cannot disclose. Organic chemistry does not +differ intrinsically from inorganic; the difference between the two lies +in the purposive activity of the elements that build up a living body. + +Or is life, as a New England college professor claims, "an _x_-entity, +additional to matter and energy, but of the same cosmic rank as they," +and "manifesting itself to our senses only through its power to keep a +certain quantity of matter and energy in the continuous orderly ferment +we call life"? + +I recall that Huxley said that there was a third reality in this +universe besides matter and energy, and this third reality was +consciousness. But neither the "_x_-entity" of Professor Ganong nor the +"consciousness" of Huxley can be said to be of the same cosmic rank as +matter and energy, because they do not pervade the universe as matter +and energy do. These forces abound throughout all space and endure +throughout all time, but life and consciousness are flitting and +uncertain phenomena of matter. A prick of a pin, or a blow from a +hammer, may destroy both. Unless we consider them as potential in all +matter (and who shall say that they are not?) may we look upon them as +of cosmic rank? + +It is often urged that it is not the eye that sees, or the brain that +thinks, but something in them. But it is something in them that never +went into them; it arose in them. It is the living eye and the living +brain that do the seeing and the thinking. When the life activity +ceases, these organs cease to see and to think. Their activity is kept +up by certain physiological processes in the organs of the body, and to +ask what keeps up these is like the puppy trying to overtake its own +tail, or to run a race with its own shadow. + +The brain is not merely the organ of the mind in an external and +mechanical sense; it is the mind. When we come to living things, all +such analogies fail us. Life is not a thing; thought is not a thing; but +rather the effect of a certain activity in matter, which mind alone can +recognize. When we try to explain or account for that which we are, it +is as if a man were trying to lift himself. + +Life seems like something apart. It does not seem to be amenable to the +law of the correlation and conservation of forces. You cannot transform +it into heat or light or electricity. The force which a man extracts +from the food he eats while he is writing a poem, or doing any other +mental work, seems lost to the universe. The force which the engine, or +any machine, uses up, reappears as work done, or as heat or light or +some other physical manifestation. But the energy of foodstuffs which a +man uses up in a mental effort does not appear again in the circuit of +the law of the conservation of energy. A man uses up more energy in his +waking moments, though his body be passive, than in his sleeping. What +we call mental force cannot be accounted for in terms of physical force. +The sun's energy goes into our bodies through the food we eat, and so +runs our mental faculties, but how does it get back again into the +physical realm? Science does not know. + +It must be some sort of energy that lights the lamps of the firefly and +the glow-worm, and it must be some sort or degree of energy that keeps +consciousness going. The brain of a Newton, or of a Plato, must make a +larger draft on the solar energy latent in food-stuffs than the brain of +a day laborer, and his body less. The same amount of food-consumption, +or of oxidation, results in physical force in the one case, and mental +force in the other, but the mental force escapes the great law of the +equivalence of the material forces. + +John Fiske solves the problem when he drops his physical science and +takes up his philosophy, declaring that the relation of the mind to the +body is that of a musician to his instrument, and this is practically +the position of Sir Oliver Lodge. + +Inheritance and adaptation, says Haeckel, are sufficient to account for +all the variety of animal and vegetable forms on the earth. But is there +not a previous question? Do we not want inheritance and adaptation +accounted for? What mysteries they hold! Does the river-bed account for +the river? How can a body adapt itself to its environment unless it +possess an inherent, plastic, changing, and adaptive principle? A stone +does not adapt itself to its surroundings; its change is external and +not internal. There is mechanical adjustment between inert bodies, but +there is no adaptation without the push of life. A response to new +conditions by change of form implies something actively +responsive--something that profits by the change. + + +VII + +If we could tell what determines the division of labor in the hive of +bees or a colony of ants, we could tell what determines the division of +labor among the cells in the body. A hive of bees and a colony of ants +is a unit--a single organism. The spirit of the body, that which +regulates all its economies, which directs all its functions, which +coördinates its powers, which brings about all its adaptations, which +adjusts it to its environment, which sees to its repairs, heals its +wounds, meets its demands, provides more force when more is needed, +which makes one organ help do the work of another, which wages war on +disease germs by specific ferments, which renders us immune to this or +that disease; in fact, which carries on all the processes of our +physical life without asking leave or seeking counsel of us,--all this +is on another plane from the mechanical or chemical--super-mechanical. + +The human spirit, the brute spirit, the vegetable spirit--all are mere +names to fill a void. The spirit of the oak, the beech, the pine, the +palm--how different! how different the plan or idea or interior +economies of each, though the chemical and mechanical processes are the +same, the same mineral and gaseous elements build them up, the same sun +is their architect! But what physical principle can account for the +difference between a pine and an oak, or, for that matter, between a man +and his dog, or a bird and a fish, or a crow and a lark? What play and +action or interaction and reaction of purely chemical and mechanical +forces can throw any light on the course evolution has taken in the +animal life of the globe--why the camel is the camel, and the horse the +horse? or in the development of the nervous system, or the circulatory +system, or the digestive system, or of the eye, or of the ear? + +A living body is never in a state of chemical repose, but inorganic +bodies usually are. Take away the organism and the environment remains +essentially the same; take away the environment and the organism changes +rapidly and perishes--it goes back to the inorganic. Now, what keeps up +the constant interchange--this seesaw? The environment is permanent; the +organism is transient. The spray of the falls is permanent; the bow +comes and goes. Life struggles to appropriate the environment; a rock, +for example, does not, in the same sense, struggle with its +surroundings, it weathers passively, but a tree struggles with the +winds, and to appropriate minerals and water from the soil, and the +leaves struggle to store up the sun's energy. The body struggles to +eliminate poisons or to neutralize them; it becomes immune to certain +diseases, learns to resist them; the thing is _alive_. Organisms +struggle with one another; inert bodies clash and pulverize one another, +but do not devour one another. + +Life is a struggle between two forces, a force within and a force +without, but the force within does all the struggling. The air does not +struggle to get into the lungs, nor the lime and iron to get into our +blood. The body struggles to digest and assimilate the food; the +chlorophyll in the leaf struggles to store up the solar energy. The +environment is unaware of the organism; the light is indifferent to the +sensitized plate of the photographer. Something in the seed we plant +avails itself of the heat and the moisture. The relation is not that of +a thermometer or hygrometer to the warmth and moisture of the air; it is +a vital relation. + +Life may be called an aquatic phenomenon, because there can be no life +without water. It may be called a thermal phenomenon, because there can +be no life below or above a certain degree of temperature. It may be +called a chemical phenomenon, because there can be no life without +chemical reactions. Yet none of these things define life. We may discuss +biological facts in terms of chemistry without throwing any light on the +nature of life itself. If we say the particular essence of life is +chemical, do we mean any more than that life is inseparable from +chemical reactions? + +After we have mastered the chemistry of life, laid bare all its +processes, named all its transformations and transmutations, analyzed +the living cell, seen the inorganic pass into the organic, and beheld +chemical reaction, the chief priestess of this hidden rite, we shall +have to ask ourselves, Is chemistry the creator of life, or does life +create or use chemistry? These "chemical reaction complexes" in living +cells, as the biochemists call them, are they the cause of life, or only +the effect of life? We shall decide according to our temperaments or our +habits of thought. + + + + +IX + +THE JOURNEYING ATOMS + +I + + +Emerson confessed in his "Journal" that he could not read the +physicists; their works did not appeal to him. He was probably repelled +by their formulas and their mathematics. But add a touch of chemistry, +and he was interested. Chemistry leads up to life. He said he did not +think he would feel threatened or insulted if a chemist should take his +protoplasm, or mix his hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, and make an +animalcule incontestably swimming and jumping before his eyes. It would +be only evidence of a new degree of power over matter which man had +attained to. It would all finally redound to the glory of matter itself, +which, it appears, "is impregnated with thought and heaven, and is +really of God, and not of the Devil, as we had too hastily believed." +This conception of matter underlies the new materialism of such men as +Huxley and Tyndall. But there is much in the new physics apart from its +chemical aspects that ought to appeal to the Emersonian type of mind. +Did not Emerson in his first poem, "The Sphinx," sing of + + Journeying atoms, + Primordial wholes? + +In those ever-moving and indivisible atoms he touches the very +corner-stone of the modern scientific conception of matter. It is hardly +an exaggeration to say that in this conception we are brought into +contact with a kind of transcendental physics. A new world for the +imagination is open--a world where the laws and necessities of +ponderable bodies do not apply. The world of gross matter disappears, +and in its place we see matter dematerialized, and escaping from the +bondage of the world of tangible bodies; we see a world where friction +is abolished, where perpetual motion is no longer impossible; where two +bodies may occupy the same space at the same time; where collisions and +disruptions take place without loss of energy; where subtraction often +means more--as when the poison of a substance is rendered more virulent +by the removal of one or more atoms of one of the elements; and where +addition often means less--as when three parts of the gases of oxygen +and hydrogen unite and form only two parts of watery vapor; where mass +and form, centre and circumference, size and structure, exist without +any of the qualities ordinarily associated with these things through our +experience in a three-dimension world. We see, or contemplate, bodies +which are indivisible; if we divide them, their nature changes; if we +divide a molecule of water, we get atoms of hydrogen and oxygen gas; if +we divide a molecule of salt, we get atoms of chlorine gas and atoms of +the metal sodium, which means that we have reached a point where matter +is no longer divisible in a mechanical sense, but only in a chemical +sense; which again means that great and small, place and time, inside +and outside, dimensions and spatial relations, have lost their ordinary +meanings. Two bodies get inside of each other. To the physicist, heat +and motion are one; light is only a mechanical vibration in the ether; +sound is only a vibration in the air, which the ear interprets as sound. +The world is as still as death till the living ear comes to receive the +vibrations in the air; motion, or the energy which it implies, is the +life of the universe. + +Physics proves to us the impossibility of perpetual motion among +visible, tangible bodies, at the same time that it reveals to us a world +where perpetual motion is the rule--the world of molecules and atoms. In +the world of gross matter, or of ponderable bodies, perpetual motion is +impossible because here it takes energy, or its equivalent, to beget +energy. Friction very soon turns the kinetic energy of motion into the +potential energy of heat, which quickly disappears in that great sea of +energy, the low uniform temperature of the earth. But when we reach the +interior world of matter, the world of molecules, atoms, and electrons, +we have reached a world where perpetual motion _is_ the rule; we have +reached the fountain-head of energy, and the motion of one body is not +at the expense of the motion of some other body, but is a part of the +spontaneous struggling and jostling and vibration that go on forever in +all the matter of the universe. What is called the Brunonian movement +(first discovered by the botanist Robert Brown in 1827) is within reach +of the eye armed with a high-power microscope. Look into any liquid that +holds in suspension very small particles of solid matter, such as dust +particles in the air, or the granules of ordinary water-color paints +dissolved in water: not a single one of the particles is at rest; they +are all mysteriously agitated; they jump hither and thither; it is a +wild chaotic whirl and dance of minute particles. Brown at first thought +they were alive, but they were only non-living particles dancing to the +same tune which probably sets suns and systems whirling in the heavens. +Ramsay says that tobacco smoke confined in the small flat chamber formed +in the slide of a microscope, shows this movement, in appearance like +the flight of minute butterflies. The Brunonian movement is now believed +to be due to the bombardment of the particles by the molecules of the +liquid or gas in which they are suspended. The smaller the particles, +the livelier they are. These particles themselves are made up of a vast +number of molecules, among which the same movement or agitation, much +more intense, is supposed to be taking place; the atoms which compose +the molecules are dancing and frisking about like gnats in the air, and +the electrons inside the atoms are still more rapidly changing places. + +We meet with the same staggering figures in the science of the +infinitely little that we do in the science of the infinitely vast. Thus +the physicist deals with a quantity of matter a million million times +smaller than can be detected in the most delicate chemical balance. +Molecules inconceivably small rush about in molecular space +inconceivably small. Ramsay calculates how many collisions the molecules +of gas make with other molecules every second, which is four and one +half quintillions. This staggers the mind like the tremendous +revelations of astronomy. Mathematics has no trouble to compute the +figures, but our slow, clumsy minds feel helpless before them. In every +drop of water we drink, and in every mouthful of air we breathe, there +is a movement and collision of particles so rapid in every second of +time that it can only be expressed by four with eighteen naughts. If the +movement of these particles were attended by friction, or if the energy +of their impact were translated into heat, what hot mouthfuls we should +have! But the heat, as well as the particles, is infinitesimal, and is +not perceptible. + + +II + +The molecules and atoms and electrons into which science resolves matter +are hypothetical bodies which no human eye has ever seen, or ever can +see, but they build up the solid frame of the universe. The air and the +rocks are not so far apart in their constituents as they might seem to +our senses. The invisible and indivisible molecules of oxygen which we +breathe, and which keep our life-currents going, form about half the +crust of the earth. The soft breeze that fans and refreshes us, and the +rocks that crush us, are at least half-brothers. And herein we get a +glimpse of the magic of chemical combinations. That mysterious property +in matter which we call chemical affinity, a property beside which human +affinities and passions are tame and inconstant affairs, is the +architect of the universe. Certain elements attract certain other +elements with a fierce and unalterable attraction, and when they unite, +the resultant compound is a body totally unlike either of the +constituents. Both substances have disappeared, and a new one has taken +their place. This is the magic of chemical change. A physical change, as +of water into ice, or into steam, is a simple matter; it is merely a +matter of more or less heat; but the change of oxygen and hydrogen into +water, or of chlorine gas and the mineral sodium into common salt, is a +chemical change. In nature, chlorine and sodium are not found in a free +or separate state; they hunted each other up long ago, and united to +produce the enormous quantities of rock salt that the earth holds. One +can give his imagination free range in trying to picture what takes +place when two or more elements unite chemically, but probably there is +no physical image that can afford even a hint of it. A snake trying to +swallow himself, or two fishes swallowing each other, or two bullets +meeting in the air and each going through the centre of the other, or +the fourth dimension, or almost any other impossible thing, from the +point of view of tangible bodies, will serve as well as anything. The +atoms seem to get inside of one another, to jump down one another's +throats, and to suffer a complete transformation. Yet we know that they +do not; oxygen is still oxygen, and carbon still carbon, amid all the +strange partnerships entered into, and all the disguises assumed. We can +easily evoke hydrogen and oxygen from water, but just how their +molecules unite, how they interpenetrate and are lost in one another, it +is impossible for us to conceive. + +We cannot visualize a chemical combination because we have no experience +upon which to found it. It is so fundamentally unlike a mechanical +mixture that even our imagination can give us no clew to it. It is +thinkable that the particles of two or more substances however fine, +mechanically mixed, could be seen and recognized if sufficiently +magnified; but in a chemical combination, say like iron sulphide, no +amount of magnification could reveal the two elements of iron and +sulphur. They no longer exist. A third substance unlike either has taken +their place. + +We extract aluminum from clay, but no conceivable power of vision could +reveal to us that metal in the clay. It is there only potentially. In a +chemical combination the different substances interpenetrate and are +lost in one another: they are not mechanically separable nor +individually distinguishable. The iron in the red corpuscles of the +blood is not the metal we know, but one of its many chemical disguises. +Indeed it seems as if what we call the ultimate particles of matter did +not belong to the visible order and hence were incapable of +magnification. + +That mysterious force, chemical affinity, is the true and original +magic. That two substances should cleave to each other and absorb each +other and produce a third totally unlike either is one of the profound +mysteries of science. Of the nature of the change that takes place, I +say, we can form no image. Chemical force is selective; it is not +promiscuous and indiscriminate like gravity, but specific and +individual. Nearly all the elements have their preferences and they will +choose no other. Oxygen comes the nearest to being a free lover among +the elements, but its power of choice is limited. + +Science conceives of all matter as grained or discrete, like a bag of +shot, or a pile of sand. Matter does not occupy space continuously, not +even in the hardest substances, such as the diamond; there is space, +molecular space, between the particles. A rifle bullet whizzing past is +no more a continuous body than is a flock of birds wheeling and swooping +in the air. Air spaces separate the birds, and molecular spaces separate +the molecules of the bullet. Of course it is unthinkable that +indivisible particles of matter can occupy space and have dimensions. +But science goes upon this hypothesis, and the hypothesis proves itself. + +After we have reached the point of the utmost divisibility of matter in +the atom, we are called upon to go still further and divide the +indivisible. The electrons, of which the atom is composed, are one +hundred thousand times smaller, and two thousand times lighter than the +smallest particle hitherto recognized, namely, the hydrogen atom. A +French physicist conceives of the electrons as rushing about in the +interior of the atom like swarms of gnats whirling about in the dome of +a cathedral. The smallest particle of dust that we can recognize in the +air is millions of times larger than the atom, and millions of millions +of times larger than the electron. Yet science avers that the +manifestations of energy which we call light, radiant heat, magnetism, +and electricity, all come from the activities of the electrons. Sir J. +J. Thomson conceives of a free electron as dashing about from one atom +to another at a speed so great as to change its location forty million +times a second. In the electron we have matter dematerialized; the +electron is not a material particle. Hence the step to the electric +constitution of matter is an easy one. In the last analysis we have pure +disembodied energy. "With many of the feelings of an air-man," says +Soddy, "who has left behind for the first time the solid ground beneath +him," we make this plunge into the demonstrable verities of the newest +physics; matter in the old sense--gross matter--fades away. To the three +states in which we have always known it, the solid, the liquid, and the +gaseous, we must add a fourth, the ethereal--the state of matter which +Sir Oliver Lodge thinks borders on, or is identical with, what we call +the spiritual, and which affords the key to all the occult phenomena of +life and mind. + +As we have said, no human eye has ever seen, or will see, an atom; only +the mind's eye, or the imagination, sees atoms and molecules, yet the +atomic theory of matter rests upon the sure foundation of experimental +science. Both the chemist and the physicist are as convinced of the +existence of these atoms as they are of the objects we see and touch. +The theory "is a necessity to explain the experimental facts of chemical +composition." "Through metaphysics first," says Soddy, "then through +alchemy and chemistry, through physical and astronomical spectroscopy, +lastly through radio-activity, science has slowly groped its way to the +atom." The physicists make definite statements about these hypothetical +bodies all based upon definite chemical phenomena. Thus Clerk Maxwell +assumes that they are spherical, that the spheres are hard and elastic +like billiard-balls, that they collide and glance off from one another +in the same way, that is, that they collide at their surfaces and not at +their centres. + +Only two of our senses make us acquainted with matter in a state which +may be said to approach the atomic--smell and taste. Odors are material +emanations, and represent a division of matter into inconceivably small +particles. What are the perfumes we smell but emanations, flying atoms +or electrons, radiating in all directions, and continuing for a shorter +or longer time without any appreciable diminution in bulk or weight of +the substances that give them off? How many millions or trillions of +times does the rose divide its heart in the perfume it sheds so freely +upon the air? The odor of the musk of certain animals lingers under +certain conditions for years. The imagination is baffled in trying to +conceive of the number and minuteness of the particles which the fox +leaves of itself in the snow where its foot was imprinted--so palpable +that the scent of a hound can seize upon them hours after the fox has +passed! The all but infinite divisibility of matter is proved by every +odor that the breeze brings us from field and wood, and by the delicate +flavors that the tongue detects in the food we eat and drink. But these +emanations and solutions that affect our senses probably do not +represent a chemical division of matter; when we smell an apple or a +flower, we probably get a real fragment of the apple, or of the flower, +and not one or more of its chemical constituents represented by atoms or +electrons. A chemical analysis of odors, if it were possible, would +probably show the elements in the same state of combination as the +substances from which the odors emanated. + +The physicists herd these ultimate particles of matter about; they have +a regular circus with them; they make them go through films and screens; +they guide them through openings; they count them as their tiny flash is +seen on a sensitized plate; they weigh them; they reckon their velocity. +The alpha-rays from radio-active substances are swarms of tiny meteors +flying at the incredible speed of twelve thousand miles a second, while +the meteors of the midnight sky fly at the speed of only forty miles a +second. Those alpha particles are helium atoms. They are much larger +than beta particles, and have less penetrative power. Sir J. J. Thomson +has devised a method by which he has been able to photograph the atoms. +The photographic plate upon which their flight is recorded suggests a +shower of shooting stars. Oxygen is found to be made up of atoms of +several different forms. + + +III + +The "free path" of molecules, both in liquids and in gases, is so minute +as to be beyond the reach of the most powerful microscope. This free +path in liquids is a zigzag course, owing to the perpetual collisions +with other molecules. The molecular behavior of liquids differs from +that of gases only in what is called surface tension. Liquids have a +skin, a peculiar stress of the surface molecules; gases do not, but tend +to dissipate and fill all space. A drop of water remains intact till +vaporization sets in; then it too becomes more and more diffused. + +When two substances combine chemically, more or less heat is evolved. +When the combination is effected slowly, as in an animal's body, heat is +slowly evolved. When the combustion is rapid, as in actual fire, heat is +rapidly evolved. The same phenomenon may reach the eye as light, and the +hand as heat, though different senses get two different impressions of +the same thing. So a mechanical disturbance may reach the ear as sound, +and be so interpreted, and reach the hand as motion in matter. In +combustion, the oxygen combines rapidly with the carbon, giving out heat +and light and carbon dioxide, but why it does so admits of no +explanation. Herein again is where life differs from fire; we can +describe combustion in terms of chemistry, but after we have described +life in the same terms something--and this something is the main +thing--remains untouched. + +The facts of radio-activity alone demonstrate the truth of the atomic +theory. The beta rays, or emanations from radium, penetrating one foot +of solid iron are very convincing. And this may go on for hundreds of +years without any appreciable diminution of size or weight of the +radio-active substance. "A gram of such substance," says Sir Oliver +Lodge, "might lose a few thousand of atoms a second, and yet we could +not detect the loss if we continued to weigh it for a century." The +volatile essences of organic bodies which we detect in odors and +flavors, are not potent like the radium emanations. We can confine them +and control them, but we cannot control the rays of radio-active matter +any more than we can confine a spirit. We can separate the three +different kinds of rays--the alpha, the beta, and the gamma--by magnetic +devices, but we cannot cork them up and isolate them, as we can musk and +the attar of roses. + +And these emanations are taking place more or less continuously all +about us and we know it not. In fact, we are at all times subjected to a +molecular bombardment of which we never dream; minute projectiles, +indivisible points of matter, are shot out at us in the form of +electrons from glowing metals, from lighted candles, and from other +noiseless and unsuspected batteries at a speed of tens of thousands of +miles a second, and we are none the wiser for it. Indeed, if we could +see or feel or be made aware of it, in what a different world we should +find ourselves! How many million-or billion-fold our sense of sight and +touch would have to be increased to bring this about! We live in a world +of collisions, disruptions, and hurtling missiles of which our senses +give us not the slightest evidence, and it is well that they do not. +There is a tremendous activity in the air we breathe, in the water we +drink, in the food we eat, and in the soil we walk upon, which, if +magnified till our senses could take it in, would probably drive us mad. +It is in this interior world of molecular activity, this world of +electric vibrations and oscillations, that the many transformations of +energy take place. This is the hiding-place of the lightning, of the +electrons which moulded together make the thunderbolt. What an +underworld of mystery and power it is! In it slumbers all the might and +menace of the storm, the power that rends the earth and shakes the +heavens. With the mind's eye one can see the indivisible atoms giving up +their electrons, see the invisible hosts, in numbers beyond the power of +mathematics to compute, being summoned and marshalled by some mysterious +commander and hurled in terrible fiery phalanxes across the battlefield +of the storm. + +The physicist describes the atom and talks about it as if it were "a +tangible body which one could hold in his hand like a baseball." "An +atom," Sir Oliver Lodge says, "consists of a globular mass of positive +electricity with minute negative electrons embedded in it." He speaks of +the spherical form of the atom, and of its outer surface, of its centre, +and of its passing through other atoms, and of the electrons that +revolve around its centre as planets around a sun. The electron, one +hundred thousand times smaller than an atom, yet has surface, and that +surface is a dimpled and corrugated sheet--like the cover of a mattress. +What a flight of the scientific imagination is that! + +The disproportion between the size of an atom and the size of an +electron is vastly greater than that between the sun and the earth. +Represent an atom, says Sir Oliver Lodge, by a church one hundred and +sixty feet long, eighty feet broad, and forty feet high; the electrons +are like gnats inside it. Yet on the electric theory of matter, +electrons are all of the atom there is; there is no church, but only the +gnats rushing about. We know of nothing so empty and hollow, so near a +vacuum, as matter in this conception of it. Indeed, in the new physics, +matter is only a hole in the ether. Hence the newspaper joke about the +bank sliding down and leaving the woodchuck-hole sticking out, looks +like pretty good physics. The electrons give matter its inertia, and +give it the force we call cohesion, give it its toughness, its strength, +and all its other properties. They make water wet, and the diamond hard. +They are the fountain-head of the immense stores of the inter-atomic +energy, which, if it could be tapped and controlled, would so easily do +all the work of the world. But this we cannot do. "We are no more +competent," says Professor Soddy, "to make use of these supplies of +atomic energy than a savage, ignorant of how to kindle a fire, could +make use of a steam-engine." The natural rate of flow of this energy +from its atomic sources we get as heat, and it suffices to keep life +going upon this planet. It is the source of all the activity we see upon +the globe. Its results, in the geologic ages, are stored up for us in +coal and oil and natural gas, and, in our day, are available in the +winds, the tides, and the waterfalls, and in electricity. + + +IV + +The electric constitution of matter is quite beyond anything we can +imagine. The atoms are little worlds by themselves, and the whole +mystery of life and death is in their keeping. The whole difference in +the types of mind and character among men is supposed to be in their +keeping. The different qualities and properties of bodies are in their +keeping. Whether an object is hot or cold to our senses, depends upon +the character of their vibrations; whether it be sweet or sour, +poisonous or innocuous to us, depends upon how the atoms select their +partners in the whirl and dance of their activities. The hardness and +brilliancy of the diamond is supposed to depend upon how the atoms of +carbon unite and join hands. + +I have heard the view expressed that all matter, as such, is dead +matter, that the molecules of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, iron, +phosphorus, calcium, and so on, in a living body, are themselves no more +alive than the same molecules in inorganic matter. Nearly nine tenths of +a living body is water; is not this water the same as the water we get +at the spring or the brook? is it any more alive? does water undergo any +chemical change in the body? is it anything more than a solvent, than a +current that carries the other elements to all parts of the body? There +are any number of chemical changes or reactions in a living body, but +are the atoms and molecules that are involved in such changes radically +changed? Can oxygen be anything but oxygen, or carbon anything but +carbon? Is what we call life the result of their various new +combinations? Many modern biologists hold to this view. In this +conception merely a change in the order of arrangement of the molecules +of a substance--which follows which or which is joined to which--is +fraught with consequences as great as the order in which the letters of +the alphabet are arranged in words, or the words themselves are arranged +in sentences. The change of one letter in a word often utterly changes +the meaning of that word, and the changing of a word in the sentence may +give expression to an entirely different idea. Reverse the letters in +the word "God," and you get the name of our faithful friend the dog. +Huxley and Tyndall both taught that it was the way that the ultimate +particles of matter are compounded that makes the whole difference +between a cabbage and an oak, or between a frog and a man. It is a hard +proposition. We know with scientific certainty that the difference +between a diamond and a piece of charcoal, or between a pearl and an +oyster-shell, is the way that the particles of carbon in the one case, +and of calcium carbide in the other, are arranged. We know with equal +certainty that the difference between certain chemical bodies, like +alcohol and ether, is the arrangement of their ultimate particles, since +both have the same chemical formula. We do not spell acetic acid, +alcohol, sugar, starch, animal fat, vegetable oils, glycerine, and the +like, with the same letters; yet nature compounds them all of the same +atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but in different proportions and +in different orders. + +Chemistry is all-potent. A mechanical mixture of two or more elements +is a simple affair, but a chemical mixture introduces an element of +magic. No conjurer's trick can approach such a transformation as that of +oxygen and hydrogen gases into water. The miracle of turning water into +wine is tame by comparison. Dip plain cotton into a mixture of nitric +and sulphuric acids and let it dry, and we have that terrible explosive, +guncotton. Or, take the cellulose of which cotton is composed, and add +two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, and we have sugar. But we are +to remember that the difference here indicated is not a quantitative, +but a qualitative one, not one affecting bulk, but affecting structure. +Truly chemistry works wonders. Take ethyl alcohol, or ordinary spirits +of wine, and add four more atoms of carbon to the carbon molecule, and +we have the poison carbolic acid. Pure alcohol can be turned into a +deadly poison, not by adding to, but simply by taking from it; take out +one atom of carbon and two of hydrogen from the alcohol molecule, and we +have the poison methyl alcohol. But we are to remember that the +difference here indicated is not a quantitative, but a qualitative one, +not one affecting bulk, but affecting structure. + +In our atmosphere we have a mechanical mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, +four parts of nitrogen to one of oxygen. By uniting the nitrogen and +oxygen chemically (N_{2}O) we have nitrous oxide, laughing-gas. Ordinary +starch is made up of three different elements--six parts of carbon, ten +parts of hydrogen, and five parts of oxygen (C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}). Now if +we add water to this compound, we have a simple mixture of starch and +water, but if we bring about a chemical union with the elements of water +(hydrogen and oxygen), we have grape sugar. This sugar is formed in +green leaves by the agency of sunlight, and is the basis of all plant +and animal food, and hence one of the most important things in nature. + +Carbon is a solid, and is seen in its pure state in the diamond, the +hardest body in nature and the most valued of all precious stones, but +it enters largely into all living bodies and is an important constituent +of all the food we eat. As a gas, united with the oxygen of the air, +forming carbon dioxide, it was present at the beginning of life, and +probably helped kindle the first vital spark. In the shape of wood and +coal, it now warms us and makes the wheels of our material civilization +go round. Diamond stuff, through the magic of chemistry, plays one of +the principle rôles in our physical life; we eat it, and are warmed and +propelled by it, and cheered by it. Taken as carbonic acid gas into our +lungs, it poisons us; taken into our stomachs, it stimulates us; +dissolved in water, it disintegrates the rocks, eating out the carbonate +of lime which they contain. It is one of the principal actors in the +drama of organized matter. + + +V + +We have a good illustration of the power of chemistry, and how closely +it is dogging the footsteps of life, in the many organic compounds it +has built up out of the elements, such as sugar, starch, indigo, +camphor, rubber, and so forth, all of which used to be looked upon as +impossible aside from life-processes. It is such progress as this that +leads some men of science to believe that the creation of life itself is +within the reach of chemistry. I do not believe that any occult or +transcendental principle bars the way, but that some unknown and perhaps +unknowable condition does, as mysterious and unrepeatable as that which +separates our mental life from our physical. The transmutation of the +physical into the psychical takes place, but the secret of it we do not +know. It does not seem to fall within the law of the correlation and the +conservation of energy. + +Free or single atoms are very rare; they all quickly find their mates or +partners. This eagerness of the elements to combine is one of the +mysteries. If the world of visible matter were at one stroke resolved +into its constituent atoms, it would practically disappear; we might +smell it, or taste it, if we were left, but we could not see it, or feel +it; the water would vanish, the solid ground would vanish--more than +half of it into oxygen atoms, and the rest mainly into silicon atoms. + +The atoms of different bodies are all alike, and presumably each holds +the same amount of electric energy. One wonders, then, how the order in +which they are arranged can affect them so widely as to produce bodies +so unlike as, say, alcohol and ether. This brings before us again the +mystery of chemical arrangement or combination, so different from +anything we know among tangible bodies. It seems to imply that each atom +has its own individuality. Mix up a lot of pebbles together, and the +result would be hardly affected by the order of the arrangement, but mix +up a lot of people, and the result would be greatly affected by the fact +of who is elbowing who. It seems the same among the mysterious atoms, as +if some complemented or stimulated those next them, or had an opposite +effect. But can we think of the atoms in a chemical compound as being +next one another, or merely in juxtaposition? Do we not rather have to +think of them as identified with one another to an extent that has no +parallel in the world of ponderable bodies? A kind of sympathy or +affinity makes them one in a sense that we only see realized among +living beings. + +Chemical activity is the first step from physical activity to vital +activity, but the last step is taken rarely--the other two are +universal. Chemical changes involve the atom. What do vital changes +involve? We do not know. We can easily bring about the chemical +changes, but not so the vital changes. A chemical change destroys one or +more substances and produces others totally unlike them; a vital change +breaks up substances and builds up other bodies out of them; it results +in new compounds that finally cover the earth with myriads of new and +strange forms. + + + + +X + +THE VITAL ORDER + +I + + +The mechanistic theory of life--the theory that all living things can be +explained and fully accounted for on purely physico-chemical +principles--has many defenders in our day. The main aim of the foregoing +chapters is to point out the inadequacy of this view. At the risk of +wearying my reader I am going to collect under the above heading a few +more considerations bearing on this point. + +A thing that grows, that develops, cannot, except by very free use of +language, be called a machine. We speak of the body as a machine, but we +have to qualify it by prefixing the adjective living--the living +machine, which takes it out of the mechanical order of things +fabricated, contrived, built up from without, and puts it in the order +we call vital, the order of things self-developed from within, the order +of things autonomous, as contrasted with things automatic. All the +mechanical principles are operative in the life processes, but they have +been vitalized, not changed in any way but in the service of a new order +of reality. The heart with its chambers and valves is a pump that +forces the blood through the system, but a pump that works itself and +does not depend upon pneumatic pressure--a pump in which vital energy +takes the place of gravitational energy. The peristaltic movement in the +intestines involves a mechanical principle, but it is set up by an +inward stimulus, and not by outward force. It is these inward stimuli, +which of course involve chemical reactions, that afford the motive power +for all living bodies and that put the living in another order from the +mechanical. The eye is an optical instrument,--a rather crude one, it is +said,--but it cannot be separated from its function, as can a mere +instrument--the eye sees as literally as the brain thinks. In breathing +we unconsciously apply the principle of the bellows; it is a bellows +again which works itself, but the function of which, in a very limited +sense, we can inhibit and control. An artificial, or man-made, machine +always implies an artificer, but the living machine is not made in any +such sense; it grows, it arises out of the organizing principle that +becomes active in matter under conditions that we only dimly understand, +and that we cannot reproduce. + +The vital and the mechanical coöperate in all our bodily functions. +Swallowing our food is a mechanical process, the digestion of it is a +chemical process and the assimilation and elimination of it a vital +process. Inhaling and exhaling the air is a mechanical process, the +oxidation of the blood is a chemical process, and the renewal of the +corpuscles is a vital process. Growth, assimilation, elimination, +reproduction, metabolism, and secretion, are all vital processes which +cannot be described in terms of physics and chemistry. All our bodily +movements--lifting, striking, walking, running--are mechanical, but +seeing, hearing, and tasting, are of another order. And that which +controls, directs, coördinates, and inhibits our activities belongs to a +still higher order, the psychic. The world of thoughts and emotions +within us, while dependent upon and interacting with the physical world +without us, cannot be accounted for in terms of the physical world. A +living thing is more than a machine, more than a chemical laboratory. + +We can analyze the processes of a tree into their mechanical and +chemical elements, but there is besides a kind of force there which we +must call vital. The whole growth and development of the tree, its +manner of branching and gripping the soil, its fixity of species, its +individuality--all imply something that does not belong to the order of +the inorganic, automatic forces. In the living animal how the psychic +stands related to the physical or physiological and arises out of it, +science cannot tell us, but the relation must be real; only philosophy +can grapple with that question. To resolve the psychic and the vital +into the mechanical and chemical and refuse to see any other factors at +work is the essence of materialism. + + +II + +Any contrivance which shows an interdependence of parts, that results in +unity of action, is super-mechanical. The solar system may be regarded +as a unit, but it has not the purposive unity of a living body. It is +one only in the sense that its separate bodies are all made of one +stuff, and obey the same laws and move together in the same direction, +but a living body is a unit because all its parts are in the service of +one purposive end. An army is a unit, a flock of gregarious birds, a +colony of ants or bees, is a unit because the spirit and purpose of one +is the spirit and purpose of all; the unity is psychological. + +Only living bodies are adaptive. Adaptation, of course, has its physics +or its chemistry, because it is a physical phenomenon; but there is no +adaptation of a rock or a clay-bank to its environment; there is only +mechanical and chemical adjustment. The influence of the environment may +bring about chemical and physical changes in a non-living body, but they +are not purposive as in a living body. The fat in the seeds of plants in +northern countries is liquid and solid at a lower temperature than in +tropical climates. Living organisms alone react in a formative or +deformative way to external stimuli. In warm climates the fur of +animals and the wool of sheep become thin and light. The colder the +climate, the thicker these coverings. Such facts only show that in the +matter of adaptation among living organisms, there is a factor at work +other than chemistry and physics--not independent of them, but making a +purposive use of them. Cut off the central shoot that leads the young +spruce tree upwards, and one of the shoots from the whirl of lateral +branches below it slowly rises up and takes the place of the lost +leader. Here is an action not prompted by the environment, but by the +morphological needs of the tree, and it illustrates how different is its +unity from the unity of a mere machine. I am only aiming to point out +that in all living things the material forces behave in a purposive way +to a degree that cannot be affirmed of them in non-living, and that, +therefore, they imply intelligence. + +Evidently the cells in the body do not all have the same degree of +life,--that is, the same degree of irritability. The bone cells and the +hair cells, for instance, can hardly be so much alive--or so +irritable--as the muscle cells; nor these as intensely alive as the +nerve and brain cells. Does not a bird possess a higher degree of life +than a mollusk, or a turtle? Is not a brook trout more alive than a +mud-sucker? You can freeze the latter as stiff as an icicle and +resuscitate it, but not the former. There is a scale of degrees in life +as clearly as there is a scale of degrees in temperature. There is an +endless gradation of sensibilities of the living cells, dependent +probably upon the degree of differentiation of function. Anæsthetics +dull or suspend this irritability. The more highly developed and complex +the nervous system, the higher the degree of life, till we pass from +mere physical life to psychic life. Science might trace this difference +to cell structure, but what brings about the change in the character of +the cell, or starts the cells to building a complex nervous system, is a +question unanswerable to science. The biologist imagines this and that +about the invisible or hypothetical molecular structure; he assigns +different functions to the atoms; some are for endosmosis, others for +contraction, others for conduction of stimuli. Intramolecular oxygen +plays a part. Other names are given to the mystery--the micellar strings +of Naegeli, the biophores of Weismann, the plastidules of Haeckel; they +all presuppose millions of molecules peculiarly arranged in the +protoplasm. + +On purely mechanical and chemical principles Tyndall accounts for the +growth from the germ of a tree. The germ would be quiet, but the solar +light and heat disturb its dreams, break up its atomic equilibrium. The +germ makes an "effort" to restore it (why does it make an effort?), +which effort is necessarily defeated and incessantly renewed, and in +the turmoil or "scrapping" between the germ and the solar forces, matter +is gathered from the soil and from the air and built into the special +form of a tree. Why not in the form of a cabbage, or a donkey, or a +clam? If the forces are purely automatic, why not? Why should matter be +gathered in at all in a mechanical struggle between inorganic elements? +But these are not all inorganic; the seed is organic. Ah! that makes the +difference! That accounts for the "effort." So we have to have the +organic to start with, then the rest is easy. No doubt the molecules of +the seed would remain in a quiescent state, if they were not disturbed +by external influences, chemical and mechanical. But there is something +latent or potential in that seed that is the opposite of the mechanical, +namely, the vital, and in what that consists, and where it came from, is +the mystery. + + +III + +I fancy that the difficulty which an increasing number of persons find +in accepting the mechanistic view of life, or evolution,--the view which +Herbert Spencer built into such a ponderous system of philosophy, and +which such men as Huxley, Tyndall, Gifford, Haeckel, Verworn, and +others, have upheld and illustrated,--is temperamental rather than +logical. The view is distasteful to a certain type of mind--the +flexible, imaginative, artistic, and literary type--the type that loves +to see itself reflected in nature or that reads its own thoughts and +emotions into nature. In a few eminent examples the two types of mind to +which I refer seem more or less blended. Sir Oliver Lodge is a case in +point. Sir Oliver is an eminent physicist who in his conception of the +totality of things is yet a thoroughgoing idealist and mystic. His +solution of the problem of living things is extra-scientific. He sees in +life a distinct transcendental principle, not involved in the +constitution of matter, but independent of it, entering into it and +using it for its own purposes. + +Tyndall was another great scientist with an inborn idealistic strain in +him. His famous, and to many minds disquieting, declaration, made in his +Belfast address over thirty years ago, that in matter itself he saw the +promise and the potency of all terrestrial life, stamps him as a +scientific materialist. But his conception of matter, as "at bottom +essentially mystical and transcendental," stamps him as also an +idealist. The idealist in him speaks very eloquently in the passage +which, in the same address, he puts into the mouth of Bishop Butler, in +the latter's imaginary debate with Lucretius: "Your atoms," says the +Bishop, "are individually without sensation, much more are they without +intelligence. May I ask you, then, to try your hand upon this problem. +Take your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, your dead carbon +atoms, your dead nitrogen atoms, your dead phosphorus atoms, and all +the other atoms, dead as grains of shot, of which the brain is formed. +Imagine them separate and sensationless, observe them running together +and forming all imaginable combinations. This, as a purely mechanical +process, is _seeable_ by the mind. But can you see or dream, or in any +way imagine, how out of that mechanical art, and from these individually +dead atoms, sensation, thought, and emotion are to arise? Are you likely +to extract Homer out of the rattling of dice, or the Differential +Calculus out of the clash of billiard balls?" Could any vitalist, or +Bergsonian idealist have stated his case better? + +Now the Bishop Butler type of mind--the visualizing, idealizing, +analogy-loving, literary, and philosophical mind--is shared by a good +many people; it is shared by or is characteristic of all the great +poets, artists, seers, idealists of the world; it is the humanistic type +that sees man everywhere reflected in nature; and is radically different +from the strictly scientific type which dehumanizes nature and reduces +it to impersonal laws and forces, which distrusts analogy and sentiment +and poetry, and clings to a rigid logical method. + +This type of mind is bound to have trouble in accepting the +physico-chemical theory of the nature and origin of life. It visualizes +life, sees it as a distinct force or principle working in and through +matter but not of it, super-physical in its origin and psychological in +its nature. This is the view Henri Bergson exploits in his "Creative +Evolution." This is the view Kant took when he said, "It is quite +certain that we cannot even satisfactorily understand, much less +explain, the nature of an organism and its internal forces on purely +mechanical principles." It is the view Goethe took when he said, "Matter +can never exist without spirit, nor spirit without matter." + +Tyndall says Goethe was helped by his poetic training in the field of +natural history, but hindered as regards the physical and mechanical +sciences. "He could not formulate distinct mechanical conceptions; he +could not see the force of mechanical reasoning." His literary culture +helped him to a literary interpretation of living nature, but not to a +scientific explanation of it; it helped put him in sympathy with living +things, and just to that extent barred him from the mechanistic +conception of those of pure science. Goethe, like every great poet, saw +the universe through the colored medium of his imagination, his +emotional and æsthetic nature; in short, through his humanism, and not +in the white light of the scientific reason. His contributions to +literature were of the first order, but his contributions to science +have not taken high rank. He was a "prophet of the soul," and not a +disciple of the scientific understanding. + +If we look upon life as inherent or potential in the constitution of +matter, dependent upon outward physical and chemical conditions for its +development, we are accounting for life in terms of matter and motion, +and are in the ranks of the materialists. But if we find ourselves +unable to set the ultimate particles of matter in action, or so working +as to produce the reaction which results in life, without conceiving of +some new force or principle operating upon them, then we are in the +ranks of the vitalists or idealists. The idealists see the original +atoms slumbering there in rock and sea and soil for untold ages, till, +moved upon by some unknown factor, they draw together in certain fixed +order and numbers, and life is the result. Something seems to put a +spell upon them and cause them to behave so differently from the way +they behaved before they were drawn into the life circuit. + +When we think of life, as the materialists do, as of mechanico-chemical +origin, or explicable in terms of the natural universal order, we think +of the play of material forces amid which we live, we think of their +subtle action and interaction all about us--of osmosis, capillarity, +radio-activity, electricity, thermism, and the like; we think of the +four states of matter,--solid, fluid, gaseous, and ethereal,--of how +little our senses take in of their total activities, and we do not feel +the need of invoking a transcendental principle to account for it. + +Yet to fail to see that what we must call intelligence pervades and is +active in all organic nature is to be spiritually blind. But to see it +as something foreign to, or separable from, nature is to do violence to +our faith in the constancy and sufficiency of the natural order. One +star differeth from another star in glory. There are degrees of mystery +in the universe. The most mysterious thing in inorganic nature is +electricity--that disembodied energy that slumbers in the ultimate +particles of matter--unseen, unfelt, unknown, till it suddenly leaps +forth with such terrible vividness and power on the face of the storm, +or till we summon it through the transformation of some other form of +energy. A still higher and more inscrutable mystery is life--that +something which clothes itself in such infinitely varied and beautiful +as well as unbeautiful forms of matter. We can evoke electricity at will +from many different sources, but we can evoke life only from other life; +the biogenetic law is inviolable. + + +IV + +It takes some of the cold iron out of the mechanistic theory of life if +we divest it of all our associations with the machine-mad and +machine-ridden world in which we live and out of which our material +civilization came. The mechanical, the automatic, is the antithesis of +the spontaneous and the poetic, and it repels us on that account. We are +so made that the artificial systems please us far less than the natural +systems. A sailing-ship takes us more than a steamship. It is nearer +life, nearer the winged creatures. There is determinism in nature, +mechanical forces are everywhere operative, but there are no machines in +the proper sense of the word. When we call an organism a living machine +we at once take it out of the categories of the merely mechanical and +automatic and lift it into a higher order--the vital order. + +Professor Le Dantec says we are mechanisms in the third degree, a +mechanism of a mechanism of a mechanism. The body is a mechanism by +virtue of its anatomy--its framework, its levers, its hinges; it is a +mechanism by virtue of its chemical activities; and it is a mechanism by +virtue of its colloid states--three kinds of mechanisms in one, and all +acting together harmoniously and as a unit--in other words, a +super-mechanical combination of activities. + +The mechanical conception of life repels us because of its association +in our minds with the fabrications of our own hands--the dead metal and +wood and the noise and dust of our machine-ridden and machine-produced +civilization. + +But Nature makes no machines like our own. She uses mechanical +principles everywhere, in inert matter and in living bodies, but she +does not use them in the bald and literal way we do. We must divest her +mechanisms of the rigidity and angularity that pertain to the works of +our own hands. Her hooks and hinges and springs and sails and coils and +aeroplanes, all involve mechanical contrivances, but how differently +they impress us from our own application of the same principles! Even in +inert matter--in the dews, the rains, the winds, the tides, the snows, +the streams,--her mechanics and her chemistry and her hydrostatics and +pneumatics, seem much nearer akin to life than our own. We must remember +that Nature's machines are not human machines. When we place our machine +so that it is driven by the great universal currents,--the wheel in the +stream, the sail on the water,--the result is much more pleasing and +poetic than when propelled by artificial power. The more machinery we +get between ourselves and Nature, the farther off Nature seems. The +marvels of crystallization, the beautiful vegetable forms which the +frost etches upon the stone flagging of the sidewalk, and upon the +window-pane, delight us and we do not reason why. A natural bridge +pleases more than one which is the work of an engineer, yet the natural +bridge can only stand when it is based upon good engineering principles. +I found at the great Colorado Cañon, that the more the monuments of +erosion were suggestive of human structures, or engineering and +architectural works, the more I was impressed by them. We are pleased +when Nature imitates man, and we are pleased when man imitates Nature, +and yet we recoil from the thought that life is only applied mechanics +and chemistry. But the thought that it is mechanics and chemistry +applied by something of which they as such, form no part, some agent or +principle which we call vitality, is welcome to us. No machine we have +ever made or seen can wind itself up, or has life, no chemical compound +from the laboratories ever develops a bit of organic matter, and +therefore we are disbelievers in the powers of these things. + + +V + +Is gravity or chemical affinity any more real to the mind than vitality? +Both are names for mysteries. Something which we call life lifts matter +up, in opposition to gravity, into thousands of living forms. The tree +lifts potash, silica, and lime up one or two hundred feet into the air; +it elbows the soil away from its hole where it enters the ground; its +roots split rocks. A giant sequoia lifts tons of solid matter and water +up hundreds of feet. So will an explosion of powder or dynamite, but the +tree does it slowly and silently by the organizing power of life. The +vital is as inscrutably identified with the mechanical and chemical as +the soul is identified with the body. They are one while yet they are +two. + +For purely mechanical things we can find equivalents. Arrest a purely +mechanical process, and the machine only rests or rusts; arrest a vital +process, and the machine evaporates, disintegrates, myriads of other +machines reduce it to its original mineral and gaseous elements. In the +organic world we strike a principle that is incalculable in its +operation and incommensurable in its results. The physico-chemical +forces we can bring to book; we know their orbits, their attractions and +repulsions, and just what they will and will not do; we can forecast +their movements and foresee their effects. But the vital forces +transcend all our mathematics; we cannot anticipate their behavior. +Start inert matter in motion and we know pretty nearly what will happen +to it; mix the chemical elements together and we can foresee the +results; but start processes or reactions we call life, and who can +foresee the end? We know the sap will mount in the tree and the tree +will be true to its type, but what do we or can we know of what it is +that determines its kind and size? We know that in certain plants the +leaves will always be opposite each other on the stalk, and that in +other plants the leaves will alternate; that certain plants will have +conspicuous and others inconspicuous flowers; but how can we know what +it is in the cells of the plants that determines these things? We can +graft the scion of a sour apple tree upon a sweet, and _vice versa_, and +the fruit of the scion will be true to its kind, but no analysis of the +scion or of the stock will reveal the secret, as it would in the case of +chemical compounds. In inorganic nature we meet with concretions, but +not secretions; with crystallization, but not with assimilation and +growth from within. Chemistry tells us that the composition of animal +bodies is identical with that of vegetable; that there is nothing in one +that is not in the other; and yet, behold the difference! a difference +beyond the reach of chemistry to explain. Biology can tell us all about +these differences and many other things, but it cannot tell us the +secret we are looking for,--what it is that fashions from the same +elements two bodies so unlike as a tree and a man. + +Decay and disintegration in the inorganic world often lead to the +production of beautiful forms. In life the reverse is true; the vital +forces build up varied and picturesque forms which when pulled down are +shapeless and displeasing. The immense layers of sandstone and limestone +out of which the wonderful forms that fill the Grand Cañon of the +Colorado are carved were laid down in wide uniform sheets; if the waters +had deposited their material in the forms which we now see, it would +have been a miracle. We marvel and admire as we gaze upon them now; we +do more, we have to speculate as to how it was all done by the blind, +unintelligent forces. Giant stairways, enormous alcoves, dizzy, highly +wrought balustrades, massive vertical walls standing four-square like +huge foundations--how did all the unguided erosive forces do it? The +secret is in the structure of the rock, in the lines of cleavage, in the +unequal hardness, and in the impulsive, irregular, and unequal action of +the eroding agents. These agents follow the lines of least resistance; +they are active at different times and seasons, and from different +directions; they work with infinite slowness; they undermine, they +disintegrate, they dislodge, they transport; the hard streaks resist +them, the soft streaks invite them; water charged with sand and gravel +saws down; the wind, armed with fine sand, rounds off and hollows out; +and thus the sculpturing goes on. But after you have reasoned out all +these things, you still marvel at the symmetry and the structural beauty +of the forms. They look like the handiwork of barbarian gods. They are +the handiwork of physical forces which we can see and measure and in a +degree control. But what a gulf separates them from the handiwork of the +organic forces! + + +VI + +Some things come and some things arise; things that already exist may +come, but potential things arise; my friend comes to visit me, the tide +comes up the river, the cold or hot wave comes from the west; but the +seasons, night and morning, health and disease, and the like, do not +come in this sense; they arise. Life does not come to dead matter in +this sense; it arises. Day and night are not traveling round the earth, +though we view them that way; they arise from the turning of the earth +upon its axis. If we could keep up with the flying moments,--that is, +with the revolution of the earth,--we could live always at sunrise, or +sunset, or at noon, or at any other moment we cared to elect. Love or +hate does not come to our hearts; it is born there; the breath does not +come to the newborn infant; respiration arises there automatically. See +how the life of the infant is involved in that first breath, yet it is +not its life; the infant must first be alive before it can breathe. If +it is still-born, the respiratory reaction does not take place. We can +say, then, that the breath means life, and the life means breath; only +we must say the latter first. We can say in the same way that +organization means life, and life means organization. Something sets up +the organizing process in matter. We may take all the physical elements +of life known to us and jumble them together and shake them up to all +eternity, and life will not result. A little friction between solid +bodies begets heat, a little more and we get fire. But no amount of +friction begets life. Heat and life go together, but heat is the +secondary factor. + +Life is always a vanishing-point, a constant becoming--an unstable +something that escapes us while we seem to analyze it. In its nature or +essence, it is a metaphysical problem, and not one of physical science. +Science cannot grasp it; it evaporates in its crucibles. And science is +compelled finally to drive it into an imaginary region--I had almost +said, metaphysical region, the region of the invisible, hypothetical +atoms of matter. Here in the mysteries of molecular attraction and +repulsion, it conceives the secret of life to lie. + +"Life is a wave," says Tyndall, but does not one conceive of something, +some force or impulse in the wave that is not of the wave? What is it +that travels along lifting new water each moment up into waves? It is a +physical force communicated usually by the winds. When the wave dies +upon the shore, this force is dissipated, not lost, or is turned into +heat. Why may we not think of life as a vital force traveling through +matter and lifting up into organic life waves in the same way? But not +translatable into any other form of energy because not derivable from +any other form. + +Every species of animal has something about it that is unique and +individual and that no chemical or physiological analysis of it will +show--probably some mode of motion among its ultimate particles that is +peculiar to itself. This prevents cross-breeding among different species +and avoids a chaos of animal and vegetable forms. Living tissues and +living organs from one species cannot be grafted upon the individuals +of another species; the kidney of a cat, for instance, cannot be +substituted for that of a dog, although the functions and the anatomy of +the two are identical. It is suggested that an element of felineness and +an element of canineness adhere in the cells of each, and the two are +antagonistic. This specific quality, or selfness, of an animal pervades +every drop of its blood, so that the blood relationship of the different +forms may be thus tested, where chemistry is incompetent to show +agreement or antagonism. The reactions of life are surer and more subtle +than those of chemistry. Thus the blood relationship between birds and +reptiles is clearly shown, as is the relationship of man and the +chimpanzee and the orang-outang. The same general fact holds true in the +vegetable world. You cannot graft the apple upon the oak, or the plum +upon the elm. It seems as if there were the quality of oakness and the +quality of appleness, and they would not mix. + +The same thing holds among different chemical compounds. Substances +which have precisely the same chemical formulæ (called isomers) have +properties as widely apart as alcohol and ether. + +If chemistry is powerless to trace the relationship between different +forms of life, is it not highly improbable that the secret of life +itself is in the keeping of chemistry? + +Analytical science has reached the end of its tether when it has +resolved a body into its constituent elements. Why or how these elements +build up a man in the one case, and a monkey in another, is beyond its +province to say. It can deal with all the elements of the living body, +vegetable and animal; it can take them apart and isolate them in +different bottles; but it cannot put them together again as they were in +life. It knows that the human body is built up of a vast multitude of +minute cells, that these cells build tissues, that the tissues build +organs, that the organs build the body; but the secret of the man, or +the dog, or even the flea, is beyond its reach. The secret of biology, +that which makes its laws and processes differ so widely from those of +geology or astronomy, is a profound mystery. Science can take living +tissue and make it grow outside of the body from which it came, but it +will only repeat endlessly the first step of life--that of +cell-multiplication; it is like a fire that will burn as long as fuel is +given it and the ashes are removed; but it is entirely purposeless; it +will not build up the organ of which it once formed a part, much less +the whole organized body. + +The difference between one man and another does not reside in his +anatomy or physiology, or in the elements of which the brains and bodies +are composed, but in something entirely beyond the reach of experimental +science to disclose. The difference is psychological, or, we may say, +philosophical, and science is none the wiser for it. The mechanics and +the chemistry of a machine are quite sufficient to account for it, plus +the man behind it. To the physics and chemistry of a living body, we are +compelled to add some intangible, unknowable principle or tendency that +physics and chemistry cannot disclose or define. One hesitates to make +such a statement lest he do violence to that oneness, that sameness, +that pervades the universe. + +All trees go to the same soil for their ponderable elements, their +ashes, and to the air and the light for their imponderable,--their +carbon and their energy,--but what makes the tree, and makes one tree +differ from another? Has the career of life upon this globe, the +unfolding of the evolutionary process, been accounted for when you have +named all the physical and material elements and processes which it +involves? We take refuge in the phrase "the nature of things," but the +nature of things evidently embraces something not dreamed of in our +science. + + +VII + +It is reported that a French scientist has discovered the secret of the +glow-worm's light. Of course it is a chemical reaction,--what else could +it be?--but it is a chemical reaction in a vital process. Our mental and +spiritual life--our emotions of art, poetry, religion--are inseparable +from physical processes in the brain and the nervous system; but is +that their final explanation? The sunlight has little effect on a +withered leaf, but see what effect it has upon the green leaf upon the +tree! The sunlight is the same, but it falls upon a new force or potency +in the chlorophyll of the leaf,--a bit of chemistry there inspired by +life,--and the heat of the sun is stored up in the carbon or woody +tissues of the plant or tree, to be given out again in our stoves or +fireplaces. And behold how much more of the solar heat is stored up in +one kind of a tree than in certain other kinds,--how much in the +hickory, oak, maple, and how little comparatively in the pine, spruce, +linden,--all through the magic of something in the leaf, or shall we say +of the spirit of the tree? If the laws of matter and force alone account +for the living organism, if we do not have to think of something that +organizes, then how do we account for the marvelous diversity of living +forms, and their still more marvelous power of adaptation to changed +conditions, since the laws of matter and force are the same everywhere? +Science can deal only with the mechanism and chemistry of life, not with +its essence; that which sets up the new activity in matter that we call +vital is beyond its analysis. It is hard to believe that we have told +the whole truth about a living body when we have enumerated all its +chemical and mechanical activities. It is by such enumeration that we +describe a watch, or a steam-engine, or any other piece of machinery. +Describe I say, but such description does not account for the watch or +tell us its full significance. To do this, we must include the +watchmaker, and the world of mind and ideas amid which he lives. Now, in +a living machine, the machine and the maker are one. The watch is +perpetually self-wound and self-regulated and self-repaired. It is made +up of millions of other little watches, the cells, all working together +for one common end and ticking out the seconds and minutes of life with +unfailing regularity. Unlike the watch we carry in our pockets, if we +take it apart so as to stop its ticking, it can never be put together +again. It has not merely stopped; it is dead. + +The late William Keith Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University, said in +opposition to Huxley that he held to the "old-fashioned conviction that +living things do in some way, and in some degree, control or condition +inorganic nature; that they hold their own by setting the mechanical +properties of matter in opposition to each other, and that this is their +most notable and distinctive characteristic." And yet, he said, to think +of the living world as "anything but natural" is impossible. + + +VIII + +Life seems to beget a new kind of chemistry, the same elements behave so +differently when they are drawn into the life circuit from what they +did before. Carbon, for instance, enters into hundreds of new compounds +in the organic world that are unknown in the inorganic world. I am thus +speaking of life as if it were something, some force or agent, that +antedates its material manifestations, whereas in the eyes of science +there is no separation of the one from the other. In an explosion there +is usually something anterior to, or apart from, the explosive compound, +that pulls the trigger, or touches the match, or completes the circuit, +but in the slow and gentle explosions that keep the life machinery +going, we cannot make such a distinction. The spark and the powder are +one; the gun primes and fires itself; the battery is perpetually +self-charged; the lamp is self-trimmed and self-lit. + +Sir Oliver Lodge is apparently so impressed with some such +considerations that he spiritualizes life, and makes it some mysterious +entity in itself, existing apart from the matter which it animates and +uses; not a source of energy but a timer and releaser of energy. Henri +Bergson, in his "Creative Evolution," expounds a similar philosophy of +life. Life is a current in opposition to matter which it enters into, +and organizes into the myriads of living forms. + +I confess that it is easier for me to think of life in these terms than +in terms of physical science. The view falls in better with our +anthropomorphic tendencies. It appeals to the imagination and to our +myth-making aptitudes. It gives a dramatic interest to the question. +With Bergson we see life struggling with matter, seeking to overcome its +obduracy, compromising with it, taking a half-loaf when it cannot get a +whole one; we see evolution as the unfolding of a vast drama acted upon +the stage of geologic time. Creation becomes a perpetual process, the +creative energy an ever-present and familiar fact. Bergson's book is a +wonderful addition to the literature of science and of philosophy. The +poet, the dreamer, the mystic, in each of us takes heart at Bergson's +beautiful philosophy; it seems like a part of life; it goes so well with +living things. As James said, it is like the light of the morning and +the singing of birds; we glory in seeing the intellect humbled as he +humbles it. The concepts of science try our mettle. They do not appeal +to our humanity, or to our myth-making tendencies; they appeal to the +purely intellectual, impersonal force within us. Though all our gods +totter and fall, science goes its way; though our hearts are chilled and +our lives are orphaned, science cannot turn aside, or veil its light. It +does not temper the wind to the shorn lamb. + +Hence the scientific conception of the universe repels many people. They +are not equal to it. To think of life as involved in the very +constitution of matter itself is a much harder proposition than to +conceive of it as Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge do, as an independent +reality. The latter view gives the mind something more tangible to lay +hold of. Indeed, science gives the mind nothing to take hold of. Does +any chemical process give the mind any separate reality to take hold of? +Is there a spirit of fire, or of decay, or of disease, or of health? + + +IX + +Behold a man with his wonderful body, and still more wonderful mind; try +to think of him as being fathered and mothered by the mere mechanical +and chemical forces that we see at work in the rocks and soil underfoot, +begotten by chemical affinity or the solar energy working as molecular +physic, and mothered by the warmth and moisture, by osmosis and the +colloid state--and all through the chance clashings and groupings of the +irrational physical forces. Nothing is added to them, nothing guides or +inspires them, nothing moves upon the face of the waters, nothing +breathes upon the insensate clay. The molecules or corpuscles of the +four principal elements--carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen--just +happened to come together in certain definite numbers, and in a certain +definite order, and invented or built up that most marvelous thing in +the universe, the cell. The cells put their heads, or bodies, together, +and built the tissues, the tissues formed the organs, the organs in +convention assembled organized themselves into the body, and behold! a +man, a bird, or a tree!--as chance a happening as the juxtaposition of +the grains of sand upon the shore, or the shape of the summer clouds in +the sky. + +Aristotle dwells upon the internal necessity. The teeth of an animal +arise from necessity, he says; the animal must have them in order to +live. Yet it must have lived before it had them, else how would the +necessity arise? If the horns of an animal arise from the same +necessity, the changing conditions of its life begat the necessity; its +life problem became more and more complicated, till new tools arose to +meet new wants. But without some indwelling principle of development and +progress, how could the new wants arise? Spencer says this progress is +the result of the action and reaction between organisms and their +changing environment. But you must first get your organism before the +environment can work its effects, and you must have something in the +organism that organizes and reacts from the environment. We see the +agents he names astronomic, geologic, meteorologic, having their effects +upon inanimate objects as well, but they do not start the process of +development in them; they change a stone, but do not transform it into +an organism. The chemist can take the living body apart as surely as the +watchmaker can take a watch apart, but he cannot put the parts together +again so that life will reappear, as the watchmaker can restore the +time-keeping power of the watch. The watch is a mere mechanical +contrivance with parts fitted to parts externally, while the living body +is a mechanical and chemical contrivance, with parts blended with parts +internally, so to speak, and acting together through sympathy, and not +merely by mechanical adjustment. Do we not have to think of some +organizing agent embracing and controlling all the parts, and integral +in each of them, making a vital bond instead of a mechanical one? + +There are degrees of vitality in living things, whereas there are only +degrees of complexity and delicacy and efficiency in mechanical +contrivances. One watch differs from another in the perfection of its +works, but not as two living bodies with precisely similar structure +differ from each other in their hold upon life, or in their measure of +vitality. No analysis possible to science could show any difference in +the chemistry and physics of two persons of whom one would withstand +hardships and diseases that would kill the other, or with whom one would +have the gift of long life and the other not. Machines differ from one +another quantitatively--more or less efficiency; a living body differs +from a machine qualitatively--its efficiency is of a different order; +its unity is of a different order; its complexity is of a different +order; the interdependence of its parts is of a different order. Yet +what a parallel there is between a machine and a living body! Both are +run by external forces or agents, solar energy in one applied +mechanically from without; in the other applied vitally from within; +both suffer from the wear and tear of time and from abuse, but one is +self-repaired and the other powerless in this respect--two machines with +the same treatment running the same number of years, but two men with +the same treatment running a very unequal number of years. Machines of +the same kind differ in durability, men differ in powers of endurance; a +man can "screw up his courage," but a machine has no courage to screw +up. Science may be unable to see any difference between vital mechanics, +vital chemistry, and the chemics and mechanics of inorganic bodies--its +analysis reveals no difference; but that there is a difference as +between two different orders, all men see and feel. + +Science cannot deal with fundamental questions. Only philosophy can do +this. Science is only a tool or a key, and it can unlock only certain +material problems. It cannot appraise itself. It is not a judge but a +witness. Problems of mind, of character, moral, æsthetic, literary, +artistic problems, are not its sphere. It counts and weighs and measures +and analyzes, it traces relations, but it cannot appraise its own +results. Science and religion come in conflict only when the latter +seeks to deal with objective facts, and the former seeks to deal with +subjective ideas and emotions. On the question of miracle they clash, +because religion is then dealing with natural phenomena and challenges +science. Philosophy offends science when it puts its own interpretation +upon scientific facts. Science displeases literature when it dehumanizes +nature and shows us irrefragable laws when we had looked for humanistic +divinities. + + + + +XI + +THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIT + + +In my youth I once heard the then well-known lecturer Starr King speak +on "The Law of Disorder." I have no recollection of the main thought of +his discourse, but can see that it might have been upon the order and +harmony that finally come out of the disharmonies of nature and of man. +The whole universe goes blundering on, but surely arrives. Collisions +and dispersions in the heavens above, and failure and destruction among +living things on the earth below, yet here we all are in a world good to +be in! The proof that it is good to be in is that we are actually here. +It is as if the Creator played his right hand against his left--what one +loses the other gains. + +It has been aptly said that while Darwin's theory of natural selection +may account for the survival of the fittest, it does not account for the +arrival of the fittest. The arrival of the fittest, sooner or later, +seems in some way guaranteed by tendencies that are beyond the +hit-and-miss method of natural selection. + +When we look back over the course of organic evolution, we see the +unfolding of a great drama, or tragedy, in which, for millions upon +millions of years the sole actors are low and all but brainless forms +of life, devouring and devoured, in the old seas. We see, during other +millions upon millions of years, a savage carnival of huge bestial forms +upon the land, amphibian monsters and dragons of the land and air, +devouring and being devoured, a riot of blood and carnage. We see the +shifting of land and sea, the folding and crumpling of the earth's +crust, the rise of mountains, the engulfing of forests, a vast +destruction of life, immense numbers of animal forms becoming extinct +through inability to adapt themselves to new conditions, or from other +causes. We see creatures, half beast, half bird, or half dragon, half +fish; we see the evolutionary process thwarted or delayed apparently by +the hardening or fixing of its own forms. We see it groping its way like +a blind man, and experimenting with this device and with that, fumbling, +awkward, ineffectual, trying magnitude of body and physical strength +first, and then shifting the emphasis to size of brain and delicacy and +complexity of nerve-organization, pushing on but gropingly, learning +only by experience, regardless of pain and waste and suffering; whole +races of sentient beings swept away by some terrestrial cataclysm, as at +the end of Palæozoic and Mesozoic times; prodigal, inhuman, riotous, +arming some vegetable growths with spurs and thorns that tear and stab, +some insects with stings, some serpents with deadly fangs, the +production of pain as much a part of the scheme of things as the +production of pleasure; the creative impulse feeling its way through the +mollusk to the fish, and through the fish to the amphibian and the +reptile, through the reptile to the mammal, and through the mammal to +the anthropoid apes, and through the apes to man, then through the rude +and savage races of man, the long-jawed, small-brained, Pliocene man, +hairy and savage, to the cave-dwellers and stone-implement man of +Pleistocene times, and so on to our rude ancestors whom we see dimly at +the dawn of history, and thus rapidly upward to the European man of our +own era. What a record! What savagery, what thwartings and delays, what +carnage and suffering, what an absence of all that we mean by +intelligent planning and oversight, of love, of fatherhood! Just a clash +of forces, the battle to the strong and the race to the fleet. + +It is hard to believe that the course of organic evolution would have +eventuated in man and the other higher forms of life without some +guiding principle; yet it is equally difficult to believe that the +course of any guiding intelligence down the ages would have been strewn +with so many failures and monstrosities, so much waste and suffering and +delay. Man has not been specially favored by one force or element in +nature. Behold the enemies that beset him without and within, and that +are armed for his destruction! The intelligence that appears to pervade +the organic world, and that reaches its conscious expression in the +brain of man, is just as manifest in all the forms of animals and plants +that are inimical to him, in all his natural enemies,--venomous snakes +and beasts of prey, and insect pests,--as in anything else. Nature is as +wise and solicitous for rats and mice as for men. In fact, she has +endowed many of the lower creatures with physical powers that she has +denied him. Evidently man is only one of the cards in her pack; +doubtless the highest one, but the game is not played for him alone. + +There is no economy of effort or of material in nature as a whole, +whatever there may be in special parts. The universe is not run on +modern business-efficiency principles. There is no question of time, or +of profit, of solvency or insolvency. The profit-and-loss account in the +long run always balances. In our astronomic age there are probably +vastly more dead suns and planets strewing the depths of sidereal space +than there are living suns and planets. But in some earlier period in +the cycle of time the reverse may have been true, or it may be true in +some future period. + +There is economy of effort in the individual organism, but not in the +organic series, at least from the human point of view. During the +biologic ages there have been a vast number of animal forms, great and +small, and are still, that had no relation to man, that were not in his +line of descent, and played no part in his evolution. During that +carnival of monstrous and gigantic forms in Mesozoic time the ancestor +of man was probably some small and insignificant creature whose life was +constantly imperiled by the huge beasts about it. That it survived at +all in the clash of forces, bestial and elemental, during those early +ages, is one of the wonders of time. The drama or tragedy of evolution +has had many actors, some of them fearful and terrible to look upon, who +have played their parts and passed off the stage, as if the sole purpose +was the entertainment of some unseen spectator. When we reach human +history, what wasted effort, what failures, what blind groping, what +futile undertakings!--war, famine, pestilence, delaying progress or +bringing to naught the wisdom of generations of men! Those who live in +this age are witnessing in the terrible European war something analogous +to the blind, wasteful fury of the elemental forces; millions of men who +never saw one another, and who have not the shadow of a quarrel, engage +in a life-and-death struggle, armed with all the aids that centuries of +science and civilization can give them--a tragedy that darkens the very +heavens and makes a mockery of all our age-old gospel of peace and good +will to men. It is a catastrophe on a scale with the cataclysms of +geologic time when whole races disappeared and the face of continents +was changed. It seems that men in the aggregate, with all their science +and religion, are no more exempt from the operation of cosmic laws than +are the stocks and stones. Each party to this gigantic struggle declares +that he is in it against his will; the fate that rules in the solar +system seems to have them all in its grip; the working of forces and +tendencies for which no man was responsible seems to have brought it +about. Social communities grow in grace and good-fellowship, but +governments in their relations to one another, and often in relation to +their own subjects, are still barbarous. Men become christianized, but +man is still a heathen, the victim of savage instincts. In this struggle +one of the most admirable and efficient of nations, and one of the most +solicitous for the lives and well-being of its citizens, is suddenly +seized with a fury of destruction, hurling its soldiers to death as if +they were only the waste of the fields, and trampling down other peoples +whose geographic position placed them in their way as if they were +merely vermin, throwing international morality to the winds, looking +upon treaties as "scraps of paper," regarding themselves as the salt of +the earth, the chosen of the Lord, appropriating the Supreme Being as +did the colossal egotism of old Israel, and quickly getting down to the +basic principle of savage life--that might makes right. + +Little wonder that the good people are asking, Have we lost faith? We +may or we may not have lost faith, but can we not see that our faith +does not give us a key to the problem? Our faith is founded on the old +prescientific conception of a universe in which good and evil are +struggling with each other, with a Supreme Being aiding and abetting the +good. We fail to appreciate that the cosmic laws are no respecters of +persons. Emerson says there is no god dare wrong a worm, but worms dare +wrong one another, and there is no god dare take sides with either. The +tides in the affairs of men are as little subject to human control as +the tides of the sea and the air. We may fix the blame of the European +war upon this government or upon that, but race antagonisms and +geographical position are not matters of choice. An island empire, like +England, is bound to be jealous of all rivals upon the sea, because her +very life, when nations clash, depends upon her control of it; and an +inland empire, like Germany, is bound to grow restless under the +pressure of contiguous states of other races. A vast empire, like +Russia, is always in danger of falling apart by its own weight. It is +fused and consolidated by a turn of events that arouse the patriotic +emotions of the whole people and unite them in a common enthusiasm. + +The evolution of nations is attended by the same contingencies, the same +law of probability, the same law of the survival of the fit, as are +organic bodies. I say the survival of the fit; there are degrees of +fitness in the scale of life; the fit survive, and the fittest lead and +dominate, as did the reptiles in Mesozoic time, and the mammals in +Tertiary time. Among the mammals man is dominant because he is the +fittest. Nations break up or become extinct when they are no longer fit, +or equal to the exigencies of the struggles of life. The Roman Empire +would still exist if it had been entirely fit. The causes of its +unfitness form a long and intricate problem. Germany of to-day evidently +looks upon herself as the dominant nation, the one fittest to survive, +and she has committed herself to the desperate struggle of justifying +her self-estimate. She tramples down weaker nations as we do the stubble +of the fields. She would plough and harrow the world to plant her +Prussian _Kultur_. This _Kultur_ is a mighty good product, but we +outside of its pale think that French _Kultur_, and English _Kultur_, +and American _Kultur_ are good products also, and equally fit to +survive. We naturally object to being ploughed under. That Russian +_Kultur_ has so far proved itself a vastly inferior product cannot be +doubted, but the evolutionary processes will in time bring a finer and +higher Russia out of this vast weltering and fermenting mass of +humanity. In all these things impersonal laws and forces are at work, +and the balance of power, if temporarily disturbed, is bound, sooner or +later, to be restored just as it is in the inorganic realm. + +Evolution is creative, as Bergson contends. The wonder is that, +notwithstanding the indifference of the elemental forces and the blind +clashing of opposing tendencies among living forms,--a universe that +seems run entirely on the trial-and-error principle,--evolution has gone +steadily forward, a certain order and stability has been reached in the +world of inert bodies and forces, and myriads of forms of wonderful +fitness and beauty have been reached in the organic realm. Just as the +water-system and the weather-system of the globe have worked themselves +out on the hit-and-miss plan, but not without serious defects,--much too +much water and heat at a few places, and much too little at a few +others,--so the organic impulse, warred upon by the blind inorganic +elements and preyed upon by the forms it gave rise to, has worked itself +out and peopled the world as we see it peopled to-day--not with forms +altogether admirable and lovely from our point of view, but so from the +point of view of the whole. The forests get themselves planted by the +go-as-you-please winds and currents, the pines in one place, the spruce, +the oaks, the elms, the beeches, in another, all with a certain fitness +and system. The waters gather themselves together in great bodies and +breathe salubrity and fertility upon the land. + +A certain order and reasonableness emerges from the chaos and +cross-purposes. There are harmony and coöperation among the elemental +forces, as well as strife and antagonism. Life gets on, for all groping +and blundering. There is the inherent variability of living forms to +begin with--the primordial push toward the development from within +which, so far as we can see, is not fortuitous, but predestined; and +there is the stream of influences from without, constantly playing upon +and modifying the organism and taken advantage of by it. + +The essence of life is in adaptability; it goes into partnership with +the forces and conditions that surround it. It is this trait which leads +the teleological philosopher to celebrate the fitness of the environment +when its fitness is a foregone conclusion. Shall we praise the fitness +of the air for breathing, or of the water for drinking, or of the winds +for filling our sails? If we cannot say explicitly, without speaking +from our anthropomorphism, that there is a guiding intelligence in the +evolution of living forms, we can at least say, I think, that the +struggle for life is favored by the very constitution of the universe +and that man in some inscrutable way was potential in the fiery nebula +itself. + + + + +XII + +THE NATURALIST'S VIEW OF LIFE + + +I + +William James said that one of the privileges of a philosopher was to +contradict other philosophers. I may add in the same spirit that one of +the fatalities of many philosophers is, sooner or later, to contradict +themselves. I do not know that James ever contradicted himself, but I +have little doubt that a critical examination of his works would show +that he sometimes did so; I remember that he said he often had trouble +to make both ends of his philosophy meet. Any man who seeks to compass +any of the fundamental problems with the little span of his finite mind, +is bound at times to have trouble to make both ends meet. The man of +science seldom has any such trouble with his problems; he usually knows +what is the matter and forthwith seeks to remedy it. But the philosopher +works with a much more intangible and elusive material, and is lucky if +he is ever aware when both ends fail to meet. + +I have often wondered if Darwin, who was a great philosopher as well as +a great man of science, saw or felt the contradiction between his theory +of the origin of species through natural selection working upon +fortuitous variations, and his statement, made in his old age, that he +could not look upon man, with all his wonderful powers, as the result of +mere chance. The result of chance man certainly is--is he not?--as are +all other forms of life, if evolution is a mere mechanical process set +going and kept going by the hit-and-miss action of the environment upon +the organism, or by the struggle for existence. If evolution involves no +intelligence in nature, no guiding or animating principle, then is not +man an accidental outcome of the blind clashing and jolting of the +material forces, as much so as the great stone face in the rocks which +Hawthorne used so suggestively in one of his stories? + +I have wondered if Huxley was aware that both ends of his argument did +not quite meet when he contended for the truth of determinism--that +there is and can be no free or spontaneous volition; and at the same +time set man apart from the cosmic order, and represented him as working +his will upon it, crossing and reversing its processes. In one of his +earlier essays, Huxley said that to the student of living things, as +contrasted with the student of inert matter, the aspect of nature is +reversed. "In living matter, incessant, and so far as we know, +spontaneous, change is the rule, rest the exception, the anomaly, to be +accounted for. Living things have no inertia, and tend to no +equilibrium," except the equilibrium of death. This is good vitalistic +doctrine, as far as it goes, yet Huxley saw no difference between the +matter of life and other matter, except in the manner in which the atoms +are aggregated. Probably the only difference between a diamond and a +piece of charcoal, or between a pearl and an oyster-shell, is the manner +in which the atoms are aggregated; but that the secret of life is in the +peculiar compounding of the atoms or molecules--a spatial arrangement of +them--is a harder proposition. It seems to me also that Haeckel involves +himself in obvious contradictions when he ascribes will, sensation, +inclination, dislike, though of a low order, to the atoms of matter; in +fact, sees them as living beings with souls, and then denies soul, will, +power of choice, and the like to their collective unity in the brain of +man. + +A philosopher cannot well afford to assume the air of lofty indifference +that the poet Whitman does when he asks, "Do I contradict myself? Very +well, then, I contradict myself"; but he may take comfort in the thought +that contradictions are often only apparent, and not real, as when two +men standing on opposite sides of the earth seem to oppose each other, +and yet their heads point to the same heavens, and their feet to the +same terrestrial centre. The logic of the earth completely contradicts +the ideas we draw from our experience with other globes, both our +artificial globes and the globes in the forms of the sun and the moon +that we see in the heavens. The earth has only one side, the outside, +which is always the upper side; at the South Pole, as at the North, we +are on the top side. I fancy the whole truth of any of the great +problems, if we could see it, would reconcile all our half-truths, all +the contradictions in our philosophy. + +In considering this problem of the mystery of living things, I have had +a good deal of trouble in trying to make my inborn idealism go hand in +hand with my inborn naturalism; but I am not certain that there is any +real break or contradiction between them, only a surface one, and that +deeper down the strata still unite them. Life seems beyond the capacity +of inorganic nature to produce; and yet here is life in its myriad +forms, here is the body and mind of man, and here is the world of +inanimate matter out of which all living beings arise, and into which +they sooner or later return; and we must either introduce a new +principle to account for it all, or else hold to the idea that what is +is natural--a legitimate outcome of the universal laws and processes +that have been operating through all time. This last is the point of +view of the present chapter,--the point of view of naturalism; not +strictly the scientific view which aims to explain all life phenomena in +terms of exact experimental science, but the larger, freer view of the +open-air naturalist and literary philosopher. I cannot get rid of, or +hold in abeyance, my inevitable idealism, if I would; neither can I do +violence to my equally inevitable naturalism, but may I not hope to make +the face of my naturalism beam with the light of the ideal--the light +that never was in the physico-chemical order, and never can be there? + + +II + +The naturalist cannot get away from the natural order, and he sees man, +and all other forms of life, as an integral part of it--the order, which +in inert matter is automatic and fateful, and which in living matter is +prophetic and indeterminate; the course of one down the geologic ages, +seeking only a mechanical repose, being marked by collisions and +disruptions; the other in its course down the biologic ages seeking a +vital and unstable repose, being marked by pain, failure, carnage, +extinction, and ceaseless struggle with the physical order upon which it +depends. Man has taken his chances in the clash of blind matter, and in +the warfare of living forms. He has been the pet of no god, the favorite +of no power on earth or in heaven. He is one of the fruits of the great +cosmic tree, and is subject to the same hazards and failures as the +fruit of all other trees. The frosts may nip him in the bud, the storms +beat him down, foes of earth and air prey upon him, and hostile +influences from all sides impede or mar him. The very forces that +uphold him and furnish him his armory of tools and of power, will +destroy him the moment he is off his guard. He is like the trainer of +wild beasts who, at his peril, for one instant relaxes his mastery over +them. Gravity, electricity, fire, flood, hurricane, will crush or +consume him if his hand is unsteady or his wits tardy. Nature has dealt +with him upon the same terms as with all other forms of life. She has +shown him no favor. The same elements--the same water, air, lime, iron, +sulphur, oxygen, carbon, and so on--make up his body and his brain as +make up theirs, and the same make up theirs as are the constituents of +the insensate rocks, soils, and clouds. The same elements, the same +atoms and molecules, but a different order; the same solar energy, but +working to other ends; the same life principle but lifted to a higher +plane. How can we separate man from the total system of things, setting +him upon one side and them upon another, making the relation of the two +mechanical or accidental? It is only in thought, or in obedience to some +creed or philosophy, that we do it. In life, in action, we unconsciously +recognize ourselves as a part of Nature. Our success and well-being +depend upon the closeness and spontaneousness of the relation. + +If all this is interpreted to mean that life, that the mind and soul of +man, are of material origin, science does not shrink from the inference. +Only the inference demands a newer and higher conception of matter--the +conception that Tyndall expressed when he wrote the word with a capital +M, and declared that Matter was "at bottom essentially mystical and +transcendental"; that Goethe expressed when he called matter "the living +garment of God"; and that Whitman expressed when he said that the soul +and the body were one. The materialism of the great seers and prophets +of science who penetrate into the true inwardness of matter, who see +through the veil of its gross obstructive forms and behold it translated +into pure energy, need disturb no one. + +In our religious culture we have beggared matter that we might exalt +spirit; we have bankrupted earth that we might enrich heaven; we have +debased the body that we might glorify the soul. But science has changed +all this. Mankind can never again rest in the old crude dualism. The +Devil has had his day, and the terrible Hebrew Jehovah has had his day; +the divinities of this world are now having their day. + +The puzzle or the contradiction in the naturalistic view of life appears +when we try to think of a being as a part of Nature, having his genesis +in her material forces, who is yet able to master and direct Nature, +reversing her processes and defeating her ends, opposing his will to her +fatalism, his mercy to her cruelty--in short, a being who thinks, +dreams, aspires, loves truth, justice, goodness, and sits in judgment +upon the very gods he worships. Must he not bring a new force, an alien +power? Can a part be greater than the whole? Can the psychic dominate +the physical out of which it came? Again we have only to enlarge our +conception of the physical--the natural--or make our faith measure up to +the demands of reason. Our reason demands that the natural order be +all-inclusive. Can our faith in the divinity of matter measure up to +this standard? Not till we free ourselves from the inherited prejudices +which have grown up from our everyday struggles with gross matter. We +must follow the guidance of science till we penetrate this husk and see +its real mystical and transcendental character, as Tyndall did. + +When we have followed matter from mass to molecule, from molecule to +atom, from atom to electron, and seen it in effect dematerialized,--seen +it in its fourth or ethereal, I had almost said spiritual, state,--when +we have grasped the wonder of radio-activity, and the atomic +transformations that attend it, we shall have a conception of the +potencies and possibilities of matter that robs scientific materialism +of most of its ugliness. Of course, no deductions of science can satisfy +our longings for something kindred to our own spirits in the universe. +But neither our telescopes nor our microscopes reveal such a reality. Is +this longing only the result of our inevitable anthropomorphism, or is +it the evidence of things unseen, the substance of things hoped for, the +prophecy of our kinship with the farthest star? Can soul arise out of a +soulless universe? + +Though the secret of life is under our feet, yet how strange and +mysterious it seems! It draws our attention away from matter. It arises +among the inorganic elements like a visitant from another sphere. It is +a new thing in the world. Consciousness is a new thing, yet Huxley makes +it one of his trinity of realities--matter, energy, and consciousness. +We are so immersed in these realities that we do not see the divinity +they embody. We call that sacred and divine which is far off and +unattainable. Life and mind are so impossible of explanation in terms of +matter and energy, that it is not to be wondered at that mankind has so +long looked upon their appearance upon this earth as a miraculous event. +But until science opened our eyes we did not know that the celestial and +the terrestrial are one, and that we are already in the heavens among +the stars. When we emancipate ourselves from the bondage of wont and +use, and see with clear vision our relations to the Cosmos, all our +ideas of materialism and spiritualism are made over, and we see how the +two are one; how life and death play into each other's hands, and how +the whole truth of things cannot be compassed by any number of finite +minds. + + +III + +When we are bold enough to ask the question, Is life an addition to +matter or an evolution from matter? how all these extra-scientific +theories about life as a separate entity wilt and fade away! If we know +anything about the ways of creative energy, we know that they are not as +our ways; we know its processes bear no analogy to the linear and +external doings of man. Creative energy works from within; it identifies +itself with, and is inseparable from, the element in which it works. I +know that in this very statement I am idealizing the creative energy, +but my reader will, I trust, excuse this inevitable anthropomorphism. +The way of the creative energy is the way of evolution. When we begin to +introduce things, when we begin to separate the two orders, the vital +and the material, or, as Bergson says, when we begin to think of things +created, and of a thing that creates, we are not far from the state of +mind of our childhood, and of the childhood of the race. We are not far +from the Mosaic account of creation. Life appears as an introduction, +man and his soul as introductions. + +Our reason, our knowledge of the method of Nature, declare for +evolution; because here we are, here is this amazing world of life about +us, and here it goes on through the action and interaction of purely +physical and chemical forces. Life seems as natural as day and night, +as the dews and the rain. Our studies of the past history of the globe +reveal the fact that life appeared upon a cooling planet when the +temperature was suitable, and when its basic elements, water and carbon +dioxide, were at hand. How it began, whether through insensible changes +in the activities of inert matter, lasting whole geologic ages, or by a +sudden transformation at many points on the earth's surface, we can +never know. But science can see no reason for believing that its +beginning was other than natural; it was inevitable from the +constitution of matter itself. Moreover, since the law of evolution +seems of universal application, and affords the key to more great +problems than any other generalization of the human mind, one would say +on _a priori_ grounds that life is an evolution, that its genesis is to +be sought in the inherent capacities and potentialities of matter +itself. How else could it come? Science cannot go outside of matter and +its laws for an explanation of any phenomena that appear in matter. It +goes inside of matter instead, and in its mysterious molecular +attractions and repulsions, in the whirl and dance of the atoms and +electrons, in their emanations and transformations, in their amazing +potencies and activities, sees, or seems to see, the secret of the +origin of life itself. But this view is distasteful to a large number of +thinking persons. Many would call it frank materialism, and declare +that it is utterly inadequate to supply the spiritual and ideal +background which is the strength and solace of our human life. + + +IV + +The lay mind can hardly appreciate the necessity under which the man of +science feels to account for all the phenomena of life in terms of the +natural order. To the scientist the universe is complete in itself. He +can admit of no break or discontinuity anywhere. Threads of relation, +visible and invisible,--chemical, mechanical, electric, magnetic, solar, +lunar, stellar, geologic, biologic,--forming an intricate web of subtle +forces and influences, bind all things, living and dead, into a cosmic +unity. Creation is one, and that one is symbolized by the sphere which +rests forever on itself, which is whole at every point, which holds all +forms, which reconciles all contradictions, which has no beginning and +no ending, which has no upper and no under, and all of whose lines are +fluid and continuous. The disruptions and antagonisms which we fancy we +see are only the result of our limited vision; nature is not at war with +itself; there is no room or need for miracle; there is no outside to the +universe, because there are no bounds to matter or spirit; all is +inside; deep beneath deep, height above height, and this mystery and +miracle that we call life must arise out of the natural order in the +course of time as inevitably as the dew forms and the rain falls. When +the rains and the dews and the snows cease to fall,--a time which +science predicts,--then life, as we know it, must inevitably vanish from +the earth. Human life is a physical phenomenon, and though it involves, +as we believe, a psychic or non-physical principle, it is still not +exempt from the operation of the universal physical laws. It came by +them or through them, and it must go by them or through them. + +The rigidly scientific mind, impressed with all these things as the lay +mind cannot be, used to the searching laboratory methods, and familiar +with the phenomenon of life in its very roots, as it were, dealing with +the wonders of chemical compounds, and the forces that lurk in molecules +and atoms, seeing in the cosmic universe, and in the evolution of the +earth, only the operation of mechanical and chemical principles; seeing +the irrefragable law of the correlation and the conservation of forces; +tracing consciousness and all our changes in mental states to changes in +the brain substance; drilled in methods of proof by experimentation; +knowing that the same number of ultimate atoms may be so combined or +married as to produce compounds that differ as radically as alcohol and +ether,--conversant with all these things, and more, I say,--the strictly +scientific mind falls naturally and inevitably into the mechanistic +conception of all life phenomena. + +Science traces the chain of cause and effect everywhere and finds no +break. It follows down animal life till it merges in the vegetable, +though it cannot put its finger or its microscope on the point where one +ends and the other begins. It finds forms that partake of the +characteristics of both. It is reasonable to expect that the vegetable +merges into the mineral by the same insensible degrees, and that the one +becomes the other without any real discontinuity. The change, if we may +call it such, probably takes place in the interior world of matter among +the primordial atoms, where only the imagination can penetrate. In that +sleep of the ultimate corpuscle, what dreams may come, what miracles may +be wrought, what transformations take place! When I try to think of life +as a mode of motion in matter, I seem to see the particles in a mystic +dance, a whirling maze of motions, the infinitely little people taking +hold of hands, changing partners, facing this way and that, doing all +sorts of impossible things, like jumping down one another's throats, or +occupying one another's bodies, thrilled and vibrating at an +inconceivable rate. + +The theological solution of this problem of life fails more and more to +satisfy thinking men of to-day. Living things are natural phenomena, and +we feel that they must in some way be an outcome of the natural order. +Science is more and more familiarizing our minds with the idea that the +universe is a universe, a oneness; that its laws are continuous. We +follow the chemistry of it to the farthest stars and there is no serious +break or exception; it is all of one stuff. We follow the mechanics of +it into the same abysmal depths, and there are no breaks or exceptions. +The biology of it we cannot follow beyond our own little corner of the +universe; indeed, we have no proof that there is any biology anywhere +else. But if there is, it must be similar to our own. There is only one +kind of electricity (though two phases of it), only one kind of light +and heat, one kind of chemical affinity, in the universe; and hence only +one kind of life. Looked at in its relation to the whole, life appears +like a transient phenomenon of matter. I will not say accidental; it +seems inseparably bound up with the cosmic processes, but, I may say, +fugitive, superficial, circumscribed. Life comes and goes; it penetrates +but a little way into the earth; it is confined to a certain range of +temperature. Beyond a certain degree of cold, on the one hand, it does +not appear; and beyond a certain degree of heat, on the other, it is cut +off. Without water or moisture, it ceases; and without air, it is not. +It has evidently disappeared from the moon, and probably from the +inferior planets, and it is doubtful if it has yet appeared on any of +the superior planets, save Mars. + +Life comes to matter as the flowers come in the spring,--when the time +is ripe for it,--and it disappears when the time is over-ripe. Man +appears in due course and has his little day upon the earth, but that +day must as surely come to an end. Yet can we conceive of the end of the +physical order? the end of gravity? or of cohesion? The air may +disappear, the water may disappear, combustion may cease; but oxygen, +hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon will continue somewhere. + + +V + +Science is the redeemer of the physical world. It opens our eyes to its +true inwardness, and purges it of the coarse and brutal qualities with +which, in our practical lives, it is associated. It has its inner world +of activities and possibilities of which our senses give us no hint. +This inner world of molecules and atoms and electrons, thrilled and +vibrating with energy, the infinitely little, the almost infinitely +rapid, in the bosom of the infinitely vast and distant and +automatic--what a revelation it all is! what a glimpse into "Nature's +infinite book of secrecy"! + +Our senses reveal to us but one kind of motion--mass motion--the change +of place of visible bodies. But there is another motion in all matter +which our senses do not reveal to us as motion--molecular vibration, or +the thrill of the atoms. At the heart of the most massive rock this +whirl of the atoms or corpuscles is going on. If our ears were fine +enough to hear it, probably every rock and granite monument would sing, +as did Memnon, when the sun shone upon it. This molecular vibration is +revealed to us as heat, light, sound, electricity. Heat is only a mode +of this invisible motion of the particles of matter. Mass motion is +quickly converted into this molecular motion when two bodies strike each +other. May not life itself be the outcome of a peculiar whirl of the +ultimate atoms of matter? + +Says Professor Gotch, as quoted by J. Arthur Thomson in his +"Introduction to Science": "To the thought of a scientific mind the +universe with all its suns and worlds is throughout one seething welter +of modes of motion, playing in space, playing in ether, playing in all +existing matter, playing in all living things, playing, therefore, in +ourselves." Physical science, as Professor Thomson says, leads us from +our static way of looking at things to the dynamic way. It teaches us to +regard the atom, not as a fixed and motionless structure, like the +bricks in a wall, but as a centre of ever-moving energy; it sees the +whole universe is in a state of perpetual flux, a flowing stream of +creative energy out of which life arises as one of the manifestations of +this energy. + +When we have learned all that science can tell us about the earth, is it +not more rather than less wonderful? When we know all it can tell us +about the heavens above, or about the sea, or about our own bodies, or +about a flower, or a bird, or a tree, or a cloud, are they less +beautiful and wonderful? The mysteries of generation, of inheritance, of +cell life, are rather enhanced by science. + + +VI + +When the man of science seeks to understand and explain the world in +which we live, he guards himself against seeing double, or seeing two +worlds instead of one, as our unscientific fathers did--an immaterial or +spiritual world surrounding and interpenetrating the physical world, or +the supernatural enveloping and directing the natural. He sees but one +world, and that a world complete in itself; surrounded, it is true, by +invisible forces, and holding immeasured and immeasurable potencies; a +vastly more complex and wonderful world than our fathers ever dreamed +of; a fruit, as it were, of the great sidereal tree, bound by natal +bonds to myriads of other worlds, of one stuff with them, ahead or +behind them in its ripening, but still complete in itself, needing no +miracle to explain it, no spirits or demons to account for its +processes, not even its vital processes. + +In the light of what he knows of the past history of the earth, the man +of science sees with his mind's eye the successive changes that have +taken place in it; he sees the globe a mass of incandescent matter +rolling through space; he sees the crust cooling and hardening; he sees +the waters appear, the air and the soil appear, he sees the clouds begin +to form and the rain to fall, he sees living things appear in the +waters, then upon the land, and in the air; he sees the two forms of +life arise, the vegetable and the animal, the latter standing upon the +former; he sees more and more complex forms of both vegetable and animal +arise and cover the earth. They all appear in the course of the geologic +ages on the surface of the earth; they arise out of it; they are a part +of it; they come naturally; no hand reaches down from heaven and places +them there; they are not an addendum; they are not a sudden creation; +they are an evolution; they were potential in the earth before they +arose out of it. The earth ripened, her crust mellowed, and thickened, +her airs softened and cleared, her waters were purified, and in due time +her finer fruits were evolved, and, last of all, man arose. It was all +one process. There was no miracle, no first day of creation; all were +days of creation. Brooded by the sun, the earth hatched her offspring; +the promise and the potency of all terrestrial life was in the earth +herself; her womb was fertile from the first. All that we call the +spiritual, the divine, the celestial, were hers, because man is hers. +Our religions and our philosophies and our literatures are hers; man is +a part of the whole system of things; he is not an alien, nor an +accident, nor an interloper; he is here as the rains, the dews, the +flowers, the rocks, the soil, the trees, are here. He appeared when the +time was ripe, and he will disappear when the time is over-ripe. He is +of the same stuff as the ground he walks upon; there is no better stuff +in the heavens above him, nor in the depths below him, than sticks to +his own ribs. The celestial and the terrestrial forces unite and work +together in him, as in all other creatures. We cannot magnify man +without magnifying the universe of which he is a part; and we cannot +belittle it without belittling him. + +Now we can turn all this about and look upon it as mankind looked upon +it in the prescientific ages, and as so many persons still look upon it, +and think of it all as the work of external and higher powers. We can +think of the earth as the footstool of some god, or the sport of some +demon; we can people the earth and the air with innumerable spirits, +high and low; we can think of life as something apart from matter. But +science will not, cannot follow us; it cannot discredit the world it has +disclosed--I had almost said, the world it has created. Science has made +us at home in the universe. It has visited the farthest stars with its +telescope and spectroscope, and finds we are all akin. It has sounded +the depths of matter with its analysis, and it finds nothing alien to +our own bodies. It sees motion everywhere, motion within motion, +transformation, metamorphosis everywhere, energy everywhere, currents +and counter-currents everywhere, ceaseless change everywhere; it finds +nothing in the heavens more spiritual, more mysterious, more celestial, +more godlike, than it finds upon this earth. This does not imply that +evolution may not have progressed farther upon other worlds, and given +rise to a higher order of intelligences than here; it only implies that +creation is one, and that the same forces, the same elements and +possibilities, exist everywhere. + + +VII + +Give free rein to our anthropomorphic tendencies, and we fill the world +with spirits, good and bad--bad in war, famine, pestilence, disease; +good in all the events and fortunes that favor us. Early man did this on +all occasions; he read his own hopes and fears and passions into all the +operations of nature. Our fathers did it in many things; good people of +our own time do it in exceptional instances, and credit any good fortune +to Providence. Men high in the intellectual and philosophical world, +still invoke something antithetical to matter, to account for the +appearance of life on the planet. + +It may be justly urged that the effect upon our habits of thought of the +long ages during which this process has been going on, leading us to +differentiate matter and spirit and look upon them as two opposite +entities, hindering or contending with each other,--one heavenly, the +other earthly, one everlasting, the other perishable, one the supreme +good, the other the seat and parent of all that is evil,--the cumulative +effect of this habit of thought in the race-mind is, I say, not easily +changed or overcome. We still think, and probably many of us always will +think, of spirit as something alien to matter, something mystical, +transcendental, and not of this world. We look upon matter as gross, +obstructive, and the enemy of the spirit. We do not know how we are +going to get along without it, but we solace ourselves with the thought +that by and by, in some other, non-material world, we shall get along +without it, and experience a great expansion of life by reason of our +emancipation from it. Our practical life upon this planet is more or +less a struggle with gross matter; our senses apprehend it coarsely; of +its true inwardness they tell us nothing; of the perpetual change and +transformation of energy going on in bodies about us they tell us +nothing; of the wonders and potencies of matter as revealed in +radio-activity, in the X-ray, in chemical affinity and polarity, they +tell us nothing; of the all-pervasive ether, without which we could not +see or live at all, they tell us nothing. In fact we live and move and +have our being in a complex of forces and tendencies of which, even by +the aid of science, we but see as through a glass darkly. Of the +effluence of things, the emanations from the minds and bodies of our +friends, and from other living forms about us, from the heavens above +and from the earth below, our daily lives tell us nothing, any more than +our eyes tell us of the invisible rays in the sun's spectrum, or than +our ears tell us of the murmurs of the life-currents in growing things. +Science alone unveils the hidden wonders and sleepless activities of the +world forces that play through us and about us. It alone brings the +heavens near, and reveals the brotherhood or sisterhood of worlds. It +alone makes man at home in the universe, and shows us how many friendly +powers wait upon him day and night. It alone shows him the glories and +the wonders of the voyage we are making upon this ship in the stellar +infinitude, and that, whatever the port, we shall still be on familiar +ground--we cannot get away from home. + +There is always an activity in inert matter that we little suspect. See +the processes going on in the stratified rocks that suggest or parody +those of life. See the particles of silica that are diffused through the +limestone, hunting out each other and coming together in concretions and +forming flint or chert nodules; or see them in the process of +petrifaction slowly building up a tree of chalcedony or onyx in place of +a tree of wood, repeating every cell, every knot, every worm-hole--dead +matter copying exactly a form of living matter; or see the phenomenon of +crystallization everywhere; see the solution of salt mimicking, as +Tyndall says, the architecture of Egypt, building up miniature +pyramids, terrace upon terrace, from base to apex, forming a series of +steps like those up which the traveler in Egypt is dragged by his +guides! We can fancy, if we like, these infinitesimal structures built +by an invisible population which swarms among the constituent molecules, +controlled and coerced by some invisible matter, says Tyndall. This +might be called literature, or poetry, or religion, but it would not be +science; science says that these salt pyramids are the result of the +play of attraction and repulsion among the salt molecules themselves; +that they are self-poised and self-quarried; it goes further than that +and says that the quality we call saltness is the result of a certain +definite arrangement of their ultimate atoms of matter; that the +qualities of things as they affect our senses--hardness, softness, +sweetness, bitterness--are the result of molecular motion and +combination among the ultimate atoms. All these things seem on the +threshold of life, waiting in the antechamber, as it were; to-morrow +they will be life, or, as Tyndall says, "Incipient life, as it were, +manifests itself throughout the whole of what is called inorganic +nature." + + +VIII + +The question of the nature and origin of life is a kind of perpetual +motion question in biology. Life without antecedent life, so far as +human experience goes, is an impossibility, and motion without previous +motion, is equally impossible. Yet, while science shows us that this +last is true among ponderable bodies where friction occurs, it is not +true among the finer particles of matter, where friction does not exist. +Here perpetual or spontaneous motion is the rule. The motions of the +molecules of gases and liquids, and their vibrations in solids, are +beyond the reach of our unaided senses, yet they are unceasing. By +analogy we may infer that while living bodies, as we know them, do not +and cannot originate spontaneously, yet the movement that we call life +may and probably does take place spontaneously in the ultimate particles +of matter. But can atomic energy be translated into the motion of +ponderable bodies, or mass energy? In like manner can, or does, this +potential life of the world of atoms and electrons give rise to +organized living beings? + +This distrust of the physical forces, or our disbelief in their ability +to give rise to life, is like a survival in us of the Calvinistic creed +of our fathers. The world of inert matter is dead in trespasses and sin +and must be born again before it can enter the kingdom of the organic. +We must supplement the natural forces with the spiritual, or the +supernatural, to get life. The common or carnal nature, like the natural +man, must be converted, breathed upon by the non-natural or divine, +before it can rise to the plane of life--the doctrine of Paul carried +into the processes of nature. + +The scientific mind sees in nature an infinitely complex mechanism +directed to no special human ends, but working towards universal ends. +It sees in the human body an infinite number of cell units building up +tissues and organs,--muscles, nerves, bones, cartilage,--a living +machine of infinite complexity; but what shapes and coördinates the +parts, how the cells arose, how consciousness arose, how the mind is +related to the body, how or why the body acts as a unit--on these +questions science can throw no light. With all its mastery of the laws +of heredity, of cytology, and of embryology, it cannot tell why a man is +a man, and a dog is a dog. No cell-analysis will give the secret; no +chemical conjuring with the elements will reveal why in the one case +they build up a head of cabbage, and in the other a head of Plato. + +It must be admitted that the scientific conception of the universe robs +us of something--it is hard to say just what--that we do not willingly +part with; yet who can divest himself of this conception? And the +scientific conception of the nature of life, hard and unfamiliar as it +may seem in its mere terms, is difficult to get away from. Life must +arise through the play and transformations of matter and energy that are +taking place all around us; though it seems a long and impossible road +from mere chemistry to the body and soul of man. But if life, with all +that has come out of it, did not come by way of matter and energy, by +what way did it come? Must we have recourse to the so-called +supernatural?--as Emerson's line puts it,-- + + "When half-gods go, the gods arrive." + +When our traditional conception of matter as essentially vulgar and +obstructive and the enemy of the spirit gives place to the new +scientific conception of it as at bottom electrical and all-potent, we +may find the poet's great line come true, and that for a thing to be +natural, is to be divine. For my own part, I do not see how we can get +intelligence out of matter unless we postulate intelligence in matter. +Any system of philosophy that sees in the organic world only a +fortuitous concourse of chemical atoms, repels me, though the +contradiction here implied is not easily cleared up. The theory of life +as a chemical reaction and nothing more does not interest me, but I am +attracted by that conception of life which, while binding it to the +material order, sees in the organic more than the physics and chemistry +of the inorganic--call it whatever name you will--vitalism, idealism, or +dualism. + +In our religious moods, we may speak, as Theodore Parker did, of the +universe as a "handful of dust which God enchants," or we may speak of +it, as Goethe did, as "the living garment of God"; but as men of +science we can see it only as a vast complex of forces, out of which man +has arisen, and of which he forms a part. We are not to forget that we +are a part of it, and that the more we magnify ourselves, the more we +magnify it; that its glory is our glory, and our glory its glory, +because we are its children. In some way utterly beyond the reach of +science to explain, or of philosophy to confirm, we have come out of it, +and all we are or can be, is, or has been, potential in it. + + +IX + +The evolution of life is, of course, bound up with the evolution of the +world. As the globe has ripened and matured, life has matured; higher +and higher forms--forms with larger and larger brains and more and more +complex nerve mechanisms--have appeared. + +Physicists teach us that the evolution of the primary +elements--hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and the +like--takes place in a solar body as the body cools. As temperature +decreases, one after another of the chemical elements makes its +appearance, the simpler elements appearing first, and the more complex +compounds appearing last, all apparently having their origin in some +simple parent element. It appears as if the evolution of life upon the +globe had followed the same law and had waited upon the secular cooling +of the earth. + +Does not a man imply a cooler planet and a greater depth and refinement +of soil than a dinosaur? Only after a certain housecleaning and +purification of the elements do higher forms appear; the vast +accumulation of Silurian limestone must have hastened the age of fishes. +The age of reptiles waited for the clearing of the air of the burden of +carbon dioxide. The age of mammals awaited the deepening and the +enrichment of the soil and the stability of the earth's crust. Who knows +upon what physical conditions of the earth's elements the brain of man +was dependent? Its highest development has certainly taken place in a +temperate climate. There can be little doubt that beyond a certain point +the running-down of the earth-temperature will result in a running-down +of life till it finally goes out. Life is confined to a very narrow +range of temperature. If we were to translate degrees into miles and +represent the temperature of the hottest stars, which is put at 30,000 +degrees, by a line 30,000 miles long, then the part of the line marking +the limits of life would be approximately three hundred miles. + +Life does not appear in a hard, immobile, utterly inert world, but in a +world thrilling with energy and activity, a world of ceaseless +transformations of energy, of radio-activity, of electro-magnetic +currents, of perpetual motion in its ultimate particles, a world whose +heavens are at times hung with rainbows, curtained with tremulous +shifting auroras, and veined and illumined with forked lightnings, a +world of rolling rivers and heaving seas, activity, physical and +chemical, everywhere. On such a world life appeared, bringing no new +element or force, but setting up a new activity in matter, an activity +that tends to check and control the natural tendency to the dissipation +and degradation of energy. The question is, Did it arise through some +transformation of the existing energy, or out of the preëxisting +conditions, or was it supplementary to them, an addition from some +unknown source? Was it a miraculous or a natural event? We shall answer +according to our temperaments. + +One sees with his mind's eye this stream of energy, which we name the +material universe, flowing down the endless cycles of time; at a certain +point in its course, a change comes over its surface; what we call life +appears, and assumes many forms; at a point farther along in its course, +life disappears, and the eternal river flows on regardless, till, at +some other point, the same changes take place again. Life is inseparable +from this river of energy, but it is not coextensive with it, either in +time or in space. + +In midsummer what river-men call "the blossoming of the water" takes +place in the Hudson River; the water is full of minute vegetable +organisms; they are seasonal and temporary; they are born of the +midsummer heats. By and by the water is clear again. Life in the +universe seems as seasonal and fugitive as this blossoming of the +water. More and more does science hold us to the view of the unity of +nature--that the universe of life and matter and force is all natural or +all supernatural, it matters little which you call it, but it is not +both. One need not go away from his own doorstep to find mysteries +enough to last him a lifetime, but he will find them in his own body, in +the ground upon which he stands, not less than in his mind, and in the +invisible forces that play around him. We may marvel how the delicate +color and perfume of the flower could come by way of the root and stalk +of the plant, or how the crude mussel could give birth to the +rainbow-tinted pearl, or how the precious metals and stones arise from +the flux of the baser elements, or how the ugly worm wakes up and finds +itself a winged creature of the air; yet we do not invoke the +supernatural to account for these things. + +It is certain that in the human scale of values the spirituality of man +far transcends anything in the animal or physical world, but that even +that came by the road of evolution, is, indeed, the flowering of ruder +and cruder powers and attributes of the life below us, I cannot for a +moment doubt. Call it a transmutation or a metamorphosis, if you will; +it is still within the domain of the natural. The spiritual always has +its root and genesis in the physical. We do not degrade the spiritual in +such a conception; we open our eyes to the spirituality of the +physical. And this is what science has always been doing and is doing +more and more--making us familiar with marvelous and transcendent powers +that hedge us about and enter into every act of our lives. The more we +know matter, the more we know mind; the more we know nature, the more we +know God; the more familiar we are with the earth forces, the more +intimate will be our acquaintance with the celestial forces. + + +X + +When we speak of the gulf that separates the living from the non-living, +are we not thinking of the higher forms of life only? Are we not +thinking of the far cry it is from man to inorganic nature? When we get +down to the lowest organism, is the gulf so impressive? Under the +scrutiny of biologic science the gulf that separates the animal from the +vegetable all but vanishes, and the two seem to run together. The chasm +between the lowest vegetable forms and unorganized matter is evidently a +slight affair. The state of unorganized protoplasm which Haeckel named +the Monera, that precedes the development of that architect of life, the +cell, can hardly be more than one remove from inert matter. By +insensible molecular changes and transformations of energy, the miracle +of living matter takes place. We can conceive of life arising only +through these minute avenues, or in the invisible, molecular +constitution of matter itself. What part the atoms and electrons, and +the energy they bear, play in it we shall never know. Even if we ever +succeed in bringing the elements together in our laboratories so that +there living matter appears, shall we then know the secret of life? + +After we have got the spark of life kindled, how are we going to get all +the myriad forms of life that swarm upon the earth? How are we going to +get man with physics and chemistry alone? How are we going to get this +tremendous drama of evolution out of mere protoplasm from the bottom of +the old geologic seas? Of course, only by making protoplasm creative, +only by conceiving as potential in it all that we behold coming out of +it. We imagine it equal to the task we set before it; the task is +accomplished; therefore protoplasm was all-sufficient. I am not +postulating any extra-mundane power or influence; I am only stating the +difficulties which the idealist experiences when he tries to see life in +its nature and origin as the scientific mind sees it. Animal life and +vegetable life have a common physical basis in protoplasm, and all their +different forms are mere aggregations of cells which are constituted +alike and behave alike in each, and yet in the one case they give rise +to trees, and in the other they give rise to man. Science is powerless +to penetrate this mystery, and philosophy can only give its own elastic +interpretation. Why consciousness should be born of cell structure in +one form of life and not in another, who shall tell us? Why matter in +the brain should think, and in the cabbage only grow, is a question. + +The naturalist has not the slightest doubt that the mind of man was +evolved from some order of animals below him that had less mind, and +that the mind of this order was evolved from that of a still lower +order, and so on down the scale till we reach a point where the animal +and vegetable meet and blend, and the vegetable mind, if we may call it +such, passed into the animal, and still downward till the vegetable is +evolved from the mineral. If to believe this is to be a monist, then +science is monistic; it accepts the transformation or metamorphosis of +the lower into the higher from the bottom of creation to the top, and +without any break of the causal sequence. There has been no miracle, +except in the sense that all life is a miracle. Of how the organic rose +out of the inorganic, we can form no mental image; the intellect cannot +bridge the chasm; but that such is the fact, there can be no doubt. +There is no solution except that life is latent or potential in matter, +but these again are only words that cover a mystery. + +I do not see why there may not be some force latent in matter that we +may call the vital force, physical force transformed and heightened, as +justifiably as we can postulate a chemical force latent in matter. The +chemical force underlies and is the basis of the vital force. There is +no life without chemism, but there is chemism without life. + +We have to have a name for the action and reaction of the primary +elements upon one another and we call it chemical affinity; we have to +have a name for their behavior in building up organic bodies, and we +call it vitality or vitalism. + +The rigidly scientific man sees no need of the conception of a new form +or kind of force; the physico-chemical forces as we see them in action +all about us are adequate to do the work, so that it seems like a +dispute about names. But my mind has to form a new conception of these +forces to bridge the chasm between the organic and the inorganic; not a +quantitative but a qualitative change is demanded, like the change in +the animal mind to make it the human mind, an unfolding into a higher +plane. + +Whether the evolution of the human mind from the animal was by +insensible gradations, or by a few sudden leaps, who knows? The animal +brain began to increase in size in Tertiary times, and seems to have +done so suddenly, but the geologic ages were so long that a change in +one hundred thousand years would seem sudden. "The brains of some +species increase one hundred per cent." The mammal brain greatly +outstripped the reptile brain. Was Nature getting ready for man? + +The air begins at once to act chemically upon the blood in the lungs of +the newly born, and the gastric juices to act chemically upon the food +as soon as there is any in the stomach of the newly born, and breathing +and swallowing are both mechanical acts; but what is it that breathes +and swallows, and profits by it? a machine? + +Maybe the development of life, and its upward tendency toward higher and +higher forms, is in some way the result of the ripening of the earth, +its long steeping in the sea of sidereal influences. The earth is not +alone, it is not like a single apple on a tree; there are many apples on +the tree, and there are many trees in the orchard. + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +Adaptation, 184, 215, 216. + +Alpha rays, 60, 199. + +Aquosity, 127, 128, 141-143. + +Aristotle, 240. + +Asphalt lake, 123. + +Atoms, different groupings of, 56-60; + weighed and counted, 60, 61; + indivisibility, 61; + the hydrogen atom, 65; + chemical affinity, 193-195; + photography of, 199, 200; + form, 203; + atomic energy, 204; + qualities and properties of bodies in their keeping, 204; + unchanging character, 205, 206; + rarity of free atoms, 209; + mystery of combination, 210. + +Autolysis, 169. + + +Balfour, Arthur James, on Bergson's "Evolution Créatrice," 15. + +Bees, the spirit of the hive, 82. + +Benton, Joel, quoted, 70. + +Bergson, Henri, 129, 173, 263; + on light and the eye, 5; + his view of life, 14-16, 27-29, 221, 237, 238; + on the need of philosophy, 85, 86; + on life on other planets, 87; + his method, 109, 110; + the key to his "Creative Evolution," 132; + on life as a psychic principle, 162; + his book as literature, 238. + +Beta rays, 61, 199, 201. + +Biogenesis, 25. _See also_ Life. + +Biophores, 217. + +Body, the, elements of, 38, 39; + the chemist in, 152, 153; + intelligence of, 153, 154; + a community of cells, 157, 158; + viewed as a machine, 212-214, 224. + +Brain, evolution of, 288. + +Breathing, mechanics and chemistry of, 50-54, 213. + +Brooks, William Keith, quoted, 128, 236. + +Brown, Robert, 191; + the Brunonian movement, 167, 172, 191. + +Brunonian movement, 167, 172, 191. + +Butler, Bishop, imaginary debate with Lucretius, 219, 220. + + +Carbon, 38, 56, 59; + importance, 208. + +Carbonic-acid gas, 52, 53. + +Carrel, Dr. Alexis, 98, 148. + +Catalysers, 135, 136. + +Cell, the, 83-85, 90, 96, 97, 180; + Wilson on, 95; + living after the death of the body, 98; + Prof. Benjamin Moore on, 107; + nature of, 113; + aimless multiplication, 148, 233; + the unit of life, 156; + communistic activity, 157, 158, 184; + a world in little, 170; + mystery of, 175; + different degrees of irritability, 216, 217. + +Changes in matter, 131, 133. + +Chemist, in the body, 152, 153. + +Chemistry, the silent world of, 49-54; + wonders worked by varying arrangement of atoms, 56-60; + leads up to life, 188; + a new world for the imagination, 189-192; + chemical affinity, 193-195; + various combinations of elements, 205-208; + organic compounds, 209; + mystery of chemical combinations, 210; + chemical changes, 210, 211; + powerless to trace relationships between different forms + of life, 231, 232; + cannot account for differences in organisms, 233, 234. + +Chlorophyll, 77, 113, 168, 169, 177, 235. + +Colloids, 76, 108, 135, 136. + +Conn, H. W., on mechanism, 91-94. + +Consciousness, Huxley on, 95, 181, 262. + +Corpuscles, speed in the ether, 65. + +Creative energy, immanent in matter, 9, 21; + its methods, 263. + +Crystallization, 276, 277. + +Czapek, Frederick, on vital forces, 133, 152; + on life, 164, 166, 169; + on enzymes in living bodies, 167. + +Darwin, Charles, quoted, 9; + on force of growing radicles, 19; + a contradiction in his philosophy, 254, 255. + +Electricity, in the constitution of matter, 46-49; + a state of the ether, 63; + power from, 67, 68; + the most mysterious thing in inorganic nature, 223. + +Electrons, knots in the ether, 63; + size and weight, 196; + speed, 197; + matter dematerialized, 197; + bombardment from, 201, 202; + revolving in the atom, 203; + surface, 203; + compared with atoms, 203; + properties of matter supplied by, 204. + +Elements, of living bodies, 38, 39, 77, 78; + analogy with the alphabet, 57-59, 206; + undergoing spontaneous change, 67; + various combinations, 205-208; + eagerness to combine, 209. + _See also_ Atoms. + +Eliot, George, on the development theory, 103. + +Elliot, Hugh S. R., on mechanism, 16. + +Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 250; + on physics and chemistry, 188; + quoted, 280. + +Energy, relation of life to, 177-183; + atomic, 204. + _See also_ Creative energy _and_ Force. + +Energy, biotic, 106-111, 145, 146. + +England, 250. + +Entities, 99, 100. + +Environment, 86-88. + +Enzymes, 167. + +Ether, the, omnipresent and all-powerful, 61, 62; + its nature, 62, 63; + its finite character, 65, 66; + paradoxes of, 66. + +Ethics, and the mechanistic conception, 12. + +Evolution, creative impulse in, 6, 111; + progression in, 13, 14; + and the arrival of the fit, 244-253; + creative, 251-253; + evolution of life bound up with the evolution of the world, 281-283; + creative protoplasm in, 286; + a cosmic view of, 289. + +Explosives, 43. + + +Fire, chemistry of, 54. + +Fiske, John, on the soul and immortality, 4; + on the physical and the psychical, 75, 183. + +Fittest, arrival and survival of the, 244-253. + +Force, physical and mental, 3-5; + and life, 17-23; + dissymmetric force, 22; + the origin of matter, 43, 44. + _See also_ Energy. + + +Galls, 147, 154-156. + +Ganong, William Francis, on life, 181. + +Germany, in the War of 1914, 249-251. + +Glaser, Otto C., quoted, 98. + +Goethe, quoted, 111, 221, 260, 280; + as a scientific man, 221. + +Gotch, Prof., quoted, 270. + +Grafting, 40, 41. + +Grand Cañon of the Colorado, 225, 228, 229. + +Grape sugar, 208. + +Growth, of a germ, 217, 218. + + +Haeckel, Ernst, 3, 285; + on physical activity in the atom, 25, 26; + his "living inorganics," 91; + on the origin of life, 161; + on inheritance and adaptation, 184; + his "plastidules," 217; + a contradiction in his philosophy, 256. + +Hartog, Marcus, 129. + +Heat, changes wrought by, 55, 56; + detection of, at a distance, 60. + +Helmholtz, Hermann von, on life, 25, 161. + +Henderson, Lawrence J., his "Fitness of the Environment," 73; + his concession to the vitalists, 83, 85; + on the environment, 86-88; + a thorough mechanist, 88, 89. + +Horse-power, 177, 178. + +Hudson River, "blossoming of the water," 283. + +Huxley, Thomas Henry, on the + properties of protoplasm, 31, 126, 127; + on consciousness, 95, 181, 262; + on the vital principle, 101, 126, 127, 140; + his three realities, 140; + a contradiction in his philosophy, 255, 256. + +Hydrogen, the atom of, 65. + + +Idealist, view of life, 218-222. + +Inorganic world, beauty in decay in, 228, 229. + +Intelligence, characteristic of living matter, 134, 139, 151-154; + pervading organic nature, 223. + +Irritability, degrees of, 216, 217. + + +James, William, 254. + + +Kant, Immanuel, quoted, 221. + +Kelvin, Lord, 83. + +King, Starr, 244. + + +Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray, quoted, 128, 141; + his "plasmogen," 145, 146. + +Le Dantec, Félix Alexandre, his "Nature and Origin of Life," 73, 79, 80; + on consciousness, 80; + on the artificial production of the cell, 83; + on the mechanism of the body, 224. + +Leduc, Stephane, his "osmotic growths," 167, 168. + +Liebig, Baron Justus von, quoted, 83. + +Life, may be a mode of motion, 5; + evolution of, 6; + its action on matter, 8, 9; + its physico-chemical origin, 9; + its appearance viewed as accidental, 10-14; + Bergson's view, 14-17, 27-29; + Sir Oliver Lodge's view, 17, 18; + and energy, 17-23; + theories as to its origin, 24-27; + Tyndall's view, 28-30; + Verworn's view, 30, 31; + the vitalistic view, 32-38; + matter as affected by, 39; + not to be treated mathematically, 40; + a slow explosion, 41, 42; + an insoluble mystery, 43, 44; + relations with the psychic and the inorganic, 44, 45; + compared with fire, 54, 55; + the final mystery of, 69, 70; + vitalistic and mechanistic views, 71-114; + Benjamin Moore's view, 106-113; + the theory of derivation from other spheres, 104; + spontaneous generation, 105; + plays a small part in the cosmic scheme, 115-119; + mystery of, 120; + nature merciless towards, 120-124; + as an entity, 124-130; + evanescent character, 131, 132; + Prof. Schäfer's view, 133-138; + intelligence the characteristic of, 134, 139, 151-154; + power of adaptation, 147-149; + versatility, 155, 156; + the fields of science and philosophy in dealing with, 161-166, 173-176; + simulation of, 167, 168; + and protoplasm, 169; + and the cell, 170; + variability, 171, 172; + the biogenetic law, 174; + relation to energy, 177-183; + an _x_-entity, 181, 182; + struggle with environment, 185, 186; + as a chemical phenomenon, 187; + inadequacy of the mechanistic view, 212-243; + degrees of, 216, 217; + arises, not comes, 230; + a metaphysical problem, 231; + as a wave, 231; + its adaptability, 253; + a vitalistic view, 254-289; + naturalness of, 263-268; + advent and disappearance, 268, 269; + the unscientific view, 274, 275; + analogy with the question of perpetual motion, 277, 278; + no great gulf between animate and inanimate, 285; + a cosmic view, 289. + _See also_ Living thing, Vital force, Vitalism, Vitality. + +Light, measuring its speed, 60. + +Liquids, molecular behavior, 200. + +Living thing, not a machine, 1-3, 212-214; + viewed as a machine, 34-37, 224-228; + a unit, 215; + adaptation, 215, 216; + contrasted and compared with a machine, 241, 242. + +Lodge, Sir Oliver, 183, 197; + his view of life, 17, 18, 34, 132, 161, 219, 237; + his vein of mysticism, 34; + on the ether, 62, 63, 66; + on molecular spaces, 65; + on radium, 201; + on the atom, 203; + on electrons, 203. + +Loeb, Jacques, on mechanism, 10-13, 73; + his experiments, 74, 76, 79, 147; + on variations, 148. + + +Machines, Nature's and man's, 224-226; + contrasted and compared with living bodies, 241, 242. + +Maeterlinck, Maurice, on the Spirit of the Hive, 82. + +Man, evolution of, 246-251; + as the result of chance, 255; + as a part of the natural order, 258, 259; + his little day, 269. + +Matter, as acted upon by life, 8, 9; + creative energy immanent in, 9; + change upon entry of life, 39; + constitution of, 43, 44, 46-48; + a state of the ether, 63; + changes in, 131, 133; + Emerson on, 188; + discrete, 196; + emanations detected by smell and taste, 198, 199; + a hole in the ether, 203; + origin of its properties, 204-206; + a higher conception of, 259-261; + common view of grossness of, 274, 275. + +Maxwell, James Clerk, on the ether, 63; + on atoms, 198. + +Mechanism, the scientific explanation of mind, 5; + and ethics, 12; + reaction against, 32; + definition, 72; + Prof. Henderson's view, 88, 89; + _vs._ vitalism, 212-243. + _See also_ Life. + +Metaphysics, necessity of, 101. + +Micellar strings, 217. + +Microbalance, 60. + +Mind, evolution of, 287, 288. + _See also_ Intelligence. + +Molecules, spaces between, 65, 196; + speed, 192; + unchanging character, 205, 206. + +Monera, 285. + +Moore, Benjamin, a scientific vitalist, 106; + his "biotic energy," 106-113, 145, 146. + +Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 148. + +Motion, perpetual, 190, 191, 278; + mass and molecular, 269, 270. + + +Naegeli, Karl Wilhelm von, 217. + +Nitrogen, 51. + +Nonentities, 99, 100. + + +Odors, 198, 199. + +Osmotic growths, 167, 168. + +Oxygen, activities of, 51, 52, 59; + in the crust of the earth, 193; + chemical affinities, 193-195; + different forms of atoms, 200. + + +Parker, Theodore, on the universe, 280. + +Parthenogenesis, artificial, 11, 74. + +Pasteur, Louis, his "dissymmetric force," 22, 32. + +Philosophy, supplements science, 94-96, 104, 109, 163, 164; + deals with fundamental problems, 242, 243; + contradictions in, 254-258. + +Phosphorus, 59, 60. + +Physics, staggering figures in, 192. + +Pitch lake, 123. + +Plants, force exerted by growing, 17-20. + +Plasmogen, 145, 146. + +Plastidules, 217. + +Protobion, 135. + +Protoplasm, vitality of, 169; + creative, 286. + + +Radio-activity, 66-70, 132. + +Radium, 61, 201. + _See also_ Beta rays. + +Rainbow, 70. + +Ramsay, Sir William, 191, 192. + +Rand, Herbert W., on the mechanistic view of life, 89, 90. + +Russia, 250, 251. + + +Salt, crystallization, 276, 277. + +Schäfer, Sir Edward Albert, 73; + his mechanistic view of life, 133-138. + +Science, delicacy of its methods and implements, 60, 61; + limitations of its field, 94-100, 104; + cannot deal with life except as a physical phenomenon, 161, 162; + does not embrace the whole of human life, 162, 163; + inadequacy, 163-166; + cannot grasp the mystery of life, 173, 175, 176, 234-236; + cannot deal with fundamental problems, 242, 243; + concerns itself with matter only, 264; + inevitably mechanistic, 265, 266; + views the universe as one, 267, 268, 271-274; + the redeemer of the physical world, 269-271, 276; + spiritual insight gained through, 278. + +Sea-urchins, Loeb's experiments, 147. + +Seed, growth of, 217, 218. + +Soddy, Frederick, 46, 66; + on vital force, 133; + on rainbows and rabbits, 174; + on the relation of life to energy, 177-180; + on the atom, 197, 198; + on atomic energy, 204. + +Spencer, Herbert, 218, 240; + quoted, 15, 16; + on the origin of life, 26; + on vital capital, 34, 35. + +Spirit, common view of, 274, 275. + +Spirituality, evolution of, 284. + +Sugar, grape, 208. + +Sunflower, wild, force exerted by, 19. + + +Thomson, J. Arthur, 270. + +Thomson, Sir J. J., on electrons, 197; + photographing atoms, 199, 200. + +Tropisms, 11. + +Tyndall, John, his view of life, 28-30, 160, 162, 231; + his "molecular force," 42, 133; + his Belfast Address, 64, 219; + and the "miracle of vitality," 105; + on energy, 161; + on growth from the germ, 217; + an idealist, 219, 220; + on Goethe, 221; + on matter, 260; + on crystallisation of salt, 276, 277; + on incipient life in inorganic nature, 277. + + +Universe, the, oneness of, 267, 268; + a view of, 289. + +Uranium, 67. + + +Verworn, Max, 25, 79, 146; + his view of life, 30, 31, 73; + his term for vital force, 145. + +Vital force, constructive, 7, 38; + inventive and creative, 7; + resisting repose, 40; + as a postulate, 99-103; + its existence denied by science, 133; + convenience of the term, 144; + other names, 144-146. + _See also_ Life. + +Vitalism, making headway, 32; + reason for, 71, 72; + Moore's scientific vitalism, 106-112; + type of mind believing in, 218-223. + _See also_ Life. + +Vitality, the question of its reality, 140-143; + degrees of, 241, 242. + _See also_ Life. + + +War of 1914, 248-251. + +Water-power, and electricity, 67, 68. + +Weismann, August, 217. + +Whitman, Walt, quoted, 14, 48, 110, 256, 260. + +Wilson, Edmund Beecher, on the cell, 95. + + + +[Transcriber's Notes: + +1. The phrase 'To resolve the pyschic and the vital' was changed to +'To resolve the psychic and the vital'.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Breath of Life, by John Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BREATH OF LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 18335-8.txt or 18335-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/3/18335/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Jamie Atiga, Leonard Johnson and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Breath of Life + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: May 7, 2006 [EBook #18335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BREATH OF LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Jamie Atiga, Leonard Johnson and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/image001.png" + alt="Frontispiece." + title="Frontispiece." /> +</div> + + + + +<h1>THE</h1> + +<h1>BREATH OF LIFE</h1> + + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>JOHN BURROUGHS</h2> + +<div class="center"> + <img src="images/image002.png" + alt="Printer's mark." + title="Printer's mark." /> +</div> + + +<p class="center">BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br /> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /> +The Riverside Press Cambridge</p> + + + + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1915,<br />BY JOHN BURROUGHS</p> + +<p class="center">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Published May 1915</i></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating +more and more upon the mystery of its +nature and origin, yet without the least hope that I +can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any +other world. In these studies I fancy I am about as +far from mastering the mystery as the ant which I +saw this morning industriously exploring a small +section of the garden walk is from getting a clear +idea of the geography of the North American Continent. +But the ant was occupied and was apparently +happy, and she must have learned something +about a small fraction of that part of the earth's +surface.</p> + +<p>I have passed many pleasant summer days in my +hay-barn study, or under the apple trees, exploring +these questions, and though I have not solved them, +I am satisfied with the clearer view I have given +myself of the mystery that envelops them. I have +set down in these pages all the thoughts that have +come to me on this subject. I have not aimed so +much at consistency as at clearness and definiteness +of statement, letting my mind drift as upon a shoreless +sea. Indeed, what are such questions, and all +other ultimate questions, but shoreless seas whereon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> +the chief reward of the navigator is the joy of the +adventure?</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas Browne said, over two hundred years +ago, that in philosophy truth seemed double-faced, +by which I fancy he meant that there was always +more than one point of view of all great problems, +often contradictory points of view, from which truth +is revealed. In the following pages I am aware that +two ideas, or principles, struggle in my mind for mastery. +One is the idea of the super-mechanical and the +super-chemical character of living things; the other +is the idea of the supremacy and universality of what +we call natural law. The first probably springs from +my inborn idealism and literary habit of mind; the +second from my love of nature and my scientific +bent. It is hard for me to reduce the life impulse to +a level with common material forces that shape and +control the world of inert matter, and it is equally +hard for me to reconcile my reason to the introduction +of a new principle, or to see anything in natural +processes that savors of the <i>ab-extra</i>. It is the working +of these two different ideas in my mind that +seems to give rise to the obvious contradictions that +crop out here and there throughout this volume. +An explanation of life phenomena that savors of the +laboratory and chemism repels me, and an explanation +that savors of the theological point of view is +equally distasteful to me. I crave and seek a natural +explanation of all phenomena upon this earth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> +but the word "natural" to me implies more than +mere chemistry and physics. The birth of a baby, +and the blooming of a flower, are natural events, +but the laboratory methods forever fail to give us +the key to the secret of either.</p> + +<p>I am forced to conclude that my passion for nature +and for all open-air life, though tinged and stimulated +by science, is not a passion for pure science, +but for literature and philosophy. My imagination +and ingrained humanism are appealed to by the +facts and methods of natural history. I find something +akin to poetry and religion (using the latter +word in its non-mythological sense, as indicating the +sum of mystery and reverence we feel in the presence +of the great facts of life and death) in the shows +of day and night, and in my excursions to fields and +woods. The love of nature is a different thing from +the love of science, though the two may go together. +The Wordsworthian sense in nature, of "something +far more deeply interfused" than the principles of +exact science, is probably the source of nearly if not +quite all that this volume holds. To the rigid man +of science this is frank mysticism; but without a +sense of the unknown and unknowable, life is flat +and barren. Without the emotion of the beautiful, +the sublime, the mysterious, there is no art, no religion, +no literature. How to get from the clod underfoot +to the brain and consciousness of man without +invoking something outside of, and superior to,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> +natural laws, is the question. For my own part I +content myself with the thought of some unknown +and doubtless unknowable tendency or power in the +elements themselves—a kind of universal mind +pervading living matter and the reason of its living, +through which the whole drama of evolution is +brought about.</p> + +<p>This is getting very near to the old teleological +conception, as it is also near to that of Henri Bergson +and Sir Oliver Lodge. Our minds easily slide into +the groove of supernaturalism and spiritualism because +they have long moved therein. We have the +words and they mould our thoughts. But science is +fast teaching us that the universe is complete in +itself; that whatever takes place in matter is by +virtue of the force of matter; that it does not defer +to or borrow from some other universe; that there is +deep beneath deep in it; that gross matter has its +interior in the molecule, and the molecule has its +interior in the atom, and the atom has its interior in +the electron, and that the electron is matter in its +fourth or non-material state—the point where it +touches the super-material. The transformation of +physical energy into vital, and of vital into mental, +doubtless takes place in this invisible inner world of +atoms and electrons. The electric constitution of +matter is a deduction of physics. It seems in some +degree to bridge over the chasm between what we +call the material and the spiritual. If we are not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> +within hailing distance of life and mind, we seem +assuredly on the road thither. The mystery of the +transformation of the ethereal, imponderable forces +into the vital and the mental seems quite beyond +the power of the mind to solve. The explanation +of it in the bald terms of chemistry and physics +can never satisfy a mind with a trace of idealism +in it.</p> + +<p>The greater number of the chapters of this volume +are variations upon a single theme,—what Tyndall +called "the mystery and the miracle of vitality,"—and +I can only hope that the variations are of sufficient +interest to justify the inevitable repetitions +which occur. I am no more inclined than Tyndall +was to believe in miracles unless we name everything +a miracle, while at the same time I am deeply +impressed with the inadequacy of all known material +forces to account for the phenomena of living +things.</p> + +<p>That word of evil repute, materialism, is no +longer the black sheep in the flock that it was before +the advent of modern transcendental physics. +The spiritualized materialism of men like Huxley +and Tyndall need not trouble us. It springs from +the new conception of matter. It stands on the +threshold of idealism or mysticism with the door +ajar. After Tyndall had cast out the term "vital +force," and reduced all visible phenomena of life to +mechanical attraction and repulsion, after he had exhausted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> +physics, and reached its very rim, a mighty +mystery still hovered beyond him. He recognized +that he had made no step toward its solution, and +was forced to confess with the philosophers of all +ages that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i10">"We are such stuff<br /></div> +<div class="i0">As dreams are made on, and our little life<br /></div> +<div class="i0">Is rounded with a sleep."<br /></div> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></div></div> + + + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<ul class="TOC"> +<li><a href="#I">I. <span class="smcap">The Breath of Life</span></a> <span class="ralign">1</span></li> + +<li><a href="#II">II. <span class="smcap">The Living Wave</span></a> <span class="ralign">24</span></li> + +<li><a href="#III">III. <span class="smcap">A Wonderful World</span></a> <span class="ralign">46</span></li> + +<li><a href="#IV">IV. <span class="smcap">The Baffling Problem</span></a> <span class="ralign">71</span></li> + +<li><a href="#V">V. <span class="smcap">Scientific Vitalism</span></a> <span class="ralign">104</span></li> + +<li><a href="#VI">VI. <span class="smcap">A Bird of Passage</span></a> <span class="ralign">115</span></li> + +<li><a href="#VII">VII. <span class="smcap">Life and Mind</span></a> <span class="ralign">131</span></li> + +<li><a href="#VIII">VIII. <span class="smcap">Life and Science</span></a> <span class="ralign">159</span></li> + +<li><a href="#IX">IX. <span class="smcap">The Journeying Atoms</span></a> <span class="ralign">188</span></li> + +<li><a href="#X">X. <span class="smcap">The Vital Order</span></a> <span class="ralign"> 212</span></li> + +<li><a href="#XI">XI. <span class="smcap">The Arrival of the Fit</span></a> <span class="ralign">244</span></li> + +<li><a href="#XII">XII. <span class="smcap">The Naturalist's View of Life</span></a> <span class="ralign">254</span></li> + +<li><a href="#INDEX"> <span class="smcap">Index</span></a> <span class="ralign">291</span></li> +</ul> + +<div class="blockquot">The reproduction of the bust of Mr. Burroughs which +appears as the frontispiece to this volume is used by +courtesy of the sculptor, C. S. Pietro.</div> + +<p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h2>THE BREATH OF LIFE</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>When for the third or fourth time during the +spring or summer I take my hoe and go +out and cut off the heads of the lusty burdocks that +send out their broad leaves along the edge of my +garden or lawn, I often ask myself, "What is this +thing that is so hard to scotch here in the grass?" +I decapitate it time after time and yet it forthwith +gets itself another head. We call it burdock, but +what is burdock, and why does it not change into +yellow dock, or into a cabbage? What is it that is so +constant and so irrepressible, and before the summer +is ended will be lying in wait here with its ten +thousand little hooks to attach itself to every skirt +or bushy tail or furry or woolly coat that comes +along, in order to get free transportation to other +lawns and gardens, to green fields and pastures new?</p> + +<p>It is some living thing; but what is a living thing, +and how does it differ from a mechanical and non-living +thing? If I smash or overturn the sundial +with my hoe, or break the hoe itself, these things +stay smashed and broken, but the burdock mends +itself, renews itself, and, if I am not on my guard, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +will surreptitiously mature some of the burs before the season is +passed.</p> + +<p>Evidently a living thing is radically different from a mechanical thing; +yet modern physical science tells me that the burdock is only another +kind of machine, and manifests nothing but the activity of the +mechanical and chemical principles that we see in operation all about us +in dead matter; and that a little different mechanical arrangement of +its ultimate atoms would turn it into a yellow dock or into a cabbage, +into an oak or into a pine, into an ox or into a man.</p> + +<p>I see that it is a machine in this respect, that it is set going by a +force exterior to itself—the warmth of the sun acting upon it, and upon +the moisture in the soil; but it is unmechanical in that it repairs +itself and grows and reproduces itself, and after it has ceased running +can never be made to run again. After I have reduced all its activities +to mechanical and chemical principles, my mind seems to see something +that chemistry and mechanics do not explain—something that avails +itself of these forces, but is not of them. This may be only my +anthropomorphic way of looking at things, but are not all our ways of +looking at things anthropomorphic? How can they be any other? They +cannot be deific since we are not gods. They may be scientific. But what +is science but a kind of anthropomorphism? Kant wisely said, "It sounds +at first singular, but is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> none the less certain, that the +understanding does not derive its laws from nature, but prescribes them +to nature." This is the anthropomorphism of science.</p> + +<p>If I attribute the phenomenon of life to a vital force or principle, am +I any more unscientific than I am when I give a local habitation and a +name to any other causal force, as gravity, chemical affinity, cohesion, +osmosis, electricity, and so forth? These terms stand for certain +special activities in nature and are as much the inventions of our own +minds as are any of the rest of our ideas.</p> + +<p>We can help ourselves out, as Haeckel does, by calling the physical +forces—such as the magnet that attracts the iron filings, the powder +that explodes, the steam that drives the locomotive, and the +like—"living inorganics," and looking upon them as acting by "living +force as much as the sensitive mimosa does when it contracts its leaves +at touch." But living force is what we are trying to differentiate from +mechanical force, and what do we gain by confounding the two? We can +only look upon a living body as a machine by forming new conceptions of +a machine—a machine utterly unmechanical, which is a contradiction of +terms.</p> + +<p>A man may expend the same kind of force in thinking that he expends in +chopping his wood, but that fact does not put the two kinds of activity +on the same level. There is no question but that the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +food consumed is the source of the energy in both +cases, but in the one the energy is muscular, and in +the other it is nervous. When we speak of mental +or spiritual force, we have as distinct a conception +as when we speak of physical force. It requires +physical force to produce the effect that we call +mental force, though how the one can result in the +other is past understanding. The law of the correlation +and conservation of energy requires that what +goes into the body as physical force must come out +in some form of physical force—heat, light, electricity, +and so forth.</p> + +<p>Science cannot trace force into the mental realm +and connect it with our states of consciousness. It +loses track of it so completely that men like Tyndall +and Huxley and Spencer pause before it as an inscrutable +mystery, while John Fiske helps himself +out with the conception of the soul as quite independent +of the body, standing related to it as the +musician is related to his instrument. This idea is +the key to Fiske's proof of the immortality of the +soul. Finding himself face to face with an insoluble +mystery, he cuts the knot, or rather, clears the +chasm, by this extra-scientific leap. Since the soul, +as we know it, is inseparably bound up with physical +conditions, it seems to me that a more rational explanation +of the phenomenon of mentality is the +conception that the physical force and substance +that we use up in a mental effort or emotional experience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +gives rise, through some unknown kind of +molecular activity, to something which is analogous +to the electric current in a live wire, and which traverses +the nerves and results in our changing states +of consciousness. This is the mechanistic explanation +of mind, consciousness, etc., but it is the only +one, or kind of one, that lends itself to scientific interpretation. +Life, spirit, consciousness, may be a +mode of motion as distinct from all other modes of +motion, such as heat, light, electricity, as these are +distinct from each other.</p> + +<p>When we speak of force of mind, force of character, +we of course speak in parables, since the force +here alluded to is an experience of our own minds +entirely and would not suffice to move the finest +dust-particle in the air.</p> + +<p>There could be no vegetable or animal life without +the sunbeam, yet when we have explained or +accounted for the growth of a tree in terms of the +chemistry and physics of the sunbeam, do we not +have to figure to ourselves something in the tree +that avails itself of this chemistry, that uses it and +profits by it? After this mysterious something has +ceased to operate, or play its part, the chemistry of +the sunbeam is no longer effective, and the tree is +dead.</p> + +<p>Without the vibrations that we call light, there +would have been no eye. But, as Bergson happily +says, it is not light passively received that makes the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +eye; it is light meeting an indwelling need in the organism, +which amounts to an active creative principle, +that begets the eye. With fish in underground +waters this need does not arise; hence they have no +sight. Fins and wings and legs are developed to +meet some end of the organism, but if the organism +were not charged with an expansive or developing +force or impulse, would those needs arise?</p> + +<p>Why should the vertebrate series have risen +through the fish, the reptile, the mammal, to man, +unless the manward impulse was inherent in the first +vertebrate; something that struggled, that pushed +on and up from the more simple to the more complex +forms? Why did not unicellular life always remain +unicellular? Could not the environment have +acted upon it endlessly without causing it to change +toward higher and more complex forms, had there +not been some indwelling aboriginal tendency toward +these forms? How could natural selection, or +any other process of selection, work upon species +to modify them, if there were not something in +species pushing out and on, seeking new ways, +new forms, in fact some active principle that is +modifiable?</p> + +<p>Life has risen by stepping-stones of its dead self +to higher things. Why has it risen? Why did it +not keep on the same level, and go through the +cycle of change, as the inorganic does, without attaining +to higher forms? Because, it may be replied,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +it was life, and not mere matter and motion—something +that lifts matter and motion to a +new plane.</p> + +<p>Under the influence of the life impulse, the old +routine of matter—from compound to compound, +from solid to fluid, from fluid to gaseous, from rock +to soil, the cycle always ending where it began—is +broken into, and cycles of a new order are instituted. +From the stable equilibrium which dead matter is +always seeking, the same matter in the vital circuit +is always seeking the state of unstable equilibrium, +or rather is forever passing between the two, and +evolving the myriad forms of life in the passage. +It is hard to think of the process as the work of the +physical and chemical forces of inorganic nature, +without supplementing them with a new and different +force.</p> + +<p>The forces of life are constructive forces, and they +are operative in a world of destructive or disintegrating +forces which oppose them and which they +overcome. The physical and chemical forces of +dead matter are at war with the forces of life, till +life overcomes and uses them.</p> + +<p>The mechanical forces go on repeating or dividing +through the same cycles forever and ever, seeking a +stable condition, but the vital force is inventive and +creative and constantly breaks the repose that organic +nature seeks to impose upon it.</p> + +<p>External forces may modify a body, but they cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +develop it unless there is something in the body +waiting to be developed, craving development, as it +were. The warmth and moisture in the soil act alike +upon the grains of sand and upon the seed-germs; +the germ changes into something else, the sand does +not. These agents liberate a force in the germ that +is not in the grain of sand. The warmth of the +brooding fowl does not spend itself upon mere passive, +inert matter (unless there is a china egg in the +nest), but upon matter straining upon its leash, and +in a state of expectancy. We do not know how the +activity of the molecules of the egg differs from +the activity of the molecules of the pebble, under +the influence of warmth, but we know there must +be a difference between the interior movements +of organized and unorganized matter.</p> + +<p>Life lifts inert matter up into a thousand varied +and beautiful forms and holds it there for a season,—holds +it against gravity and chemical affinity, +though you may say, if you please, not without their +aid,—and then in due course lets go of it, or abandons +it, and lets it fall back into the great sea of the +inorganic. Its constant tendency is to fall back; indeed, +in animal life it does fall back every moment; +it rises on the one hand, serves its purpose of life, +and falls back on the other. In going through the +cycle of life the mineral elements experience some +change that chemical analysis does not disclose—they +are the more readily absorbed again by life. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +is as if the elements had profited in some way under +the tutelage of life. Their experience has been a +unique and exceptional one. Only a small fraction +of the sum total of the inert matter of the globe can +have this experience. It must first go through the +vegetable cycle before it can be taken up by the +animal. The only things we can take directly from +the inorganic world are water and air; and the function +of water is largely a mechanical one, and the +function of air a chemical one.</p> + +<p>I think of the vital as flowing out of the physical, +just as the psychical flows out of the vital, and just +as the higher forms of animal life flow out of the +lower. It is a far cry from man to the dumb brutes, +and from the brutes to the vegetable world, and from +the vegetable to inert matter; but the germ and +start of each is in the series below it. The living +came out of the not-living. If life is of physico-chemical +origin, it is so by transformations and +translations that physics cannot explain. The butterfly +comes out of the grub, man came out of the +brute, but, as Darwin says, "not by his own efforts," +any more than the child becomes the man +by its own efforts.</p> + +<p>The push of life, of the evolutionary process, is +back of all and in all. We can account for it all +by saying the Creative Energy is immanent in +matter, and this gives the mind something to take +hold of.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>According to the latest scientific views held on +the question by such men as Professor Loeb, the +appearance of life on the globe was a purely accidental +circumstance. The proper elements just happened +to come together at the right time in the +right proportions and under the right conditions, +and life was the result. It was an accident in the +thermal history of the globe. Professor Loeb has +lately published a volume of essays and addresses +called "The Mechanistic Conception of Life," enforcing +and illustrating this view. He makes war +on what he terms the metaphysical conception of a +"life-principle" as the key to the problem, and +urges the scientific conception of the adequacy of +mechanico-chemical forces. In his view, we are only +chemical mechanisms; and all our activities, mental +and physical alike, are only automatic responses to +the play of the blind, material forces of external nature. +All forms of life, with all their wonderful adaptations, +are only the chance happenings of the blind +gropings and clashings of dead matter: "We eat, +drink, and reproduce [and, of course, think and +speculate and write books on the problems of life], +not because mankind has reached an agreement +that this is desirable, but because, machine-like, we +are compelled to do so!"</p> + +<p>He reaches the conclusion that all our inner subjective<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +life is amenable to physico-chemical analysis, +because many cases of simple animal instinct and +will can be explained on this basis—the basis of +animal tropism. Certain animals creep or fly to +the light, others to the dark, because they cannot +help it. This is tropism. He believes that the origin +of life can be traced to the same physico-chemical +activities, because, in his laboratory experiments, +he has been able to dispense with the male principle, +and to fertilize the eggs of certain low forms of marine +life by chemical compounds alone. "The problem +of the beginning and end of individual life is +physico-chemically clear"—much clearer than the +first beginnings of life. All individual life begins +with the egg, but where did we get the egg? When +chemical synthesis will give us this, the problem is +solved. We can analyze the material elements of an +organism, but we cannot synthesize them and produce +the least spark of living matter. That all forms +of life have a mechanical and chemical basis is beyond +question, but when we apply our analysis to +them, life evaporates, vanishes, the vital processes +cease. But apply the same analysis to inert matter, +and only the form is changed.</p> + +<p>Professor Loeb's artificially fathered embryo +and starfish and sea-urchins soon die. If his +chemism could only give him the mother-principle +also! But it will not. The mother-principle is +at the very foundations of the organic world, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +defies all attempts of chemical synthesis to reproduce +it.</p> + +<p>It would be presumptive in the extreme for me to +question Professor Loeb's scientific conclusions; he +is one of the most eminent of living experimental +biologists. I would only dissent from some of his +philosophical conclusions. I dissent from his statement +that only the mechanistic conception of life +can throw light on the source of ethics. Is there any +room for the moral law in a world of mechanical +determinism? There is no ethics in the physical order, +and if humanity is entirely in the grip of that +order, where do moral obligations come in? A gun, +a steam-engine, knows no ethics, and to the extent +that we are compelled to do things, are we in the +same category. Freedom of choice alone gives any +validity to ethical consideration. I dissent from the +idea to which he apparently holds, that biology is +only applied physics and chemistry. Is not geology +also applied physics and chemistry? Is it any more +or any less? Yet what a world of difference between +the two—between a rock and a tree, between a +man and the soil he cultivates. Grant that the physical +and the chemical forces are the same in both, +yet they work to such different ends in each. In one +case they are tending always to a deadlock, to the +slumber of a static equilibrium; in the other they +are ceaselessly striving to reach a state of dynamic +activity—to build up a body that hangs forever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +between a state of integration and disintegration. +What is it that determines this new mode and end +of their activities?</p> + +<p>In all his biological experimentation, Professor +Loeb starts with living matter and, finding its processes +capable of physico-chemical analysis, he hastens +to the conclusion that its genesis is to be accounted +for by the action and interaction of these +principles alone.</p> + +<p>In the inorganic world, everything is in its place +through the operation of blind physical forces; because +the place of a dead thing, its relation to the +whole, is a matter of indifference. The rocks, the +hills, the streams are in their place, but any other +place would do as well. But in the organic world we +strike another order—an order where the relation +and subordination of parts is everything, and to +speak of human existence as a "matter of chance" +in the sense, let us say, that the forms and positions +of inanimate bodies are matters of chance, is to confuse +terms.</p> + +<p>Organic evolution upon the earth shows steady +and regular progression; as much so as the growth +and development of a tree. If the evolutionary impulse +fails on one line, it picks itself up and tries on +another, it experiments endlessly like an inventor, +but always improves on its last attempts. Chance +would have kept things at a standstill; the principle +of chance, give it time enough, must end where it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +began. Chance is a man lost in the woods; he never +arrives; he wanders aimlessly. If evolution pursued +a course equally fortuitous, would it not still +be wandering in the wilderness of the chaotic +nebulæ?</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>A vastly different and much more stimulating +view of life is given by Henri Bergson in his "Creative +Evolution." Though based upon biological science, +it is a philosophical rather than a scientific +view, and appeals to our intuitional and imaginative +nature more than to our constructive reason. +M. Bergson interprets the phenomena of life in +terms of spirit, rather than in terms of matter as +does Professor Loeb. The word "creative" is the +key-word to his view. Life is a creative impulse or +current which arose in matter at a certain time and +place, and flows through it from form to form, from +generation to generation, augmenting in force as it +advances. It is one with spirit, and is incessant creation; +the whole organic world is filled, from bottom +to top, with one tremendous effort. It was long ago +felicitously stated by Whitman in his "Leaves of +Grass," "Urge and urge, always the procreant urge +of the world."</p> + +<p>This conception of the nature and genesis of life +is bound to be challenged by modern physical science, +which, for the most part, sees in biology only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +a phase of physics; but the philosophic mind and +the trained literary mind will find in "Creative +Evolution" a treasure-house of inspiring ideas, and +engaging forms of original artistic expression. As +Mr. Balfour says, "M. Bergson's 'Evolution Créatrice' +is not merely a philosophical treatise, it has +all the charm and all the audacities of a work of art, +and as such defies adequate reproduction."</p> + +<p>It delivers us from the hard mechanical conception +of determinism, or of a closed universe which, +like a huge manufacturing plant, grinds out vegetables +and animals, minds and spirits, as it grinds +out rocks and soils, gases and fluids, and the inorganic +compounds.</p> + +<p>With M. Bergson, life is the flowing metamorphosis +of the poets,—an unceasing becoming,—and +evolution is a wave of creative energy overflowing +through matter "upon which each visible organism +rides during the short interval of time given it to +live." In his view, matter is held in the iron grip of +necessity, but life is freedom itself. "Before the +evolution of life ... the portals of the future remain +wide open. It is a creation that goes on forever in +virtue of an initial movement. This movement constitutes +the unity of the organized world—a prolific +unity, of an infinite richness, superior to any that +the intellect could dream of, for the intellect is only +one of its aspects or products."</p> + +<p>What a contrast to Herbert Spencer's view of life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +and evolution! "Life," says Spencer, "consists of +inner action so adjusted as to balance outer action." +True enough, no doubt, but not interesting. If the +philosopher could tell us what it is that brings about +the adjustment, and that profits by it, we should at +once prick up our ears. Of course, it is life. But +what is life? It is inner action so adjusted as to balance +outer action!</p> + +<p>A recent contemptuous critic of M. Bergson's +book, Hugh S. R. Elliot, points out, as if he were +triumphantly vindicating the physico-chemical theory +of the nature and origin of life, what a complete +machine a cabbage is for converting solar energy +into chemical and vital energy—how it takes up +the raw material from the soil by a chemical and +mechanical process, how these are brought into contact +with the light and air through the leaves, and +thus the cabbage is built up. In like manner, a man +is a machine for converting chemical energy derived +from the food he eats into motion, and the +like. As if M. Bergson, or any one else, would dispute +these things! In the same way, a steam-engine +is a machine for converting the energy latent in coal +into motion and power; but what force lies back of +the engine, and was active in the construction?</p> + +<p>The final question of the cabbage and the man +still remains—Where did you get them?</p> + +<p>You assume vitality to start with—how did you +get it? Did it arise spontaneously out of dead matter?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +Mechanical and chemical forces do all the work +of the living body, but who or what controls and +directs them, so that one compounding of the elements +begets a cabbage, and another compounding +of the same elements begets an oak—one mixture +of them and we have a frog, another and we have a +man? Is there not room here for something besides +blind, indifferent forces? If we make the molecules +themselves creative, then we are begging the question. +The creative energy by any other name remains +the same.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>If life itself is not a force or a form of energy, yet +behold what energy it is capable of exerting! It +seems to me that Sir Oliver Lodge is a little confusing +when he says in a recent essay that "life does +not exert force—not even the most microscopical +force—and certainly does not supply energy." Sir +Oliver is thinking of life as a distinct entity—something +apart from the matter which it animates. But +even in this case can we not say that the mainspring +of the energy of living bodies is the life that is in them?</p> + +<p>Apart from the force exerted by living animal +bodies, see the force exerted by living plant bodies. +I thought of the remark of Sir Oliver one day not +long after reading it, while I was walking in a beech +wood and noted how the sprouting beechnuts had +sent their pale radicles down through the dry leaves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +upon which they were lying, often piercing two or +three of them, and forcing their way down into the +mingled soil and leaf-mould a couple of inches. +Force was certainly expended in doing this, and if +the life in the sprouting nut did not exert it or expend +it, what did?</p> + +<p>When I drive a peg into the ground with my axe +or mallet, is the life in my arm any more strictly the +source (the secondary source) of the energy expended +than is the nut in this case? Of course, the +sun is the primal source of the energy in both cases, +and in all cases, but does not life exert the force, use +it, bring it to bear, which it receives from the universal +fount of energy?</p> + +<p>Life cannot supply energy <i>de novo</i>, cannot create +it out of nothing, but it can and must draw upon the +store of energy in which the earth floats as in a sea. +When this energy or force is manifest through a living +body, we call it vital force; when it is manifest +through a mechanical contrivance, we call it mechanical +force; when it is developed by the action +and reaction of chemical compounds, we call it +chemical force; the same force in each case, but behaving +so differently in the one case from what it +does in the other that we come to think of it as a +new and distinct entity. Now if Sir Oliver or any +one else could tell us what force is, this difference +between the vitalists and the mechanists might be +reconciled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>Darwin measured the force of the downward +growth of the radicle, such as I have alluded to, as +one quarter of a pound, and its lateral pressure as +much greater. We know that the roots of trees insert +themselves into seams in the rocks, and force +the parts asunder. This force is measurable and is +often very great. Its seat seems to be in the soft, +milky substance called the cambium layer under +the bark. These minute cells when their force is +combined may become regular rock-splitters.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable exhibitions of plant +force I ever saw was in a Western city where I observed +a species of wild sunflower forcing its way +up through the asphalt pavement; the folded and +compressed leaves of the plant, like a man's fist, had +pushed against the hard but flexible concrete till it +had bulged up and then split, and let the irrepressible +plant through. The force exerted must have +been many pounds. I think it doubtful if the +strongest man could have pushed his fist through +such a resisting medium. If it was not life which +exerted this force, what was it? Life activities are a +kind of explosion, and the slow continued explosions +of this growing plant rent the pavement as surely as +powder would have done. It is doubtful if any cultivated +plant could have overcome such odds. It +required the force of the untamed hairy plant of the +plains to accomplish this feat.</p> + +<p>That life does not supply energy, that is, is not an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +independent source of energy, seems to me obvious +enough, but that it does not manifest energy, use +energy, or "exert force," is far from obvious. If a +growing plant or tree does not exert force by reason +of its growing, or by virtue of a specific kind of activity +among its particles, which we name life, and +which does not take place in a stone or in a bar of +iron or in dead timber, then how can we say that any +mechanical device or explosive compound exerts +force? The steam-engine does not create force, neither +does the exploding dynamite, but these things +exert force. We have to think of the sum total of +the force of the universe, as of matter itself, as a +constant factor, that can neither be increased nor +diminished. All activity, organic and inorganic, +draws upon this force: the plant and tree, as well as +the engine and the explosive—the winds, the tides, +the animal, the vegetable alike. I can think of but +one force, but of any number of manifestations of +force, and of two distinct kinds of manifestations, +the organic and the inorganic, or the vital and the +physical,—the latter divisible into the chemical +and the mechanical, the former made up of these +two working in infinite complexity because drawn +into new relations, and lifted to higher ends by this +something we call life.</p> + +<p>We think of something in the organic that lifts +and moves and redistributes dead matter, and +builds it up into the ten thousand new forms which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +it would never assume without this something; it +lifts lime and iron and silica and potash and carbon, +against gravity, up into trees and animal forms, not +by a new force, but by an old force in the hands of +a new agent.</p> + +<p>The cattle move about the field, the drift boulders +slowly creep down the slopes; there is no doubt that +the final source of the force is in both cases the same; +what we call gravity, a name for a mystery, is the +form it takes in the case of the rocks, and what we +call vitality, another name for a mystery, is the +form it takes in the case of the cattle; without the +solar and stellar energy, could there be any motion +of either rock or beast?</p> + +<p>Force is universal, it pervades all nature, one +manifestation of it we call heat, another light, another +electricity, another cohesion, chemical affinity, +and so on. May not another manifestation of +it be called life, differing from all the rest more radically +than they differ from one another; bound up +with all the rest and inseparable from them and +identical with them only in its ultimate source in the +Creative Energy that is immanent in the universe? +I have to think of the Creative Energy as immanent +in all matter, and the final source of all the transformations +and transmutations we see in the organic +and the inorganic worlds. The very nature of our +minds compels us to postulate some power, or some +principle, not as lying back of, but as active in, all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +the changing forms of life and nature, and their final +source and cause.</p> + +<p>The mind is satisfied when it finds a word that +gives it a hold of a thing or a process, or when it can +picture to itself just how the thing occurs. Thus, +for instance, to account for the power generated by +the rushing together of hydrogen and oxygen to produce +water, we have to conceive of space between +the atoms of these elements, and that the force generated +comes from the immense velocity with which +the infinitesimal atoms rush together across this infinitesimal +space. It is quite possible that this is not +the true explanation at all, but it satisfies the mind +because it is an explanation in terms of mechanical +forces that we know.</p> + +<p>The solar energy goes into the atoms or corpuscles +one thing, and it comes out another; it goes in as inorganic +force, and it comes out as organic and psychic. +The change or transformation takes place in +those invisible laboratories of the infinitesimal +atoms. It helps my mental processes to give that +change a name—vitality—and to recognize it as +a supra-mechanical force. Pasteur wanted a name +for it and called it "dissymmetric force."</p> + +<p>We are all made of one stuff undoubtedly, vegetable +and animal, man and woman, dog and donkey, +and the secret of the difference between us, and of +the passing along of the difference from generation to +generation with but slight variations, may be, so to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +speak, in the way the molecules and atoms of our +bodies take hold of hands and perform their mystic +dances in the inner temple of life. But one would +like to know who or what pipes the tune and directs +the figures of the dance.</p> + +<p>In the case of the beechnuts, what is it that lies +dormant in the substance of the nuts and becomes +alive, under the influence of the warmth and moisture +of spring, and puts out a radicle that pierces the +dry leaves like an awl? The pebbles, though they +contain the same chemical elements, do not become +active and put out a radicle.</p> + +<p>The chemico-physical explanation of the universe +goes but a little way. These are the tools of the creative +process, but they are not that process, nor its +prime cause. Start the flame of life going, and the +rest may be explained in terms of chemistry; start +the human body developing, and physiological processes +explain its growth; but why it becomes a man +and not a monkey—what explains that?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h2>THE LIVING WAVE</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>If one attempts to reach any rational conclusion +on the question of the nature and origin of life +on this planet, he soon finds himself in close quarters +with two difficulties. He must either admit of a +break in the course of nature and the introduction +of a new principle, the vital principle, which, if he +is a man of science, he finds it hard to do; or he must +accept the theory of the physico-chemical origin of +life, which, as a being with a soul, he finds it equally +hard to do. In other words, he must either draw an +arbitrary line between the inorganic and the organic +when he knows that drawing arbitrary lines in nature, +and fencing off one part from another, is an +unscientific procedure, and one that often leads to +bewildering contradictions; or he must look upon +himself with all his high thoughts and aspirations, +and upon all other manifestations of life, as merely +a chance product of the blind mechanical and +chemical action and interaction of the inorganic +forces.</p> + +<p>Either conclusion is distasteful. One does not like +to think of himself as a chance hit of the irrational<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +physical elements; neither does he feel at ease with +the thought that he is the result of any break or discontinuity +in natural law. He likes to see himself +as vitally and inevitably related to the physical order +as is the fruit to the tree that bore it, or the +child to the mother that carried it in her womb, and +yet, if only mechanical and chemical forces entered +into his genesis, he does not feel himself well fathered +and mothered.</p> + +<p>One may evade the difficulty, as Helmholtz did, +by regarding life as eternal—that it had no beginning +in time; or, as some other German biologists +have done, that the entire cosmos is alive and the +earth a living organism.</p> + +<p>If biogenesis is true, and always has been true,—no +life without antecedent life,—then the question +of a beginning is unthinkable. It is just as easy to +think of a stick with only one end.</p> + +<p>Such stanch materialists and mechanists as +Haeckel and Verworn seem to have felt compelled, +as a last resort, to postulate a psychic principle in +nature, though of a low order. Haeckel says that +most chemists and physicists will not hear a word +about a "soul" in the atom. "In my opinion, however," +he says, "in order to explain the simplest +physical and chemical processes, we must necessarily +assume a low order of psychical activity among the +homogeneous particles of plasm, rising a very little +above that of the crystal." In crystallization he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +sees a low degree of sensation and a little higher degree +in the plasm.</p> + +<p>Have we not in this rudimentary psychic principle +which Haeckel ascribes to the atom a germ to +start with that will ultimately give us the mind of +man? With this spark, it seems to me, we can kindle +a flame that will consume Haeckel's whole mechanical +theory of creation. Physical science is clear +that the non-living or inorganic world was before +the living or organic world, but that the latter in +some mysterious way lay folded in the former. Science +has for many years been making desperate +efforts to awaken this slumbering life in its laboratories, +but has not yet succeeded, and probably +never will succeed. Life without antecedent life +seems a biological impossibility. The theory of +spontaneous generation is rejected by the philosophical +mind, because our experience tells us that +everything has its antecedent, and that there is and +can be no end to the causal sequences.</p> + +<p>Spencer believes that the organic and inorganic +fade into each other by insensible gradations—that +no line can be drawn between them so that one can +say, on this side is the organic, on that the inorganic. +In other words, he says it is not necessary for us to +think of an absolute commencement of organic life, +or of a first organism—organic matter was not +produced all at once, but was reached through steps +or gradations. Yet it puzzles one to see how there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +can be any gradations or degrees between being and +not being. Can there be any halfway house between +something and nothing?</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>There is another way out of the difficulty that besets +our rational faculties in their efforts to solve +this question, and that is the audacious way of +Henri Bergson in his "Creative Evolution." It is +to deny any validity to the conclusion of our logical +faculties upon this subject. Our intellect, Bergson +says, cannot grasp the true nature of life, nor the +meaning of the evolutionary movement. With the +emphasis of italics he repeats that "<i>the intellect is +characterized by a natural inability to comprehend +life</i>." He says this in a good many pages and in a +good many different ways; the idea is one of the +main conclusions of his book. Our intuitions, our +spiritual nature, according to this philosopher, are +more <i>en rapport</i> with the secrets of the creative +energy than are our intellectual faculties; the key +to the problem is to be found here, rather than in +the mechanics and chemistry of the latter. Our intellectual +faculties can grasp the physical order because +they are formed by a world of solids and fluids +and give us the power to deal with them and act +upon them. But they cannot grasp the nature and +the meaning of the vital order.</p> + +<p>"We treat the living like the lifeless, and think all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +reality, however fluid, under the form of the sharply +defined solid. We are at ease only in the discontinuous, +in the immobile, in the dead. Perceiving in an +organism only parts external to parts, the understanding +has the choice between two systems of +explanation only: either to regard the infinitely +complex (and thereby infinitely well contrived) organization +as a fortuitous concatenation of atoms, +or to relate it to the incomprehensible influence +of an external force that has grouped its elements +together."</p> + +<p>"Everything is obscure in the idea of creation, if +we think of things which are created and a thing +which creates." If we follow the lead of our logical, +scientific faculties, then, we shall all be mechanists +and materialists. Science can make no other solution +of the problem because it sees from the outside. +But if we look from the inside, with the spirit or +"with that faculty of seeing which is immanent in +the faculty of acting," we shall escape from the +bondage of the mechanistic view into the freedom of +the larger truth of the ceaseless creative view; we +shall see the unity of the creative impulse which is +immanent in life and which, "passing through generations, +links individuals with individuals, species +with species, and makes of the whole series of the +living one single immense wave flowing over +matter."</p> + +<p>I recall that Tyndall, who was as much poet as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +scientist, speaks of life as a wave "which at no +two consecutive moments of its existence is composed +of the same particles." In his more sober scientific +mood Tyndall would doubtless have rejected +M. Bergson's view of life, yet his image of the wave +is very Bergsonian. But what different meanings +the two writers aim to convey: Tyndall is thinking +of the fact that a living body is constantly taking +up new material on the one side and dropping dead +or outworn material on the other. M. Bergson's +mind is occupied with the thought of the primal +push or impulsion of matter which travels through +it as the force in the wave traverses the water. The +wave embodies a force which lifts the water up in +opposition to its tendency to seek and keep a level, +and travels on, leaving the water behind. So does +this something we call life break the deadlock of inert +matter and lift it into a thousand curious and +beautiful forms, and then, passing on, lets it fall +back again into a state of dead equilibrium.</p> + +<p>Tyndall was one of the most eloquent exponents +of the materialistic theory of the origin of life, and +were he living now would probably feel little or no +sympathy with the Bergsonian view of a primordial +life impulse. He found the key to all life phenomena +in the hidden world of molecular attraction and repulsion. +He says: "Molecular forces determine the +form which the solar energy will assume. [What a +world of mystery lies in that determinism of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +hidden molecular forces!] In the separation of the +carbon and oxygen this energy may be so conditioned +as to result in one case in the formation of a +cabbage and in another case in the formation of an +oak. So also as regards the reunion of the carbon +and the oxygen [in the animal organism] the molecular +machinery through which the combining energy +acts may in one case weave the texture of a frog, +while in another it may weave the texture of a man."</p> + +<p>But is not this molecular force itself a form of +solar energy, and can it differ in kind from any other +form of physical force? If molecular forces determine +whether the solar energy shall weave a head of +a cabbage or a head of a Plato or a Shakespeare, +does it not meet all the requirements of our conception +of creative will?</p> + +<p>Tyndall thinks that a living man—Socrates, +Aristotle, Goethe, Darwin, I suppose—could be +produced directly from inorganic nature in the +laboratory if (and note what a momentous "if" this +is) we could put together the elements of such a +man in the same relative positions as those which +they occupy in his body, "with the selfsame forces +and distribution of forces, the selfsame motions and +distribution of motions." Do this and you have a +St. Paul or a Luther or a Lincoln. Dr. Verworn said +essentially the same thing in a lecture before one of +our colleges while in this country a few years ago—easy +enough to manufacture a living being of any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +order of intellect if you can reproduce in the laboratory +his "internal and external <i>vital conditions</i>." +(The italics are mine.) To produce those vital conditions +is where the rub comes. Those vital conditions, +as regards the minutest bit of protoplasm, science, +with all her tremendous resources, has not yet +been able to produce. The raising of Lazarus from +the dead seems no more a miracle than evoking vital +conditions in dead matter. External and internal +vital conditions are no doubt inseparably correlated, +and when we can produce them we shall have life. +Life, says Verworn, is like fire, and "is a phenomenon +of nature which appears as soon as the complex +of its conditions is fulfilled." We can easily produce +fire by mechanical and chemical means, but not +life. Fire is a chemical process, it is rapid oxidation, +and oxidation is a disintegrating process, while life +is an integrating process, or a balance maintained +between the two by what we call the vital force. +Life is evidently a much higher form of molecular +activity than combustion. The old Greek Heraclitus +saw, and the modern scientist sees, very superficially +in comparing the two.</p> + +<p>I have no doubt that Huxley was right in his inference +"that if the properties of matter result from +the nature and disposition of its component molecules, +then there is no intelligible ground for refusing +to say that the properties of protoplasm result from +the nature and disposition of its molecules." It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +undoubtedly in that nature and disposition of the +biological molecules that Tyndall's whole "mystery +and miracle of vitality" is wrapped up. If we could +only grasp what it is that transforms the molecule +of dead matter into the living molecule! Pasteur +called it "dissymmetric force," which is only a new +name for the mystery. He believed there was an +"irrefragable physical barrier between organic and +inorganic nature"—that the molecules of an organism +differed from those of a mineral, and for this +difference he found a name.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>There seems to have been of late years a marked +reaction, even among men of science, from the +mechanistic conception of life as held by the band +of scientists to which I have referred. Something +like a new vitalism is making headway both on the +Continent and in Great Britain. Its exponents urge +that biological problems "defy any attempt at a +mechanical explanation." These men stand for the +idea "of the creative individuality of organisms" +and that the main factors in organic evolution cannot +be accounted for by the forces already operative +in the inorganic world.</p> + +<p>There is, of course, a mathematical chance that +in the endless changes and permutations of inert +matter the four principal elements that make up a +living body may fall or run together in just that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +order and number that the kindling of the flame of +life requires, but it is a disquieting proposition. +One atom too much or too little of any of them,—three +of oxygen where two were required, or two of +nitrogen where only one was wanted,—and the face +of the world might have been vastly different. Not +only did much depend on their coming together, but +upon the order of their coming; they must unite +in just such an order. Insinuate an atom or corpuscle +of hydrogen or carbon at the wrong point in +the ranks, and the trick is a failure. Is there any +chance that they will hit upon a combination of +things and forces that will make a machine—a +watch, a gun, or even a row of pins?</p> + +<p>When we regard all the phenomena of life and the +spell it seems to put upon inert matter, so that it behaves +so differently from the same matter before it +is drawn into the life circuit, when we see how it +lifts up a world of dead particles out of the soil +against gravity into trees and animals; how it +changes the face of the earth; how it comes and goes +while matter stays; how it defies chemistry and +physics to evoke it from the non-living; how its departure, +or cessation, lets the matter fall back to the +inorganic—when we consider these and others like +them, we seem compelled to think of life as something, +some force or principle in itself, as M. Bergson +and Sir Oliver Lodge do, existing apart from the +matter it animates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sir Oliver Lodge, famous physicist that he is, yet +has a vein of mysticism and idealism in him which +sometimes makes him recoil from the hard-and-fast +interpretations of natural phenomena by physical +science. Like M. Bergson, he sees in life some tendency +or impetus which arose in matter at a definite +time and place, "and which has continued to interact +with and incarnate itself in matter ever since."</p> + +<p>If a living body is a machine, then we behold a +new kind of machine with new kinds of mechanical +principles—a machine that repairs itself, that reproduces +itself, a clock that winds itself up, an engine +that stokes itself, a gun that aims itself, a machine +that divides and makes two, two unite and +make four, a million or more unite and make a man +or a tree—a machine that is nine tenths water, a +machine that feeds on other machines, a machine +that grows stronger with use; in fact, a machine that +does all sorts of unmechanical things and that no +known combination of mechanical and chemical +principles can reproduce—a vital machine. The +idea of the vital as something different from and opposed +to the mechanical must come in. Something +had to be added to the mechanical and chemical to +make the vital.</p> + +<p>Spencer explains in terms of physics why an ox is +larger than the sheep, but he throws no light upon +the subject of the individuality of these animals—what +it is that makes an ox an ox or a sheep a sheep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +These animals are built up out of the same elements +by the same processes, and they may both have had +the same stem form in remote biologic time. If so, +what made them diverge and develop into such +totally different forms? After the living body is +once launched many, if not all, of its operations and +economies can be explained on principles of mechanics +and chemistry, but the something that avails +itself of these principles and develops an ox in +the one case and a sheep in the other—what of +that?</p> + +<p>Spencer is forced into using the terms "amount of +vital capital." How much more of it some men, +some animals, some plants have than others! What +is it? What did Spencer mean by it? This capital +augments from youth to manhood, and then after a +short or long state of equilibrium slowly declines to +the vanishing-point.</p> + +<p>Again, what a man does depends upon what he is, +and what he is depends upon what he does. Structure +determines function, and function reacts upon +structure. This interaction goes on throughout life; +cause and effect interchange or play into each other's +hands. The more power we spend within limits the +more power we have. This is another respect in +which life is utterly unmechanical. A machine does not +grow stronger by use as our muscles do; it does +not store up or conserve the energy it expends. The +gun is weaker by every ball it hurls; not so the baseball<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +pitcher; he is made stronger up to the limit of +his capacity for strength.</p> + +<p>It is plain enough that all living beings are machines +in this respect—they are kept going by the +reactions between their interior and their exterior; +these reactions are either mechanical, as in flying, +swimming, walking, and involve gravitation, or +they are chemical and assimilative, as in breathing +and eating. To that extent all living things are +machines—some force exterior to themselves must +aid in keeping them going; there is no spontaneous +or uncaused movement in them; and yet what a +difference between a machine and a living thing!</p> + +<p>True it is that a man cannot live and function +without heat and oxygen, nor long without food, +and yet his relation to his medium and environment +is as radically different from that of the steam-engine +as it is possible to express. His driving-wheel, +the heart, acts in response to some stimulus +as truly as does the piston of the engine, and the +principles involved in circulation are all mechanical; +and yet the main thing is not mechanical, but vital. +Analyze the vital activities into principles of mechanics +and of chemistry, if you will, yet there is +something involved that is neither mechanical nor +chemical, though it may be that only the imagination +can grasp it.</p> + +<p>The type that prints the book is set up and again +distributed by a purely mechanical process, but that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +which the printed page signifies involves something +not mechanical. The mechanical and chemical +principles operative in men's bodies are all the same; +the cell structure is the same, and yet behold the +difference between men in size, in strength, in appearance, +in temperament, in disposition, in capacities! +All the processes of respiration, circulation, +and nutrition in our bodies involve well-known +mechanical principles, and the body is accurately +described as a machine; and yet if there were not +something in it that transcends mechanics and +chemistry would you and I be here? A machine is +the same whether it is in action or repose, but when +a body ceases to function, it is not the same. It +cannot be set going like a machine; the motor power +has ceased to be. But if the life of the body were no +more than the sum of the reactions existing between +the body and the medium in which it lives, +this were not so. A body lives as long as there is +a proper renewal of the interior medium through +exchanges with its environment.</p> + +<p>Mechanical principles are operative in every part +of the body—in the heart, in the arteries, in the +limbs, in the joints, in the bowels, in the muscles; +and chemical principles are operative in the lungs, +in the stomach, in the liver, in the kidneys; but to +all these things do we not have to add something +that is not mechanical or chemical to make the man, +to make the plant? A higher mechanics, a higher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +chemistry, if you prefer, a force, but a force differing +in kind from the physical forces.</p> + +<p>The forces of life are constructive forces, and work +in a world of disintegrating or destructive forces +which oppose them and which they overcome. The +mechanical and the chemical forces of dead matter +are the enemies of the forces of life till life overcomes +and uses them; as much so as gravity, fire, +frost, water are man's enemies till he has learned +how to subdue and use them.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>It is a significant fact that the four chief elements +which in various combinations make up living +bodies are by their extreme mobility well suited to +their purpose. Three of these are gaseous; only the +carbon is a solid. This renders them facile and +adaptive in the ever-changing conditions of organic +evolution. The solid carbon forms the vessel in +which the precious essence of life is carried. Without +carbon we should evaporate or flow away and +escape. Much of the oxygen and hydrogen enters +into living bodies as water; nine tenths of the human +body is water; a little nitrogen and a few mineral +salts make up the rest. So that our life in its final +elements is little more than a stream of water holding +in solution carbonaceous and other matter and +flowing, forever flowing, a stream of fluid and solid +matter plus something else that scientific analysis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +cannot reach—some force or principle that combines +and organizes these elements into the living +body.</p> + +<p>If a man could be reduced instantly into his constituent +elements we should see a pail or two of turbid +fluid that would flow down the bank and soon +be lost in the soil. That which gives us our form and +stability and prevents us from slowly spilling down +the slope at all times is the mysterious vital principle +or force which knits and marries these unstable +elements together and raises up a mobile but +more or less stable form out of the world of fluids. +Venus rising from the sea is a symbol of the genesis +of every living thing.</p> + +<p>Inorganic matter seeks only rest. "Let me +alone," it says; "do not break my slumbers." But +as soon as life awakens in it, it says: "Give me room, +get out of my way. Ceaseless activity, ceaseless +change, a thousand new forms are what I crave." +As soon as life enters matter, matter meets with a +change of heart. It is lifted to another plane, the +supermechanical plane; it behaves in a new way; +its movements from being calculable become incalculable. +A straight line has direction, that is +mechanics; what direction has the circle? That is +life, a change of direction every instant. An aeroplane +is built entirely on mechanical principles, but +something not so built has to sit in it and guide it; +in fact, had to build it and adjust it to its end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mechanical forces seek an equilibrium or a state +of rest. The whole inorganic world under the influence +of gravity would flow as water flows, if it could, +till it reached a state of absolute repose. But vital +forces struggle against a state of repose, which to +them means death. They are vital by virtue of +their tendency to resist the repose of inert matter; +chemical activity disintegrates a stone or other +metal, but the decay of organized matter is different +in kind; living organisms decompose it and resolve +it into its original compounds.</p> + +<p>Vital connections and mechanical connections +differ in kind. You can treat mechanical principles +mathematically, but can you treat life mathematically? +Will your formulas and equations apply +here? You can figure out the eclipses of the sun and +moon for centuries to come, but who can figure out +the eclipses of nations or the overthrow of parties or +the failures of great men? And it is not simply because +the problem is so vastly more complex; it is because +you are in a world where mathematical principles +do not apply. Mechanical forces will determine +the place and shape of every particle of inert +matter any number of years or centuries hence, but +they will not determine the place and condition of +matter imbued with the principle of life.</p> + +<p>We can graft living matter, we can even graft a +part of one animal's body into another animal's +body, but the mechanical union which we bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +about must be changed into vital union to be a success, +the spirit of the body has to second our efforts. +The same in grafting a tree or anything else: the +mechanical union which we effect must become a +vital union; and this will not take place without +some degree of consanguinity, the live scion must +be recognized and adapted by the stock in which we +introduce it.</p> + +<p>Living matter may be symbolized by a stream; it +is ever and never the same; life is a constant becoming; +our minds and our bodies are never the same +at any two moments of time; life is ceaseless change.</p> + +<p>No doubt it is between the stable and the unstable +condition of the molecules of matter that life is born. +The static condition to which all things tend is +death. Matter in an unstable condition tends either +to explode or to grow or to disintegrate. So that +an explosion bears some analogy to life, only it is +quickly over and the static state of the elements is +restored. Life is an infinitely slower explosion, or a +prolonged explosion, during which some matter of +the organism is being constantly burned up, and +thus returned to a state of inorganic repose, while +new matter is taken in and kindled and consumed +by the fires of life. One can visualize all this and +make it tangible to the intellect. Get your fire of +life started and all is easy, but how to start it is the +rub. Get your explosive compound, and something +must break the deadlock of the elements before it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +will explode. So in life, what is it that sets up this +slow gentle explosion that makes the machinery of +our vital economies go—that draws new matter +into the vortex and casts the used-up material out—in +short, that creates and keeps up the unstable +condition, the seesaw upon which life depends? To +enable the mind to grasp it we have to invent or +posit some principle, call it the vital force, as so +many have done and still do, or call it molecular +force, as Tyndall does, or the power of God, as our +orthodox brethren do, it matters not. We are on +the border-land between the knowable and the unknowable, +where the mind can take no further step. +There is no life without carbon and oxygen, hydrogen +and nitrogen, but there is a world of these elements +without life. What must be added to them +to set up the reaction we call life? Nothing that +chemistry can disclose.</p> + +<p>New tendencies and activities are set up among +these elements, but the elements themselves are not +changed; oxygen is still oxygen and carbon still carbon, +yet behold the wonder of their new workmanship +under the tutelage of life!</p> + +<p>Life only appears when the stable passes into the +unstable, yet this change takes place all about us in +our laboratories, and no life appears. We can send +an electric spark through a room full of oxygen and +hydrogen gas, and with a tremendous explosion we +have water—an element of life, but not life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some of the elements seem nearer life than others. +Water is near life; heat, light, the colloid state are +near life; osmosis, oxidation, chemical reactions are +near life; the ashes of inorganic bodies are nearer life +than the same minerals in the rocks and soil; but +none of these things is life.</p> + +<p>The chemical mixture of some of the elements +gives us our high explosives—gunpowder, guncotton, +and the like; their organic mixture gives a +slower kind of explosive—bread, meat, milk, fruit, +which, when acted upon by the vital forces of the +body, yield the force that is the equivalent of the +work the body does. But to combine them in the +laboratory so as to produce the compounds out of +which the body can extract force is impossible. We +can make an unstable compound that will hurl a ton +of iron ten miles, but not one that when exploded +in the digestive tract of the human body will lift a +hair.</p> + +<p>We may follow life down to the ground, yes, under +the ground, into the very roots of matter and +motion, yea, beyond the roots, into the imaginary +world of molecules and atoms, and their attractions +and repulsions and not find its secret. Indeed, science—the +new science—pursues matter to the +vanishing-point, where it ceases to become matter +and becomes pure force or spirit. What takes place +in that imaginary world where ponderable matter +ends and becomes disembodied force, and where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +the hypothetical atoms are no longer divisible, we +may conjecture but may never know. We may +fancy the infinitely little going through a cycle of +evolution like that of the infinitely great, and solar +systems developing and revolving inside of the ultimate +atoms, but the Copernicus or the Laplace +of the atomic astronomy has not yet appeared. +The atom itself is an invention of science. To get +the mystery of vitality reduced to the atom is getting +it in very close quarters, but it is a very big +mystery still. Just how the dead becomes alive, +even in the atom, is mystery enough to stagger any +scientific mind. It is not the volume of the change; +it is the quality or kind. Chemistry and mechanics +we have always known, and they always remain +chemistry and mechanics. They go into our laboratories +and through our devices chemistry and mechanics, +and they come out chemistry and mechanics. +They will never come out life, conjure with +them as we will, and we can get no other result. +We cannot inaugurate the mystic dance among the +atoms that will give us the least throb of life.</p> + +<p>The psychic arises out of the organic and the organic +arises out of the inorganic, and the inorganic +arises out of—what? The relation of each to the +other is as intimate as that of the soul to the body; +we cannot get between them even in thought, but +the difference is one of kind and not of degree. The +vital transcends the mechanical, and the psychic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +transcends the vital—is on another plane, and yet +without the sun's energy there could be neither. +Thus are things knit together; thus does one thing +flow out of or bloom out of another. We date from +the rocks, and the rocks date from the fiery nebulæ, +and the loom in which the texture of our lives was +woven is the great loom of vital energy about us +and in us; but what hand guided the shuttle and +invented the pattern—who knows?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h2>A WONDERFUL WORLD</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Science recognizes a more fundamental world +than that of matter. This is the electro-magnetic +world which underlies the material world and +which, as Professor Soddy says, probably completely +embraces it, and has no mechanical analogy. +To those accustomed only to the grosser ideas of +matter and its motions, says the British scientist, +this electro-magnetic world is as difficult to conceive +of as it would be for us to walk upon air. Yet many +times in our lives is this world in overwhelming evidence +before us. During a thunderstorm we get an +inkling of how fearfully and wonderfully the universe +in which we live is made, and what energy +and activity its apparent passivity and opacity +mark. A flash of lightning out of a storm-cloud +seems instantly to transform the whole passive +universe into a terrible living power. This slow, +opaque, indifferent matter about us and above us, +going its silent or noisy round of mechanical and +chemical change, ponderable, insensate, obstructive, +slumbering in the rocks, quietly active in the +soil, gently rustling in the trees, sweetly purling in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +the brooks, slowly, invisibly building and shaping our +bodies—how could we ever dream that it held in +leash such a terrible, ubiquitous, spectacular thing +as this of the forked lightning? If we were to see +and hear it for the first time, should we not think +that the Judgment Day had really come? that +the great seals of the Book of Fate were being +broken?</p> + +<p>What an awakening it is! what a revelation! +what a fearfully dramatic actor suddenly leaps +upon the stage! Had we been permitted to look behind +the scenes, we could not have found him; he +was not there, except potentially; he was born +and equipped in a twinkling. One stride, and one +word which shakes the house, and he is gone; +gone as quickly as he came. Look behind the curtain +and he is not there. He has vanished more +completely than any stage ghost ever vanished—he +has withdrawn into the innermost recesses of the +atomic structure of matter, and is diffused through +the clouds, to be called back again, as the elemental +drama proceeds, as suddenly as before.</p> + +<p>All matter is charged with electricity, either actual +or potential; the sun is hot with it, and doubtless +our own heart-beats, our own thinking brains, +are intimately related to it; yet it is palpable and +visible only in this sudden and extraordinary way. +It defies our analysis, it defies our definitions; it is +inscrutable and incomprehensible, yet it will do our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +errands, light our houses, cook our dinners, and +pull our loads.</p> + +<p>How humdrum and constant and prosaic the +other forces—gravity, cohesion, chemical affinity, +and capillary attraction—seem when compared +with this force of forces, electricity! How deep and +prolonged it slumbers at one time, how terribly active +and threatening at another, bellowing through +the heavens like an infuriated god seeking whom he +may destroy!</p> + +<p>The warring of the elements at such times is no +figure of speech. What has so disturbed the peace +in the electric equilibrium, as to make possible this +sudden outburst, this steep incline in the stream of +energy, this ethereal Niagara pouring from heaven +to earth? Is a thunderstorm a display of the atomic +energy of which the physicists speak, and which, +were it available for our use, would do all the work +of the world many times over?</p> + +<p>How marvelous that the softest summer breeze, +or the impalpable currents of the calmest day, can +be torn asunder with such suddenness and violence, +by the accumulated energy that slumbers in the +imaginary atoms, as to give forth a sound like the +rending of mountains or the detonations of earthquakes!</p> + +<p>Electricity is the soul of matter. If Whitman's +paradox is true, that the soul and body are one, in +the same sense the scientific paradox is true: that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +matter and electricity are one, and both are doubtless +a phase of the universal ether—a reality which +can be described only in terms of the negation of +matter. In a flash of lightning we see pure disembodied +energy—probably that which is the main-spring +of the universe. Modern science is more and +more inclined to find the explanation of all vital +phenomena in electrical stress and change. We +know that an electric current will bring about chemical +changes otherwise impracticable. Nerve force, +if not a form of electricity, is probably inseparable +from it. Chemical changes equivalent to the combustion +of fuel and the corresponding amount of +available energy released have not yet been achieved +outside of the living body without great loss. The +living body makes a short cut from fuel to energy, +and this avoids the wasteful process of the engine. +What part electricity plays in this process is, of +course, only conjectural.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Our daily lives go on for the most part in two +worlds, the world of mechanical transposition and +the world of chemical transformations, but we are +usually conscious only of the former. This is the +visible, palpable world of motion and change that +rushes and roars around us in the winds, the storms, +the floods, the moving and falling bodies, and the +whole panorama of our material civilization; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +latter is the world of silent, invisible, unsleeping, +and all-potent chemical reactions that take place +all about us and is confined to the atoms and molecules +of matter, as the former is confined to its visible +aggregates.</p> + +<p>Mechanical forces and chemical affinities rule our +physical lives, and indirectly our psychic lives as +well. When we come into the world and draw our +first breath, mechanics and chemistry start us on +our career. Breathing is a mechanical, or a mechanico-vital, +act; the mechanical principle involved is +the same as that involved in the working of a bellows, +but the oxidation of the blood when the air +enters the lungs is a chemical act, or a chemico-vital +act. The air gives up a part of its oxygen, +which goes into the arterial circulation, and its place +is taken by carbonic-acid gas and watery vapor. +The oxygen feeds and keeps going the flame of life, +as literally as it feeds and keeps going the fires in our +stoves and furnaces.</p> + +<p>Hence our most constant and vital relation to the +world without is a chemical one. We can go without +food for some days, but we can exist without breathing +only a few moments. Through these spongy +lungs of ours we lay hold upon the outward world in +the most intimate and constant way. Through +them we are rooted to the air. The air is a mechanical +mixture of two very unlike gases—nitrogen +and oxygen; one very inert, the other very active.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +Nitrogen is like a cold-blooded, lethargic person—it +combines with other substances very reluctantly +and with but little energy. Oxygen is just its opposite +in this respect: it gives itself freely; it is "Hail, +fellow; well met!" with most substances, and it enters +into co-partnership with them on such a large +scale that it forms nearly one half of the material of +the earth's crust. This invisible gas, this breath of +air, through the magic of chemical combination, +forms nearly half the substance of the solid rocks. +Deprive it of its affinity for carbon, or substitute nitrogen +or hydrogen in its place, and the air would +quickly suffocate us. That changing of the dark +venous blood in our lungs into the bright, red, arterial +blood would instantly cease. Fancy the sensation +of inhaling an odorless, non-poisonous atmosphere +that would make one gasp for breath! We +should be quickly poisoned by the waste of our own +bodies. All things that live must have oxygen, and +all things that burn must have oxygen. Oxygen +does not burn, but it supports combustion.</p> + +<p>And herein is one of the mysteries of chemistry +again. This support which the oxygen gives is utterly +unlike any support we are acquainted with in the +world of mechanical forces. Oxygen supports combustion +by combining chemically with carbon, and +the evolution of heat and light is the result. And +this is another mystery—this chemical union which +takes place in the ultimate particles of matter and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +which is so radically different from a mechanical +mixture. In a chemical union the atoms are not +simply in juxtaposition; they are, so to speak, inside +of one another—each has swallowed another and +lost its identity, an impossible feat, surely, viewed +in the light of our experiences with tangible bodies. +In the visible, mechanical world no two bodies can +occupy the same place at the same time, but apparently +in chemistry they can and do. An atom of +oxygen and one of carbon, or of hydrogen, unite +and are lost in each other; it is a marriage wherein +the two or three become one. In dealing with the +molecules and atoms of matter we are in a world +wherein the laws of solid bodies do not apply; friction +is abolished, elasticity is perfect, and place and +form play no part. We have escaped from matter +as we know it, the solid, fluid, or gaseous forms, and +are dealing with it in its fourth or ethereal estate. +In breathing, the oxygen goes into the blood, not to +stay there, but to unite with and bring away the +waste of the system in the shape of carbon, and re-enter +the air again as one of the elements of carbonic-acid +gas, CO<sub>2</sub>. Then the reverse process takes +place in the vegetable world, the leaves breathe this +poisonous gas, release the oxygen under the chemistry +of the sun's rays, and appropriate and store up +the carbon. Thus do the animal and vegetable +worlds play into each other's hands. The animal is +dependent upon the vegetable for its carbon, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +it releases again, through the life processes, as +carbonic-acid gas, to be again drawn into the cycle +of vegetable life.</p> + +<p>The act of breathing well illustrates our mysterious +relations to Nature—the cunning way in which +she plays the principal part in our lives without our +knowledge. How certain we are that we draw the +air into our lungs—that we seize hold of it in some +way as if it were a continuous substance, and pull +it into our bodies! Are we not also certain that the +pump sucks the water up through the pipe, and +that we suck our iced drinks through a straw? We +are quite unconscious of the fact that the weight of +the superincumbent air does it all, that breathing is +only to a very limited extent a voluntary act. It is +controlled by muscular machinery, but that machinery +would not act in a vacuum. We contract the +diaphragm, or the diaphragm contracts under +stimuli received through the medulla oblongata from +those parts of the body which constantly demand +oxygen, and a vacuum tends to form in the chest, +which is constantly prevented by the air rushing +in to fill it. The expansive force of the air under its +own weight causes the lungs to fill, just as it causes +the bellows of the blacksmith to fill when he works +the lever, and the water to rise in the pump when +we force out the air by working the handle. Another +unconscious muscular effort under the influence of +nerve stimulus, and the air is forced out of the lungs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +charged with the bodily waste which it is the function +to relieve. But the wonder of it all is how slight +a part our wills play in the process, and how our +lives are kept going by a mechanical force from without, +seconded or supplemented by chemical and +vital forces from within.</p> + +<p>The one chemical process with which we are familiar +all our lives, but which we never think of as +such, is fire. Here on our own hearthstones goes on +this wonderful spectacular and beneficent transformation +of matter and energy, and yet we are +grown so familiar with it that it moves us not. We +can describe combustion in terms of chemistry, just +as we can describe the life-processes in similar terms, +yet the mystery is no more cleared up in the one +case than in the other. Indeed, it seems to me that +next to the mystery of life is the mystery of fire. +The oxidizing processes are identical, only one is a +building up or integrating process, and the other is a +pulling down or disintegrating process. More than +that, we can evoke fire any time, by both mechanical +and chemical means, from the combustible matter +about us; but we cannot evoke life. The equivalents +of life do not slumber in our tools as do the +equivalents of fire. Hence life is the deeper mystery. +The ancients thought of a spirit of fire as they +did of a spirit of health and of disease, and of good +and bad spirits all about them, and as we think of +a spirit of life, or of a creative life principle. Are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +we as wide of the mark as they were? So think +many earnest students of living things. When we +do not have to pass the torch of life along, but can +kindle it in our laboratories, then this charge will assume +a different aspect.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Nature works with such simple means! A little +more or a little less of this or that, and behold the +difference! A little more or a little less heat, and the +face of the world is changed.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i0">"And the little more, and how much it is,<br /></div> +<div class="i0">And the little less, and what worlds away!"<br /></div> +</div></div> + +<p>At one temperature water is solid, at another it is +fluid, at another it is a visible vapor, at a still higher +it is an invisible vapor that burns like a flame. All +possible shades of color lurk in a colorless ray of +light. A little more or a little less heat makes all the +difference between a nebula and a sun, and between +a sun and a planet. At one degree of heat the elements +are dissociated; at a lower degree they are +united. At one point in the scale of temperatures +life appears; at another it disappears. With heat +enough the earth would melt like a snowball in a +furnace, with still more it would become a vapor and +float away like a cloud. More or less heat only +makes the difference between the fluidity of water +and the solidity of the rocks that it beats against, or +of the banks that hold it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>The physical history of the universe is written in +terms of heat and motion. Astronomy is the story +of cooling suns and worlds. At a low enough temperature +all chemical activity ceases. In our own +experience we find that frost will blister like flame. +In the one case heat passes into the tissues so quickly +and in such quantity that a blister ensues; in the +other, heat is abstracted so quickly and in such +quantity that a like effect is produced. In one sense, +life is a thermal phenomenon; so are all conditions +of fluids and solids thermal phenomena.</p> + +<p>Great wonders Nature seems to achieve by varying +the arrangement of the same particles. Arrange +or unite the atoms of carbon in one way and you +have charcoal; assemble the same atoms in another +order, and you have the diamond. The difference +between the pearl and the oyster-shell that holds it +is one of structure or arrangement of the same particles +of matter. Arrange the atoms of silica in one +way and you have a quartz pebble, in another way +and you have a precious stone. The chemical constituents +of alcohol and ether are the same; the difference +in their qualities and properties arises from +the way the elements are compounded—the way +they take hold of hands, so to speak, in that marriage +ceremony which constitutes a chemical compound. +Compounds identical in composition and in molecular +formulæ may yet differ widely in physical properties; +the elements are probably grouped in different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +ways, the atoms of carbon or of hydrogen +probably carry different amounts of potential energy, +so that the order in which they stand related to one +another accounts for the different properties of the +same chemical compounds. Different groupings of +the same atoms of any of the elements result in a +like difference of physical properties.</p> + +<p>The physicists tell us that what we call the qualities +of things, and their structure and composition, +are but the expressions of internal atomic movements. +A complex substance simply means a whirl, +an intricate dance, of which chemical composition, +histological structure, and gross configuration are +the figures. How the atoms take hold of hands, as it +were, the way they face, the poses they assume, the +speed of their gyrations, the partners they exchange, +determine the kinds of phenomena we are dealing +with.</p> + +<p>There is a striking analogy between the letters of +our alphabet and their relation to the language of +the vast volume of printed books, and the eighty or +more primary elements and their relation to the +vast universe of material things. The analogy may +not be in all respects a strictly true one, but it is an +illuminating one. Our twenty-six letters combined +and repeated in different orders give us the many +thousand words our language possesses, and these +words combined and repeated in different orders +give us the vast body of printed books in our libraries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +The ultimate parts—the atoms and molecules +of all literature, so to speak—are the letters +of the alphabet. How often by changing a letter in +a word, by reversing their order, or by substituting +one letter for another, we get a word of an entirely +different meaning, as in umpire and empire, petrifaction +and putrefaction, malt and salt, tool and +fool. And by changing the order of the words in a +sentence we express all the infinite variety of ideas +and meanings that the books of the world hold.</p> + +<p>The eighty or more primordial elements are Nature's +alphabet with which she writes her "infinite +book of secrecy." Science shows pretty conclusively +that the character of the different substances, their +diverse qualities and properties, depend upon the +order in which the atoms and molecules are combined. +Change the order in which the molecules of +the carbon and oxygen are combined in alcohol, and +we get ether—the chemical formula remaining the +same. Or take ordinary spirits of wine and add four +more atoms of carbon to the carbon molecules, and +we have the poison, carbolic acid. Pure alcohol is +turned into a deadly poison by taking from it one +atom of carbon and two of hydrogen. With the +atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, by combining +them in different proportions and in different +orders, Nature produces such diverse bodies as +acetic acid, alcohol, sugar, starch, animal fats, vegetable +oils, glycerine, and the like. So with the long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +list of hydrocarbons—gaseous, liquid, and solid—called +paraffins, that are obtained from petroleum +and that are all composed of hydrogen and carbon, +but with a different number of atoms of each, like a +different number of a's or b's or c's in a word.</p> + +<p>What an enormous number of bodies Nature forms +out of oxygen by uniting it chemically with other +primary elements! Thus by uniting it with the +element silica she forms half of the solid crust of +the globe; by uniting it with hydrogen in the proportion +of two to one she forms all the water of the +globe. With one atom of nitrogen united chemically +with three atoms of hydrogen she forms ammonia. +With one atom of carbon united with four atoms of +hydrogen she spells marsh gas; and so on. Carbon +occurs in inorganic nature in two crystalline forms,—the +diamond and black lead, or graphite,—their +physical differences evidently being the result +of their different molecular structure. Graphite is a +good conductor of heat and electricity, and the diamond +is not. Carbon in the organic world, where it +plays such an important part, is non-crystalline. +Under the influence of life its molecules are differently +put together, as in sugar, starch, wood, charcoal, +etc. There are also two forms of phosphorus, +but not two kinds; the same atoms are probably +united differently in each. The yellow waxy variety +has such an affinity for oxygen that it will burn in +water, and it is poisonous. Bring this variety to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +high temperature away from the air, and its molecular +structure seems to change, and we have the red +variety, which is tasteless, odorless, and non-poisonous, +and is not affected by contact with the air. +Such is the mystery of chemical change.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Science has developed methods and implements +of incredible delicacy. Its "microbalance" can estimate +"the difference of weight of the order of the +millionth of a milligram." Light travels at the +speed of 186,000 miles a second, yet science can +follow it with its methods, and finds that it travels +faster with the current of running water than +against it. Science has perfected a thermal instrument +by which it can detect the heat of a lighted +candle six miles away, and the warmth of the human +face several miles distant. It has devised a +method by which it can count the particles in the +alpha rays of radium that move at a velocity of +twenty thousand kilometers a second, and a method +by which, through the use of a screen of zinc-sulphide, +it can see the flashes produced by the alpha +atoms when they strike this screen. It weighs and +counts and calculates the motions of particles of +matter so infinitely small that only the imagination +can grasp them. Its theories require it to treat the +ultimate particles into which it resolves matter, and +which are so small that they are no longer divisible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +as if they were solid bodies with weight and form, +with centre and circumference, colliding with one +another like billiard-balls, or like cosmic bodies in +the depths of space, striking one another squarely, +and, for aught I know, each going through another, +or else grazing one another and glancing off. To particles +of matter so small that they can no longer be +divided or made smaller, the impossible feat of each +going through the centre of another, or of each +enveloping the other, might be affirmed of them +without adding to their unthinkableness. The theory +is that if we divide a molecule of water the parts +are no longer water, but atoms of hydrogen and +oxygen—real bodies with weight and form, and +storehouses of energy, but no longer divisible.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the atomic theory of matter leads us into +a non-material world, or a world the inverse of the +solid, three-dimensioned world that our senses reveal +to us, or to matter in a fourth estate. We know +solids and fluids and gases; but emanations which +are neither we know only as we know spirits and +ghosts—by dreams or hearsay. Yet this fourth or +ethereal estate of matter seems to be the final, real, +and fundamental condition.</p> + +<p>How it differs from spirit is not easy to define. The +beta ray of radium will penetrate solid iron a foot +thick, a feat that would give a spirit pause. The +ether of space, which science is coming more and +more to look upon as the mother-stuff of all things,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +has many of the attributes of Deity. It is omni-present +and all-powerful. Neither time nor space has +dominion over it. It is the one immutable and immeasurable +thing in the universe. From it all things +arise and to it they return. It is everywhere and +nowhere. It has none of the finite properties of +matter—neither parts, form, nor dimension; neither +density nor tenuity; it cannot be compressed +nor expanded nor moved; it has no inertia nor mass, +and offers no resistance; it is subject to no mechanical +laws, and no instrument or experiment that science +has yet devised can detect its presence; it has +neither centre nor circumference, neither extension +nor boundary. And yet science is as convinced of +its existence as of the solid ground beneath our feet. +It is the one final reality in the universe, if we may +not say that it is the universe. Tremors or vibrations +in it reach the eye and make an impression +that we call light; electrical oscillations in it are the +source of other phenomena. It is the fountain-head +of all potential energy. The ether is an invention of +the scientific imagination. We had to have it to account +for light, gravity, and the action of one body +upon another at a distance, as well as to account for +other phenomena. The ether is not a body, it is a +medium. All bodies are in motion; matter moves; +the ether is in a state of absolute rest. Says Sir +Oliver Lodge, "The ether is strained, and has the +property of exerting strain and recoil." An electron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +is like a knot in the ether. The ether is the fluid of +fluids, yet its tension or strain is so great that it is +immeasurably more dense than anything else—a +phenomenon that may be paralleled by a jet of +water at such speed that it cannot be cut with a +sword or severed by a hammer. It is so subtle or imponderable +that solid bodies are as vacuums to it, +and so pervasive that all conceivable space is filled +with it; "so full," says Clerk Maxwell, "that no +human power can remove it from the smallest portion +of space, or produce the slightest flaw in its infinite +continuity."</p> + +<p>The scientific imagination, in its attempts to master +the workings of the material universe, has thus +given us a creation which in many of its attributes +rivals Omnipotence. It is the sum of all contradictions, +and the source of all reality. The gross matter +which we see and feel is one state of it; electricity, +which is without form and void, is another state of +it; and our minds and souls, Sir Oliver Lodge intimates, +may be still another state of it. But all these +theories of physical science are justified by their +fruits. The atomic theory of matter, and the kinetic +theory of gases, are mathematically demonstrated. +However unreal and fantastic they may +appear to our practical faculties, conversant only +with ponderable bodies, they bear the test of the +most rigid and exact experimentation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>After we have marveled over all these hidden +things, and been impressed by the world within +world of the material universe, do we get any nearer +to the mystery of life? Can we see where the tremendous +change from the non-living to the living +takes place? Can we evoke life from the omnipotent +ether, or see it arise in the whirling stream of atoms +and electrons? Molecular science opens up to us a +world where the infinitely little matches the infinitely +great, where matter is dematerialized and answers +to many of the conceptions of spirit; but does +it bring us any nearer the origin of life? Is radio-active +matter any nearer living matter than is the +clod under foot? Are the darting electrons any +more vital than the shooting-stars? Can a flash of +radium emanations on a zinc-sulphide plate kindle +the precious spark? It is probably just as possible +to evoke vitality out of the clash of billiard-balls as +out of the clash of atoms and electrons. This allusion +to billiard-balls recalls to my mind a striking +passage from Tyndall's famous Belfast Address +which he puts in the mouth of Bishop Butler in his +imaginary argument with Lucretius, and which +shows how thoroughly Tyndall appreciated the +difficulties of his own position in advocating the +theory of the physico-chemical origin of life.</p> + +<p>The atomic and electronic theory of matter admits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +one to a world that does indeed seem unreal +and fantastic. "If my bark sinks," says the poet, +"'t is to another sea." If the mind breaks through +what we call gross matter, and explores its interior, +it finds itself indeed in a vast under or hidden +world—a world almost as much a creation of the +imagination as that visited by Alice in Wonderland, +except that the existence of this world is capable +of demonstration. It is a world of the infinitely +little which science interprets in terms of the +infinitely large. Sir Oliver Lodge sees the molecular +spaces that separate the particles of any material +body relatively like the interstellar spaces that separate +the heavenly bodies. Just as all the so-called +solid matter revealed by our astronomy is almost infinitesimal +compared with the space through which +it is distributed, so the electrons which compose the +matter with which we deal are comparable to the +bodies of the solar system moving in vast spaces. It +is indeed a fantastic world where science conceives +of bodies a thousand times smaller than the hydrogen +atom—the smallest body known to science; +where it conceives of vibrations in the ether millions +of millions times a second; where we are bombarded +by a shower of corpuscles from a burning candle, or +a gas-jet, or a red-hot iron surface, moving at the +speed of one hundred thousand miles a second! But +this almost omnipotent ether has, after all, some of +the limitations of the finite. It takes time to transmit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +the waves of light from the sun and the stars. +This measurable speed, says Sir Oliver Lodge, gives +the ether away, and shows its finite character.</p> + +<p>It seems as if the theory of the ether must be true, +because it fits in so well with the enigmatic, contradictory, +incomprehensible character of the universe +as revealed to our minds. We can affirm and deny +almost anything of the ether—that it is immaterial, +and yet the source of all material; that it is absolutely +motionless, yet the cause of all motion; that +it is the densest body in nature, and yet the most +rarified; that it is everywhere, but defies detection; +that it is as undiscoverable as the Infinite itself; that +our physics cannot prove it, though they cannot get +along without it. The ether inside a mass of iron or +of lead is just as dense as the ether outside of it—which +means that it is not dense at all, in our ordinary +use of the term.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>There are physical changes in matter, there are +chemical changes, and there is a third change, as unlike +either of these as they are unlike each other. I +refer to atomic change, as in radio-activity, which +gives us lead from helium—a spontaneous change +of the atoms. The energy that keeps the earth going, +says Soddy, is to be sought for in the individual +atoms; not in the great heaven-shaking voice of +thunder, but in the still small voice of the atoms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +Radio-activity is the mainspring of the universe. +The only elements so far known that undergo spontaneous +change are uranium and thorium. One +pound of uranium contains and slowly gives out the +same amount of energy that a hundred tons of coal +evolves in its combustion, but only one ten-billionth +part of this amount is given out every year.</p> + +<p>Man, of course, reaps where he has not sown. +How could it be otherwise? It takes energy to sow or +plant energy. We are exhausting the coal, the natural +gas, the petroleum of the rocks, the fertility of +the soil. But we cannot exhaust the energy of the +winds or the tides, or of falling water, because this +energy is ever renewed by gravity and the sun. +There can be no exhaustion of our natural mechanical +and chemical resources, as some seem to fear.</p> + +<p>I recently visited a noted waterfall in the South +where electric power is being developed on a large +scale. A great column of water makes a vertical fall +of six hundred feet through a steel tube, and in the +fall develops two hundred and fifty thousand horse-power. +The water comes out of the tunnel at the +bottom, precisely the same water that went in at +the top; no change whatever has occurred in it, yet +a vast amount of power has been taken out of it, or, +rather, generated by its fall. Another drop of six +hundred feet would develop as much more; in fact, +the process may be repeated indefinitely, the same +amount of power resulting each time, without effecting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +any change in the character of the water. The +pull of gravity is the source of the power which is +distributed hundreds of miles across the country as +electricity. Two hundred and fifty thousand invisible, +immaterial, noiseless horses are streaming +along these wires with incredible speed to do the +work of men and horses in widely separated parts of +the country. A river of sand falling down those +tubes, if its particles moved among themselves with +the same freedom that those of the water do, would +develop the same power. The attraction of gravitation +is not supposed to be electricity, and yet here +out of its pull upon the water comes this enormous +voltage! The fact that such a mysterious and ubiquitous +power as electricity can be developed from +the action of matter without any alteration in its +particles, suggests the question whether or not this +something that we call life, or life-force, may not +slumber in matter in the same way; but the secret +of its development we have not yet learned, as we +have that of electricity.</p> + +<p>Radio-activity is uninfluenced by external conditions; +hence we are thus far unable to control it. +Nothing that is known will effect the transmutation +of one element into another. It is spontaneous and +uncontrollable. May not life be spontaneous in the +same sense?</p> + +<p>The release of the energy associated with the +structure of the atoms is not available by any of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +mechanical appliances. The process of radio-activity +involves the expulsion of atoms of helium with a +velocity three hundred times greater than that ever +previously known for any material mass or particle, +and this power we are incompetent to use. The +atoms remain unchanged amid the heat and pressure +of the laboratory of nature. Iron and oxygen +and so forth remain the same in the sun as here on +the earth.</p> + +<p>Science strips gross matter of its grossness. When +it is done with it, it is no longer the obstructive +something we know and handle; it is reduced to pure +energy—the line between it and spirit does not exist. +We have found that bodies are opaque only to +certain rays; the X-ray sees through this too too +solid flesh. Bodies are ponderable only to our dull +senses; to a finer hand than this the door or the wall +might offer no obstruction; a finer eye than this +might see the emanations from the living body; a +finer ear might hear the clash of electrons in the air. +Who can doubt, in view of what we already know, +that forces and influences from out the heavens +above, and from the earth beneath, that are beyond +our ken, play upon us constantly?</p> + +<p>The final mystery of life is no doubt involved in +conditions and forces that are quite outside of or +beyond our conscious life activities, in forces that +play about us and upon and through us, that we +know not of, because a knowledge of them is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +necessary to our well-being. "Our eye takes in only +an octave of the vibrations we call light," because +no more is necessary for our action or our dealing +with things. The invisible rays of the spectrum are +potent, but they are beyond the ken of our senses. +There are sounds or sound vibrations that we do not +hear; our sense of touch cannot recognize a gossamer, +or the gentler air movements.</p> + +<p>I began with the contemplation of the beauty and +terror of the thunderbolt—"God's autograph," as +one of our poets (Joel Benton) said, "written upon +the sky." Let me end with an allusion to another +aspect of the storm that has no terror in it—the +bow in the clouds: a sudden apparition, a cosmic +phenomenon no less wonderful and startling than +the lightning's flash. The storm with terror and +threatened destruction on one side of it, and peace +and promise on the other! The bow appears like a +miracle, but it is a commonplace of nature; unstable +as life, and beautiful as youth. The raindrops are +not changed, the light is not changed, the laws of +the storms are not changed; and yet, behold this +wonder!</p> + +<p>But all these strange and beautiful phenomena +springing up in a world of inert matter are but faint +symbols of the mystery and the miracle of the +change of matter from the non-living to the living, +from the elements in the clod to the same elements +in the brain and heart of man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h2>THE BAFFLING PROBLEM</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>Still the problem of living things haunts my +mind and, let me warn my reader, will continue +to haunt it throughout the greater part of this volume. +The final truth about it refuses to be spoken. +Every effort to do so but gives one new evidence of +how insoluble the problem is.</p> + +<p>In this world of change is there any other change +to be compared with that in matter, from the dead +to the living?—a change so great that most minds +feel compelled to go outside of matter and invoke +some super-material force or agent to account for +it. The least of living things is so wonderful, the +phenomena it exhibits are so fundamentally unlike +those of inert matter, that we invent a word for it, +<i>vitality</i>; and having got the word, we conceive of a +vital force or principle to explain vital phenomena. +Hence vitalism—a philosophy of living things, +more or less current in the world from Aristotle's +time down to our own. It conceives of something +in nature super-mechanical and super-chemical, +though inseparably bound up with these things. +There is no life without material and chemical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +forces, but material and chemical forces do not hold +the secret of life. This is vitalism as opposed to +mechanism, or scientific materialism, which is the +doctrine of the all-sufficiency of the physical forces +operating in the inorganic world to give rise to all +the phenomena of the organic world—a doctrine +coming more and more in vogue with the progress of +physical science. Without holding to any belief in +the supernatural or the teleological, and while adhering +to the idea that there has been, and can be, +no break in the causal sequence in this world, may +one still hold to some form of vitalism, and see in +life something more than applied physics and chemistry?</p> + +<p>Is biology to be interpreted in the same physical +and chemical terms as geology? Are biophysics and +geophysics one and the same? One may freely admit +that there cannot be two kinds of physics, nor +two kinds of chemistry—not one kind for a rock, +and another kind for a tree, or a man. There are +not two species of oxygen, nor two of carbon, nor two +of hydrogen and nitrogen—one for living and one +for dead matter. The water in the human body is +precisely the same as the water that flows by in the +creek or that comes down when it rains; and the sulphur +and the lime and the iron and the phosphorus +and the magnesium are identical, so far as chemical +analysis can reveal, in the organic and the inorganic +worlds. But are we not compelled to think of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +kind of difference between a living and a non-living +body that we cannot fit into any of the mechanical +or chemical concepts that we apply to the latter? +Professor Loeb, with his "Mechanistic Conception +of Life"; Professor Henderson, of Harvard, with his +"Fitness of the Environment"; Professor Le Dantec, +of the Sorbonne in Paris, with his volume on +"The Nature and Origin of Life," published a few +years since; Professor Schäfer, President of the +British Association, Professor Verworn of Bonn, +and many others find in the laws and properties of +matter itself a sufficient explanation of all the phenomena +of life. They look upon the living body as +only the sum of its physical and chemical activities; +they do not seem to feel the need of accounting for +life itself—for that something which confers vitality +upon the heretofore non-vital elements. That +there is new behavior, that there are new chemical +compounds called organic,—tens of thousands of +them not found in inorganic nature,—that there +are new processes set up in aggregates of matter,—growth, +assimilation, metabolism, reproduction, +thought, emotion, science, civilization,—no one +denies.</p> + +<p>How are we going to get these things out of the +old physics and chemistry without some new factor +or agent or force? To help ourselves out here with a +"vital principle," or with spirit, or a creative impulse, +as Bergson does, seems to be the only course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +open to certain types of mind. Positive science +cannot follow us in this step, because science is limited +to the verifiable. The stream of forces with +which it deals is continuous; it must find the physical +equivalents of all the forces that go into the body +in the output of the body, and it cannot admit of a +life force which it cannot trace to the physical +forces.</p> + +<p>What has science done to clear up this mystery of +vitality? Professor Loeb, our most eminent experimental +biologist, has succeeded in fertilizing the +eggs of some low forms of sea life by artificial means; +and in one instance, at least, it is reported that the +fatherless form grew to maturity. This is certainly +an interesting fact, but takes us no nearer the solution +of the mystery of vitality than the fact that +certain chemical compounds may stimulate the organs +of reproduction helps to clear up the mystery +of generation; or the fact that certain other chemical +compounds help the digestive and assimilative +processes and further the metabolism of the body assists +in clearing up the mystery that attaches to +these things. In all such cases we have the living +body to begin with. The egg of the sea-urchin and +the egg of the jelly-fish are living beings that responded +to certain chemical substances, so that a +process is set going in their cell life that is equivalent +to fertilization. It seems to me that the result of all +Professor Loeb's valuable inquiries is only to give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +us a more intimate sense of how closely mechanical +and chemical principles are associated and identified +with all the phenomena of life and with all animal +behavior. Given a living organism, mechanics and +chemistry will then explain much of its behavior—practically +all the behavior of the lower organisms, +and much of that of the higher. Even when we +reach man, our reactions to the environment and to +circumstances play a great part in our lives; but +dare we say that will, liberty of choice, ideation, do +not play a part also? How much reality there is in +the so-called animal will, is a problem; but that +there is a foundation for our belief in the reality of +the human will, I, for one, do not for a moment +doubt. The discontinuity here is only apparent and +not real. We meet with the same break when we try +to get our mental states, our power of thought—a +poem, a drama, a work of art, a great oration—out +of the food we eat; but life does it, though our +science is none the wiser for it. Our physical +life forms a closed circle, science says, and what +goes into our bodies as physical force, must come +out in physical force, or as some of its equivalents. +Well, one of the equivalents, transformed by some +unknown chemism within us, is our psychic force, +or states of consciousness. The two circles, the +physical and the psychical, are not concentric, as +Fiske fancied, but are linked in some mysterious +way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + +<p>Professor Loeb is a master critic of the life processes; +he and his compeers analyze them as they +have never been analyzed before; but the solution +of the great problem of life that we are awaiting +does not come. A critic may resolve all of Shakespeare's +plays into their historic and other elements, +but that will not account for Shakespeare. Nature's +synthesis furnishes occasions for our analysis. Most +assuredly all psychic phenomena have a physical +basis; we know the soul only through the body; but +that they are all of physico-chemical origin, is another +matter.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Biological science has hunted the secret of vitality +like a detective; and it has done some famous work; +but it has not yet unraveled the mystery. It knows +well the part played by carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen +in organic chemistry, that without water and +carbon dioxide there could be no life; it knows the +part played by light, air, heat, gravity, osmosis, +chemical affinity, and all the hundreds or thousands +of organic compounds; it knows the part played by +what are called the enzymes, or ferments, in all living +bodies, but it does not know the secret of these +ferments; it knows the part played by colloids, or +jelly-like compounds, that there is no living body +without colloids, though there are colloid bodies +that are not living; it knows the part played by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +oxidation, that without it a living body ceases to +function, though everywhere all about us is oxidation +without life; it knows the part played by +chlorophyll in the vegetable kingdom, and yet how +chlorophyll works such magic upon the sun's rays, +using the solar energy to fix the carbon of carbonic +acid in the air, and thereby storing this energy as +it is stored in wood and coal and in much of the +food we consume, is a mystery. Chemistry cannot +repeat the process in its laboratories. The fungi do +not possess this wonderful chlorophyllian power, +and hence cannot use the sunbeam to snatch their +carbon from the air; they must get it from decomposed +vegetable matter; they feed, as the animals do, +upon elements that have gone through the cycle of +vegetable life. The secret of vegetable life, then, is +in the green substance of the leaf where science is +powerless to unlock it. Conjure with the elements +as it may, it cannot produce the least speck of living +matter. It can by synthesis produce many of the +organic compounds, but only from matter that has +already been through the organic cycle. It has lately +produced rubber, but from other products of vegetable +life.</p> + +<p>As soon as the four principal elements, carbon, +oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, that make up the +living body, have entered the world of living matter, +their activities and possible combinations enormously +increase; they enter into new relations with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +one another and form compounds of great variety +and complexity, characterized by the instability +which life requires. The organic compounds are +vastly more sensitive to light and heat and air than +are the same elements in the inorganic world. What +has happened to them? Chemistry cannot tell us. +Oxidation, which is only slow combustion, is the +main source of energy in the body, as it is in the +steam-engine. The storing of the solar energy, +which occurs only in the vegetable, is by a process +of reduction, that is, the separation of the carbon +and oxygen in carbonic acid and water. The chemical +reactions which liberate energy in the body are +slow; in dead matter they are rapid and violent, or +explosive and destructive. It is the chemistry in the +leaf of the plant that diverts or draws the solar energy +into the stream of life, and how it does it is a +mystery.</p> + +<p>The scientific explanations of life phenomena are +all after the fact; they do not account for the fact; +they start with the ready-made organism and then +reduce its activities and processes to their physical +equivalents. Vitality is given, and then the vital +processes are fitted into mechanical and chemical +concepts, or into moulds derived from inert matter—not +a difficult thing to do, but no more an explanation +of the mystery of vitality than a painting +or a marble bust of Tyndall would be an explanation +of that great scientist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>All Professor Loeb's experiments and criticisms +throw light upon the life processes, or upon the factors +that take part in them, but not upon the secret +of the genesis of the processes themselves. Amid all +the activities of his mechanical and chemical factors, +there is ever present a factor which he ignores, +which his analytical method cannot seize; namely, +what Verworn calls "the specific energy of living +substance." Without this, chemism and mechanism +would work together to quite other ends. The water +in the wave, and the laws that govern it, do not differ +at all from the water and its laws that surround +it; but unless one takes into account the force that +makes the wave, an analysis of the phenomena will +leave one where he began.</p> + +<p>Professor Le Dantec leaves the subject where he +took it up, with the origin of life and the life processes +unaccounted for. His work is a description, +and not an explanation. All our ideas about vitality, +or an unknown factor in the organic world, he calls +"mystic" and unscientific. A sharp line of demarcation +between living and non-living bodies is not permissible. +This, he says, is the anthropomorphic error +which puts some mysterious quality or force in all +bodies considered to be living. To Le Dantec, the +difference between the quick and the dead is of the +same order as the difference which exists between two +chemical compounds—for example, as that which +exists between alcohol and an aldehyde, a liquid that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +has two less atoms of hydrogen in its composition. +Modify your chemistry a little, add or subtract an +atom or two, more or less, of this or that gas, and +dead matter thrills into life, or living matter sinks to +the inert. In other words, life is the gift of chemistry, +its particular essence is of the chemical order—a +bold inference from the fact that there is no life +without chemical reactions, no life without oxidation. +Yet chemical reactions in the laboratory cannot +produce life. With Le Dantec, biology, like geology +and astronomy, is only applied mechanics and +chemistry.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Such is the result of the rigidly objective study of +life—the only method analytical science can pursue. +The conception of vitality as a factor in itself +answers to nothing that the objective study of life +can disclose; such a study reveals a closed circle of +physical forces, chemical and mechanical, into which +no immaterial force or principle can find entrance. +"The fact of being conscious," Le Dantec says with +emphasis, "does not intervene in the slightest degree +in directing vital movements." But common +sense and everyday observation tell us that states +of consciousness do influence the bodily processes—influence +the circulation, the digestion, the secretions, +the respiration.</p> + +<p>An objective scientific study of a living body yields<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +results not unlike those which we might get from an +objective study of a book considered as something +fabricated—its materials, its construction, its typography, +its binding, the number of its chapters and +pages, and so on—without giving any heed to the +meaning of the book—its ideas, the human soul +and personality that it embodies, the occasion that +gave rise to it, indeed all its subjective and immaterial +aspects. All these things, the whole significance +of the volume, would elude scientific analysis. +It would seem to be a manufactured article, representing +only so much mechanics and chemistry. +It is the same with the living body. Unless we permit +ourselves to go behind the mere facts, the mere +mechanics and chemistry of life phenomena, and +interpret them in the light of immaterial principles, +in short, unless we apply some sort of philosophy to +them, the result of our analysis will be but dust in +our eyes, and ashes in our mouths. Unless there is +something like mind or intelligence pervading nature, +some creative and transforming impulse that +cannot be defined by our mechanical concepts, +then, to me, the whole organic world is meaningless. +If man is not more than an "accident in the history +of the thermic evolution of the globe," or the result +of the fortuitous juxtaposition and combination of +carbonic acid gas and water and a few other elements, +what shall we say? It is at least a bewildering +proposition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>Could one by analyzing a hive of bees find out +the secret of its organization—its unity as an aggregate +of living insects? Behold its wonderful +economics, its division of labor, its complex social +structure,—the queen, the workers, the drones,—thousands +of bees without any head or code of laws +or directing agent, all acting as one individual, all +living and working for the common good. There is +no confusion or cross-purpose in the hive. When the +time of swarming comes, they are all of one mind and +the swarm comes forth. Who or what decides who +shall stay and who shall go? When the honey supply +fails, or if it fail prematurely, on account of a +drought, the swarming instinct is inhibited, and the +unhatched queens are killed in their cells. Who or +what issues the regicide order? We can do no better +than to call it the Spirit of the Hive, as Maeterlinck +has done. It is a community of mind. What one +bee knows and feels, they all know and feel at the +same instant. Something like that is true of a living +body; the cells are like the bees: they work together, +they build up the tissues and organs, some are for +one thing and some for another, each community of +cells plays its own part, and they all pull together +for the good of the whole. We can introduce cells +and even whole organs, for example a kidney from +another living body, and all goes well; and yet we +cannot find the seat of the organization. Can we do +any better than to call it the Spirit of the Body?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Our French biologist is of the opinion that the artificial +production of that marvel of marvels, the +living cell, will yet take place in the laboratory. +But the enlightened mind, he says, does not need +such proof to be convinced that there is no essential +difference between living and non-living matter.</p> + +<p>Professor Henderson, though an expounder of the +mechanistic theory of the origin of life, admits that +he does not know of a biological chemist to whom +the "mechanistic origin of a cell is scientifically imaginable." +Like Professor Loeb, he starts with the +vital; how he came by it we get no inkling; he confesses +frankly that the biological chemist cannot +even face the problem of the origin of life. He +quotes with approval a remark of Liebig's, as reported +by Lord Kelvin, that he (Liebig) could no +more believe that a leaf or a flower could be formed +or could grow by chemical forces "than a book on +chemistry, or on botany, could grow out of dead +matter." Is not this conceding to the vitalists all +that they claim? The cell is the unit of life; all living +bodies are but vast confraternities of cells, some +billions or trillions of them in the human body; the +cell builds up the tissues, the tissues build up the +organs, the organs build up the body. Now if it is +not thinkable that chemism could beget a cell, is it +any more thinkable that it could build a living tissue,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +and then an organ, and then the body as a +whole? If there is an inscrutable something at work +at the start, which organizes that wonderful piece of +vital mechanism, the cell, is it any the less operative +ever after, in all life processes, in all living bodies +and their functions,—the vital as distinguished +from the mechanical and chemical? Given the cell, +and you have only to multiply it, and organize these +products into industrial communities, and direct +them to specific ends,—certainly a task which we +would not assign to chemistry or physics any more +than we would assign to them the production of a +work on chemistry or botany,—and you have all +the myriad forms of terrestrial life.</p> + +<p>The cell is the parent of every living thing on the +globe; and if it is unthinkable that the material and +irrational forces of inert matter could produce it, +then mechanics and chemistry must play second fiddle +in all that whirl and dance of the atoms that +make up life. And that is all the vitalists claim. +The physico-chemical forces do play second fiddle; +that inexplicable something that we call vitality +dominates and leads them. True it is that a living +organism yields to scientific analysis only mechanical +and chemical forces—a fact which only limits +the range of scientific analysis, and which by no +means exhausts the possibilities of the living organism. +The properties of matter and the laws of matter +are intimately related to life, yea, are inseparable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +from it, but they are by no means the whole story. +Professor Henderson repudiates the idea of any +extra-physical influence as being involved in the +processes of life, and yet concedes that the very +foundation of all living matter, yea, the whole living +universe in embryo—the cell—is beyond the possibilities +of physics and chemistry alone. Mechanism +and chemism are adequate to account for astronomy +and geology, and therefore, he thinks, are sufficient +to account for biology, without calling in the +aid of any Bergsonian life impulse. Still these forces +stand impotent before that microscopic world, the +cell, the foundation of all life.</p> + +<p>Our professor makes the provisional statement, +not in obedience to his science, but in obedience to +his philosophy, that something more than mechanics +and chemistry may have had a hand in shaping +the universe, some primordial tendency impressed +upon or working in matter "just before mechanism +begins to act"—"a necessary and preëstablished +associate of mechanism." So that if we start with +the universe, with life, and with this tendency, +mechanism will do all the rest. But this is not science, +of course, because it is not verifiable; it is practically +the philosophy of Bergson.</p> + +<p>The cast-iron conclusions of physical science do +pinch the Harvard professor a bit, and he pads +them with a little of the Bergsonian philosophy. +Bergson himself is not pinched at all by the conclusions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +of positive science. He sees that we, as human +beings, cannot live in this universe without +supplementing our science with some sort of philosophy +that will help us to escape from the fatalism of +matter and force into the freedom of the spiritual +life. If we are merely mechanical and chemical accidents, +all the glory of life, all the meaning of our +moral and spiritual natures, go by the board.</p> + +<p>Professor Henderson shows us how well this +planet, with its oceans and continents, and its mechanical +and chemical forces and elements, is suited +to sustain life, but he brings us no nearer the solution +of the mystery than we were before. His title, +to begin with, is rather bewildering. Has the "fitness +of the environment" ever been questioned? The environment +is fit, of course, else living bodies would +not be here. We are used to taking hold of the +other end of the problem. In living nature the foot +is made to fit the shoe, and not the shoe the foot. +The environment is the mould in which the living +organism is cast. Hence, it seems to me, that seeking +to prove the fitness of the environment is very +much like seeking to prove the fitness of water for +fish to swim in, or the fitness of the air for birds to +fly in. The implication seems to be made that the +environment anticipates the organism, or meets it +half way. But the environment is rather uncompromising. +Man alone modifies his environment by +the weapon of science; but not radically; in the end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +he has to fit himself to it. Life has been able to adjust +itself to the universal forces and so go along +with them; otherwise we should not be here. We +may say, humanly speaking, that the water is +friendly to the swimmer, if he knows how to use it; +if not, it is his deadly enemy. The same is true of +all the elements and forces of nature. Whether +they be for or against us, depends upon ourselves. +The wind is never tempered to the shorn lamb, the +shorn lamb must clothe itself against the wind. +Life is adaptive, and this faculty of adaptation to +the environment, of itself takes it out of the category +of the physico-chemical. The rivers and seas +favor navigation, if we have gumption enough to +use and master their forces. The air is good to +breathe, and food to eat, for those creatures that are +adapted to them. Bergson thinks, not without reason, +that life on other planets may be quite different +from what it is on our own, owing to a difference +in chemical and physical conditions. Change the +chemical constituents of sea water, and you radically +change the lower organisms. With an atmosphere +entirely of oxygen, the processes of life would +go on more rapidly and perhaps reach a higher form +of development. Life on this planet is limited to a +certain rather narrow range of temperature; the +span may be the same in other worlds, but farther +up or farther down the scale. Had the air been differently +constituted, would not our lungs have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +different? The lungs of the fish are in his gills: he +has to filter his air from a much heavier medium. +The nose of the pig is fitted for rooting; shall we say, +then, that the soil was made friable that pigs might +root in it? The webbed foot is fitted to the water; +shall we say, then, that water is liquid in order that +geese and ducks may swim in it? One more atom +of oxygen united to the two atoms that go to make +the molecule of air, and we should have had ozone +instead of the air we now breathe. How unsuited +this would have made the air for life as we know it! +Oxidation would have consumed us rapidly. Life +would have met this extra atom by some new device.</p> + +<p>One wishes Professor Henderson had told us more +about how life fits itself to the environment—how +matter, moved and moulded only by mechanical +and chemical forces, yet has some power of choice +that a machine does not have, and can and does +select the environment best suited to its well-being. +In fact, that it should have, or be capable of, any +condition of well-being, if it is only a complex of +physical and chemical forces, is a problem to wrestle +with. The ground we walk on is such a complex, +but only the living bodies it supports have conditions +of well-being.</p> + +<p>Professor Henderson concedes very little to the +vitalists or the teleologists. He is a thorough +mechanist. "Matter and energy," he says, "have +an original property, assuredly not by chance, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +organizes the universe in space and time." Where or +how matter got this organizing property, he offers +no opinion. "Given the universe, life, and the tendency +[the tendency to organize], mechanism is inductively +proved sufficient to account for all phenomena." +Biology, then, is only mechanics and +chemistry engaged in a new rôle without any change +of character; but what put them up to this new rôle? +"The whole evolutionary process, both cosmic and +organic, is one, and the biologist may now rightly +regard the universe in its very essence as biocentric."</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Another Harvard voice is less pronounced in favor +of the mechanistic conception of life. Professor +Rand thinks that in a mechanically determined universe, +"our conscious life becomes a meaningless +replica of an inexorable physical concatenation"—the +soul the result of a fortuitous concourse of atoms. +Hence all the science and art and literature and religion +of the world are merely the result of a molecular +accident.</p> + +<p>Dr. Rand himself, in wrestling with the problem +of organization in a late number of "Science," seems +to hesitate whether or not to regard man as a molecular +accident, an appearance presented to us by the +results of the curious accidents of molecules—which +is essentially Professor Loeb's view; or +whether to look upon the living body as the result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +of a "specific something" that organizes, that is, of +"dominating organic agencies," be they psychic or +super-mundane, which dominate and determine the +organization of the different parts of the body into a +whole. Yet he is troubled with the idea that this +specific something may be "nothing more than accidental +chemical peculiarities of cells." But would +these accidental peculiarities be constant? Do accidents +happen millions of times in the same way? +The cell is without variableness or shadow of turning. +The cells are the minute people that build up +all living forms, and what prompts them to build +a man in the one case, and the man's dog in another, +is the mystery that puzzles Professor Rand. "Tissue +cells," he says, "are not structures like stone blocks +laboriously carved and immovably cemented in +place. They are rather like the local eddies in an +ever-flowing and ever-changing stream of fluids. +Substance which was at one moment a part of a cell, +passes out and a new substance enters. What is it +that prevents the local whirl in this unstable stream +from changing its form? How is it that a million +muscle cells remain alike, collectively ready to respond +to a nerve impulse?" According to one view, +expressed by Professor Rand, "Organization is +something that we read into natural phenomena. +It is in itself nothing." The alternative view holds +that there is a specific organizing agent that brings +about the harmonious operation of all the organs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +and parts of the system—a superior dynamic force +controlling and guiding all the individual parts.</p> + +<p>A most determined and thorough-going attempt +to hunt down the secret of vitality, and to determine +how far its phenomena can be interpreted in +terms of mechanics and chemistry, is to be found in +Professor H. W. Conn's volume entitled "The Living +Machine." Professor Conn justifies his title by +defining a machine as "a piece of apparatus so designed +that it can change one kind of energy into another +for a definite purpose." Of course the adjective +"living" takes it out of the category of all +mere mechanical devices and makes it super-mechanical, +just as Haeckel's application of the word +"living" to his inorganics ("living inorganics"), +takes them out of the category of the inorganic. +In every machine, properly so called, all the factors +are known; but do we know all the factors in a living +body? Professor Conn applies his searching +analysis to most of the functions of the human +body, to digestion, to assimilation, to circulation, to +respiration, to metabolism, and so on, and he finds +in every function something that does not fall within +his category—some force not mechanical nor chemical, +which he names vital.</p> + +<p>In following the processes of digestion, all goes +well with his chemistry and his mechanics till he +comes to the absorption of food-particles, or their +passage through the walls of the intestines into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +blood. Here, the ordinary physical forces fail him, +and living matter comes to his aid. The inner wall +of the intestine is not a lifeless membrane, and osmosis +will not solve the mystery. There is something +there that seizes hold of the droplets of oil by +means of little extruded processes, and then passes +them through its own body to excrete them on an +inner surface into the blood-vessels. "This fat absorption +thus appears to be a vital process and not +one simply controlled by physical forces like osmosis. +Here our explanation runs against what we +call 'vital power' of the ultimate elements of the +body." Professor Conn next analyzes the processes +of circulation, and his ready-made mechanical concepts +carry him along swimmingly, till he tries to +explain by them the beating of the heart, and the +contraction of the small blood-vessels which regulate +the blood-supply. Here comes in play the mysterious +vital power again. He comes upon the +same power when he tries to determine what it is +that enables the muscle-fibre to take from the lymph +the material needed for its use, and to discard the +rest. The fibre acts as if it knew what it wanted—a +very unmechanical attribute.</p> + +<p>Then Professor Conn applies his mechanics and +chemistry to the respiratory process and, of course, +makes out a very clear case till he comes to the removal +of the waste, or ash. The steam-engine cannot +remove its own ash; the "living machine" can.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +Much of this ash takes the form of urea, and "the +seizing upon the urea by the kidney cells is a vital +phenomenon." Is not the peristaltic movement of +the bowels, by which the solid matter is removed, +also a vital phenomenon? Is not the conception of a +pipe or a tube that forces semi-fluid matter along its +hollow interior, by the contraction of its walls, quite +beyond the reach of mechanics? The force is as +mechanical as the squeezing of the bulb of a syringe +by the hand, but in the case of the intestines, what +does the squeezing? The vital force?</p> + +<p>When the mechanical and chemical concepts are +applied to the phenomena of the nervous system, +they work very well till we come to mental phenomena. +When we try to correlate physical energy +with thought or consciousness, we are at the end of +our tether. Here is a gulf we cannot span. The +theory of the machine breaks down. Some other +force than material force is demanded here, namely, +psychical,—a force or principle quite beyond the +sphere of the analytic method.</p> + +<p>Hence Professor Conn concludes that there are +vital factors and that they are the primal factors in +the organism. The mechanical and chemical forces +are the secondary factors. It is the primal factors +that elude scientific analysis. Why a muscle contracts, +or why a gland secretes, or "why the oxidation +of starch in the living machine gives rise to motion, +growth, and reproduction, while if the oxidation occurs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +in the chemist's laboratory ... it simply gives +rise to heat," are questions he cannot answer. In +all his inquiries into the parts played by mechanical +and chemical laws in the organism, he is compelled +to "assume as their foundation the simple vital properties +of living phenomena."</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>It should not surprise nor disturb us that the +scientific interpretation of life leads to materialism, +or to the conviction of the all-sufficiency of the mechanical +and chemical forces of dead matter to account +for all living phenomena. It need not surprise +us because positive science, as such, can deal only +with physical and chemical forces. If there is anything +in this universe besides physical and chemical +force, science does not know it. It does not know it +because it is absolutely beyond the reach of its +analysis. When we go beyond the sphere of the +concrete, the experimental, the verifiable, only our +philosophy can help us. The world within us, the +world of psychic forces, is beyond the ken of science. +It can analyze the living body, trace all its vital +processes, resolve them into their mechanical and +chemical equivalents, show us the parts played by +the primary elements, the part played by the enzymes, +or ferments, and the like, and yet it cannot +tell us the secret of life—of that which makes organic +chemistry so vastly different from inorganic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +It discloses to us the wonders of the cell—a world +of mystery by itself; it analyzes the animal body +into organs, and the organs into tissues, and the tissues +into cells, but the secret of organization utterly +baffles it. After Professor Wilson had concluded his +masterly work on the cell, he was forced to admit +that the final mystery of the cell eluded him, and +that his investigation "on the whole seemed to widen +rather than to narrow the enormous gap that separates +even the lowest forms of life from the inorganic +world."</p> + +<p>All there is outside the sphere of physical science +belongs to religion, to philosophy, to art, to literature. +Huxley spoke strictly and honestly as a man +of science, when he related consciousness to the +body, as the sound of a clock when it strikes is related +to the machinery of the clock. The scientific +analysis of a living body reveals nothing but the +action of the mechanical and chemical principles. +If you analyze it by fire or by cremation, you get +gases and vapors and mineral ash, that is all; the +main thing about the live body—its organization, +its life—you do not get. Of course science knows +this; and to account for this missing something, it +philosophizes, and relegates it to the interior world +of molecular physics—it is all in the way the ultimate +particles of matter were joined or compounded, +were held together in the bonds of molecular matrimony. +What factor or agent or intelligence is active<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +or directive in this molecular marriage of the atoms, +science does not inquire. Only philosophy can deal +with that problem.</p> + +<p>What can science see or find in the brain of man +that answers to the soul? Only certain movements +of matter in the brain cortex. What difference does +it find between inert matter and a living organism? +Only a vastly more complex mechanics and chemistry +in the latter. A wide difference, not of kind, +but of degree. The something we call vitality, that +a child recognizes, science does not find; vitality is +something <i>sui generis</i>. Scientific analysis cannot +show us the difference between the germ cell of a +starfish and the germ cell of a man; and yet think +of what a world of difference is hidden in those microscopic +germs! What force is there in inert matter +that can build a machine by the adjustment of +parts to each other? We can explain the most complex +chemical compounds by the action of chemical +forces and chemical affinity, but they cannot explain +that adjustment of parts to each other, the coördination +of their activities that makes a living machine.</p> + +<p>In organized matter there is something that organizes. +"The cell itself is an organization of +smaller units," and to drive or follow the organizing +principle into the last hiding-place is past the power +of biological chemistry. What constitutes the guiding +force or principle of a living body, adjusting all +its parts, making them pull together, making of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +circulation one system in which the heart, the veins, +the arteries, the lungs, all work to one common end, +coördinating several different organs into a digestive +system, and other parts into the nervous system, is +a mystery that no objective analysis of the body can +disclose.</p> + +<p>To refer vitality to complexity alone, is to dodge +the question. Multiplying the complexity of a machine, +say of a watch, any conceivable number of +times would not make it any the less a machine, or +change it from the automatic order to the vital order. +A motor-car is a vastly more complex mechanism +than a wheelbarrow, and yet it is not the less a +machine. On the other hand, an amœba is a far +simpler animal than a man, and yet it is just as +truly living. To refer life to complexity does not +help us; we want to know what lies back of the +complexity—what makes it a new species of complexity.</p> + +<p>We cannot explain the origin of living matter by +the properties which living matter possesses. There +are three things that mechanics and chemistry cannot +explain: the relation of the psychical to the physical +through the law of the conservation and correlation +of forces; the agent or principle that guides +the blind chemical and physical forces so as to produce +the living body; and the kind of forces that +have contributed to the origin of that morphological +unit—the cell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>A Western university professor in a recent essay +sounds quite a different note on this subject from the +one that comes to us from Harvard. Says Professor +Otto C. Glaser, of the University of Michigan, in a +recent issue of the "Popular Science Monthly": +"Does not the fitness of living things; the fact that +they perform acts useful to themselves in an environment +which is constantly shifting, and often very +harsh; the fact that in general everything during +development, during digestion, during any of the +complicated chains of processes which we find, happens +at the right time, in the right place, and to the +proper extent; does not all this force us to believe +that there is involved something more than mere +chemistry and physics?—something, not consciousness +necessarily, yet its analogue—a vital <i>x</i>?"</p> + +<p>There is this suggestive fact about these recent +biological experiments of Dr. Carrel, of the Rockefeller +Institute: they seem to prove that the life of +a man is not merely the sum of the life of the myriad +cells of his body. Stab the man to death, and +the cells of his body still live and will continue to +live if grafted upon another live man. Probably +every part of the body would continue to live and +grow indefinitely, in the proper medium. That the +cell life should continue after the soul life has ceased +is very significant. It seems a legitimate inference +from this fact that the human body is the organ or +instrument of some agent that is not of the body.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +The functional or physiological life of the body as a +whole, also seems quite independent of our conscious +volitional or psychic life. That which repairs and +renews the body, heals its wounds, controls and coordinates +its parts, adapts it to its environment, carries +on its processes during sleep, in fact in all our +involuntary life, seems quite independent of the +man himself. Is the spirit of a race or a nation, or +of the times in which we live, another illustration +of the same mysterious entity?</p> + +<p>If the vital principle, or vital force, is a fiction, +invented to give the mind something to take hold +of, we are in no worse case than we are in some other +matters. Science tells us that there is no such <i>thing</i> +as heat, or light; these are only modes of activity in +matter.</p> + +<p>In the same way we seem forced to think of life, +vitality, as an entity—a fact as real as electricity +or light, though it may be only a mode of motion. +It may be of physico-chemical origin, as much so as +heat, or light; and yet it is something as distinctive +as they are among material things, and is involved +in the same mystery. Is magnetism or gravitation a +real thing? or, in the moral world, is love, charity, +or consciousness itself? The world seems to be run +by nonentities. Heat, light, life, seem nonentities. +That which organizes the different parts or organs +of the human body into a unit, and makes of the +many organs one organism, is a nonentity. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +which makes an oak an oak, and a pine a pine, is a +nonentity. That which makes a sheep a sheep, and +an ox an ox, is to science a nonentity. To physical +science the soul is a nonentity.</p> + +<p>There is something in the cells of the muscles that +makes them contract, and in the cells of the heart +that makes it beat; that something is not active in +the other cells of the body. But it is a nonentity. +The body is a machine and a laboratory combined, +but that which coördinates them and makes them +work together—what is that? Another nonentity. +That which distinguishes a living machine from a +dead machine, science has no name for, except +molecular attraction and repulsion, and these are +names merely; they are nonentities. Is there not +molecular attraction and repulsion in a steam-engine +also? And yet it is not alive. What has to supplement +the mechanical and the chemical to make +matter alive? We have no name for it but the vital, +be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no name +for a flash of lightning but electricity, be it an entity +or a nonentity. We have no name for that which +distinguishes a man from a brute, but mind, soul, +be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no name +for that which distinguishes the organic from the +inorganic but vitality, be it an entity or a nonentity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Without metaphysics we can do nothing; without +mental concepts, where are we? Natural selection +is as much a metaphysical phrase as is consciousness, +or the subjective and the objective. Natural selection +is not an entity, it is a name for what we conceive +of as a process. It is natural rejection as well. +The vital principle is a metaphysical concept; so is +instinct; so is reason; so is the soul; so is God.</p> + +<p>Many of our concepts have been wrong. The concept +of witches, of disease as the work of evil spirits, +of famine and pestilence as the visitation of the +wrath of God, and the like, were unfounded. Science +sets us right about all such matters. It corrects +our philosophy, but it cannot dispense with the philosophical +attitude of mind. The philosophical must +supplement the experimental.</p> + +<p>In fact, in considering this question of life, it is +about as difficult for the unscientific mind to get +along without postulating a vital principle or force—which, +Huxley says, is analogous to the idea of +a principle of aquosity in water—as it is to walk +upon the air, or to hang one's coat upon a sunbeam. +It seems as if something must breathe upon the +dead matter, as at the first, to make it live. Yet if +there is a distinct vital force it must be correlated +with physical force, it must be related causally to +the rest. The idea of a vital force as something new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +and distinct and injected into matter from without +at a given time and place in the earth's history, +must undoubtedly be given up. Instead of escaping +from mechanism, this notion surrenders one into the +hands of mechanism, since to supplement or reinforce +a principle with some other principle from without, +is strictly a mechanical procedure. But the +conception of vitality as potential in matter, or of +the whole universe as permeated with spirit, which +to me is the same thing, is a conception that takes +life out of the categories of the fortuitous and the +automatic.</p> + +<p>No doubt but that all things in the material world +are causally related, no doubt of the constancy of +matter and force, no doubt but that all phenomena +are the result of natural principles, no doubt that +the living arose from the non-living, no doubt that +the evolution process was inherent in the constitution +of the world; and yet there is a mystery about +it all that is insoluble. The miracle of vitality takes +place behind a veil that we cannot penetrate, in the +inmost sanctuary of the molecules of matter, in that +invisible, imaginary world on the borderland between +the material and the immaterial. We may +fancy that it is here that the psychical effects its +entrance into the physical—that spirit weds matter—that +the creative energy kindles the spark we +call vitality. At any rate, vitality evidently begins +in that inner world of atoms and molecules; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +whether as the result of their peculiar and very +complex compounding or as the cause of the compounding—how +are we ever to know? Is it not just +as scientific to postulate a new principle, the principle +of vitality, as to postulate a new process, or a +new behavior of an old principle? In either case, +we are in the world of the unverifiable; we take a +step in the dark. Most of us, I fancy, will sympathize +with George Eliot, who says in one of her +letters: "To me the Development Theory, and all +other explanations of processes by which things +came to be, produce a feeble impression compared +with the mystery that lies under the processes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h2>SCIENTIFIC VITALISM</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + + +<p>All living bodies, when life leaves them, go +back to the earth from whence they came. +What was it in the first instance that gathered their +elements from the earth and built them up into such +wonderful mechanisms? If we say it was nature, do +we mean by nature a physical force or an immaterial +principle? Did the earth itself bring forth a man, or +did something breathe upon the inert clay till it +became a living spirit?</p> + +<p>As life is a physical phenomenon, appearing in a +concrete physical world, it is, to that extent, within +the domain of physical science, and appeals to the +scientific mind. Physical science is at home only in +the experimental, the verifiable. Its domain ends +where that of philosophy begins.</p> + +<p>The question of how life arose in a universe of +dead matter is just as baffling a question to the ordinary +mind, as how the universe itself arose. If we +assume that the germs of life drifted to us from +other spheres, propelled by the rays of the sun, or +some other celestial agency, as certain modern scientific +philosophers have assumed, we have only +removed the mystery farther away from us. If we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +assume that it came by spontaneous generation, as +Haeckel and others assume, then we are only cutting +a knot which we cannot untie. The god of spontaneous +generation is as miraculous as any other god. +We cannot break the causal sequence without a miracle. +If something came from nothing, then there +is not only the end of the problem, but also the end +of our boasted science.</p> + +<p>Science is at home in discussing all the material +manifestations of life—the parts played by colloids +and ferments, by fluids and gases, and all the +organic compounds, and by mechanical and chemical +principles; it may analyze and tabulate all life +processes, and show the living body as a most wonderful +and complex piece of mechanism, but before +the question of the origin of life itself it stands dumb, +and, when speaking through such a man as Tyndall, +it also stands humble and reverent. After Tyndall +had, to his own satisfaction, reduced all like phenomena +to mechanical attraction and repulsion, he +stood with uncovered head before what he called +the "mystery and miracle of vitality." The mystery +and miracle lie in the fact that in the organic world +the same elements combine with results so different +from those of the inorganic world. Something seems +to have inspired them with a new purpose. In the +inorganic world, the primary elements go their +ceaseless round from compound to compound, from +solid to fluid or gaseous, and back again, forming the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +world of inert matter as we know it, but in the organic +world the same elements form thousands of +new combinations unknown to them before, and +thus give rise to the myriad forms of life that inhabit +the earth.</p> + +<p>The much-debated life question has lately found +an interesting exponent in Professor Benjamin +Moore, of the University of Liverpool. His volume +on the subject in the "Home University Library" is +very readable, and, in many respects, convincing. +At least, so far as it is the word of exact science on +the subject it is convincing; so far as it is speculative, +or philosophical, it is or is not convincing, according +to the type of mind of the reader. Professor +Moore is not a bald mechanist or materialist like +Professor Loeb, or Ernst Haeckel, nor is he an +idealist or spiritualist, like Henri Bergson or Sir +Oliver Lodge. He may be called a scientific vitalist. +He keeps close to lines of scientific research as +these lines lead him through the maze of the primordial +elements of matter, from electron to atom, from +atom to molecule, from molecule to colloid, and so +up to the border of the living world. His analysis +of the processes of molecular physics as they appear +in the organism leads him to recognize and to name +a new force, or a new manifestation of force, which +he hesitates to call vital, because of the associations +of this term with a prescientific age, but which he +calls "biotic energy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + +<p>Biotic energy is peculiar to living bodies, and +"there are precisely the same criteria for its existence," +says Professor Moore, "as for the existence +of any one of the inorganic energy types, viz., a set +of discrete phenomena; and its nature is as mysterious +to us as the cause of any one of these inorganic +forms about which also we know so little. "It is +biotic energy which guides the development of the +ovum, which regulates the exchanges of the cell, and +causes such phenomena as nerve impulse, muscular +contraction, and gland secretion, and it is a form of +energy which arises in colloidal structures, just as +magnetism appears in iron, or radio-activity in uranium +or radium, and in its manifestations it undergoes +exchanges with other forms of energy, in +the same manner as these do among one another."</p> + +<p>Like Professor Henderson, Professor Moore concedes +to the vitalists about all they claim—namely, +that there is some form of force or manifestation of +energy peculiar to living bodies, and one that cannot +be adequately described in terms of physics and +chemistry. Professor Moore says this biotic energy +"arises in colloidal structures," and so far as biochemistry +can make out, arises <i>spontaneously</i> and +gives rise to that marvelous bit of mechanism, the +cell. In the cell appears "a form of energy unknown +outside life processes which leads the mazy dance of +life from point to point, each new development furnishing +a starting point for the next one." It not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +only leads the dance along our own line of descent +from our remote ancestors—it leads the dance +along the long road of evolution from the first unicellular +form in the dim palæozoic seas to the complex +and highly specialized forms of our own day.</p> + +<p>The secret of this life force, or biotic energy, according +to Professor Moore, is in the keeping of matter +itself. The steps or stages from the depths of +matter by which life arose, lead up from that imaginary +something, the electron, to the inorganic +colloids, or to the crystallo-colloids, which are the +threshold of life, each stage showing some new transformation +of energy. There must be an all-potent +energy transformation before we can get chemical +energy out of physical energy, and then biotic energy +out of chemical energy. This transformation +of inorganic energy into life energy cannot be traced +or repeated in the laboratory, yet science believes +the secret will sometime be in its hands. It is here +that the materialistic philosophers, such as Professors +Moore and Loeb, differ from the spiritualistic +philosophers, such as Bergson, Sir Oliver Lodge, +Professor Thompson, and others.</p> + +<p>Professor Moore has no sympathy with those +narrow mechanistic views that see in the life processes +"no problems save those of chemistry and +physics." "Each link in the living chain may be +physico-chemical, but the chain as a whole, and its +purpose, is something else." He draws an analogy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +from the production of music in which purely physical +factors are concerned; the laws of harmonics +account for all; but back of all is something that is +not mechanical and chemical—there is the mind +of the composer, and the performers, and the auditors, +and something that takes cognizance of the +whole effect. A complete human philosophy cannot +be built upon physical science alone. He thinks the +evolution of life from inert matter is of the same +type as the evolution of one form of matter from another, +or the evolution of one form of energy from +another—a mystery, to be sure, but little more +startling in the one case than in the other. "The +fundamental mystery lies in the existence of those +entities, or things, which we call matter and energy," +out of the play and interaction of which all life phenomena +have arisen. Organic evolution is a series +of energy exchanges and transformations from lower +to higher, but science is powerless to go behind the +phenomena presented and name or verify the underlying +mystery. Only philosophy can do this. +And Professor Moore turns philosopher when he +says there is beauty and design in it all, "and an +eternal purpose which is ever progressing."</p> + +<p>Bergson sets forth his views of evolution in terms +of literature and philosophy. Professor Moore embodies +similar views in his volume, set forth in terms +of molecular science. Both make evolution a creative +and a continuous process. Bergson lays the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +emphasis upon the cosmic spirit interacting with +matter. Professor Moore lays the emphasis upon +the indwelling potencies of matter itself (probably +the same spirit conceived of in different terms). +Professor Moore philosophizes as truly as does Bergson +when he says "there must exist a whole world of +living creatures which the microscope has never +shown us, leading up to the bacteria and the protozoa. +The brink of life lies not at the production +of protozoa and bacteria, which are highly developed +inhabitants of our world, but away down +among the colloids; and the beginning of life was +not a fortuitous event occurring millions of years +ago and never again repeated, but one which in its +primordial stages keeps on repeating itself all the +time in our generation. So that if all intelligent +creatures were by some holocaust destroyed, up out +of the depths in process of millions of years, intelligent +beings would once more emerge." This passage +shows what a speculative leap or flight the +scientific mind is at times compelled to take when it +ventures beyond the bounds of positive methods. +It is good philosophy, I hope, but we cannot call it +science. Thrilled with cosmic emotion, Walt Whitman +made a similar daring assertion:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i0">"There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage,<br /></div> +<div class="i0">If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces,<br /></div> +<div class="i0">were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would<br /></div> +<div class="i0">not avail in the long run,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span><br /></div> +<div class="i0">We should surely bring up again where we now stand,<br /></div> +<div class="i0">And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther."<br /></div> +</div></div> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Evolution is creative, whether it works in matter—as +Bergson describes, or whether its path lies up +through electrons and atoms and molecules, as +Professor Moore describes. There is something +that creates and makes matter plastic to its will. +Whether we call matter "the living garment of +God," as Goethe did, or a reservoir of creative energy, +as Tyndall and his school did, and as Professor +Moore still does, we are paying homage to a +power that is super-material. Life came to our +earth, says Professor Moore, through a "well-regulated +orderly development," and it "comes to every +mother earth of the universe in the maturity of her +creation when the conditions arrive within suitable +limits." That no intelligent beings appeared upon +the earth for millions upon millions of years, that +for whole geologic ages there was no creature with +more brains than a snail possesses, shows the almost +infinitely slow progress of development, and that +there has been no arbitrary or high-handed exercise +of creative power. The universe is not run on principles +of modern business efficiency, and man is at +the head of living forms, not by the fiat of some +omnipotent power, some superman, but as the result +of the operation of forces that balk at no delay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +or waste, or failure, and that are dependent upon +the infinitely slow ripening and amelioration of both +cosmic and terrestrial conditions.</p> + +<p>We do not get rid of God by any such dictum, but +we get rid of the anthropomorphic views which we +have so long been wont to read into the processes of +nature. We dehumanize the universe, but we do not +render it the less grand and mysterious. Professor +Moore points out to us how life came to a cooling +planet as soon as the temperature became low +enough for certain chemical combinations to appear. +There must first be oxides and saline compounds, +there must be carbonates of calcium and +magnesium, and the like. As the temperature falls, +more and more complex compounds, such as life +requires, appear; till, in due time, carbon dioxide +and water are at hand, and life can make a start. +At the white heat of some of the fixed stars, the +primary chemical elements are not yet evolved; but +more and more elements appear, and more and +more complex compounds are formed as the cooling +process progresses.</p> + +<p>"This note cannot be too strongly sounded, that +as matter is allowed capacity for assuming complex +forms, those complex forms appear. As soon as oxides +can be there, oxides appear; when temperature +admits of carbonates, then carbonates are forthwith +formed. These are experiments which any chemist +can to-day repeat in a crucible. And on a cooling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +planet, as soon as temperature will admit the presence +of life, then life appears, as the evidence of +geology shows us." When we speak of the beginning +of life, it is not clear just what we mean. The unit +of all organized bodies is the cell, but the cell is itself +an organized body, and must have organic matter +to feed upon. Hence the cell is only a more complex +form of more primitive living matter. As we go +down the scale toward the inorganic, can we find the +point where the living and the non-living meet and +become one? "Life had to surge a long way up from +the depths before a green plant cell came into being." +When the green plant cell was found, life was fairly +launched. This plant cell, in the form of chlorophyll, +by the aid of water and the trace of carbon dioxide +in the air, began to store up the solar energy in +fruit and grain and woody tissue, and thus furnish +power to run all forms of life machinery.</p> + +<p>The materialists or naturalists are right in urging +that we live in a much more wonderful universe +than we have ever imagined, and that in matter +itself sleep potencies and possibilities not dreamt of +in our philosophy. The world of complex though +invisible activities which science reveals all about us, +the solar and stellar energies raining upon us from +above, the terrestrial energies and influences playing +through us from below, the transformations +and transmutations taking place on every hand, the +terrible alertness and potency of the world of inert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +matter as revealed by a flash of lightning, the mysteries +of chemical affinity, of magnetism, of radio-activity, +all point to deep beneath deep in matter +itself. It is little wonder that men who dwell habitually +upon these things and are saturated with the +spirit and traditions of laboratory investigation, should +believe that in some way matter itself holds the mystery +of the origin of life. On the other hand, a different +type of mind, the more imaginative, artistic, and +religious type, recoils from the materialistic view.</p> + +<p>The sun is the source of all terrestrial energy, but +the different forms that energy takes—in the plant, +in the animal, in the brain of man—this type of +mind is bound to ask questions about that. Gravity +pulls matter down; life lifts it up; chemical forces +pull it to pieces; vital forces draw it together and +organize it; the winds and the waters dissolve and +scatter it; vegetation recaptures and integrates it +and gives it new qualities. At every turn, minds like +that of Sir Oliver Lodge are compelled to think of +life as a principle or force doing something with +matter. The physico-chemical forces will not do in +the hands of man what they do in the hands of +Nature. Such minds, therefore, feel justified in +thinking that something which we call "the hands +of Nature," plays a part—some principle or force +which the hands of man do not hold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h2>A BIRD OF PASSAGE</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + + +<p>There is one phase of the much-discussed question +of the nature and origin of life which, so +far as I know, has not been considered either by +those who hold a brief for the physico-chemical view +or by those who stand for some form of vitalism or +idealism. I refer to the small part that life plays in +the total scheme of things. The great cosmic machine +would go on just as well without it. Its relation +to the whole appears to be little different from +that of a man to the train in which he journeys. Life +rides on the mechanical and chemical forces, but it +does not seem to be a part of them, nor identical +with them, because they were before it, and will +continue after it is gone.</p> + +<p>The everlasting, all-inclusive thing in this universe +seems to be inert matter with the energy it +holds; while the slight, flitting, casual thing seems +to be living matter. The inorganic is from all eternity +to all eternity; it is distributed throughout all +space and endures through all time, while the organic +is, in comparison, only of the here and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +now; it was not here yesterday, and it may not be +here to-morrow; it comes and goes. Life is like a +bird of passage which alights and tarries for a time +and is gone, and the places where it perched and +nested and led forth its brood know it no more. Apparently +it flits from world to world as the great +cosmic spring comes to each, and departs as the +cosmic winter returns to each. It is a visitor, a +migrant, a frail, timid thing, which waits upon the +seasons and flees from the coming tempests and +vicissitudes.</p> + +<p>How casual, uncertain, and inconsequential the +vital order seems in our own solar system—a mere +incident or by-product in its cosmic evolution! Astronomy +sounds the depths of space, and sees only +mechanical and chemical forces at work there. It +is almost certain that only a small fraction of the +planetary surfaces is the abode of life. On the earth +alone, of all the great family of planets and satellites, +is the vital order in full career. It may yet linger +upon Mars, but it is evidently waning. On the inferior +planets it probably had its day long ago, while +it must be millions of years before it comes to the +superior planets, if it ever comes to them. What a +vast, inconceivable outlay of time and energy for +such small returns! Evidently the vital order is +only an episode, a transient or secondary phase of +matter in the process of sidereal evolution. Astronomic +space is strewn with dead worlds, as a New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +England field is with drift boulders. That life has +touched and tarried here and there upon them can +hardly be doubted, but if it is anything more than +a passing incident, an infant crying in the night, a +flush of color upon the cheek, a flower blooming by +the wayside, appearances are against it.</p> + +<p>We read our astronomy and geology in the light +of our enormous egotism, and appropriate all to ourselves; +but science sees in our appearance here a no +more significant event than in the foam and bubbles +that whirl and dance for a moment upon the river's +current. The bubbles have their reason for being; +all the mysteries of molecular attraction and repulsion +may be involved in their production; without +the solar energy, and the revolution of the earth +upon its axis, they would not appear; and yet they +are only bubbles upon the river's current, as we are +bubbles upon the stream of energy that flows through +the universe. Apparently the cosmic game is played +for us no more than for the parasites that infest our +bodies, or for the frost ferns that form upon our window-panes +in winter. The making of suns and systems +goes on in the depths of space, and doubtless +will go on to all eternity, without any more reference +to the vital order than to the chemical compounds.</p> + +<p>The amount of living matter in the universe, so +far as we can penetrate it, compared with the +non-living, is, in amount, like a flurry of snow that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +whitens the fields and hills of a spring morning compared +to the miles of rock and soil beneath it; and +with reference to geologic time it is about as fleeting. +In the vast welter of suns and systems in the heavens +above us, we see only dead matter, and most of it is +in a condition of glowing metallic vapor. There are +doubtless living organisms upon some of the invisible +planetary bodies, but they are probably as fugitive +and temporary as upon our own world. Much +of the surface of the earth is clothed in a light vestment +of life, which, back in geologic time, seems to +have more completely enveloped it than at present, +as both the arctic and the antarctic regions bear evidence +in their coal-beds and other fossil remains of +luxuriant vegetable growths.</p> + +<p>Strip the earth of its thin pellicle of soil, thinner +with reference to the mass than is the peel to the +apple, and you have stripped it of its life. Or, rob it +of its watery vapor and the carbon dioxide in the air, +both stages in its evolution, and you have a dead +world. The huge globe swings through space only as +a mass of insensate rock. So limited and evanescent +is the world of living matter, so vast and enduring is +the world of the non-living. Looked at in this way, in +the light of physical science, life, I repeat, seems like +a mere passing phase of the cosmic evolution, a flitting +and temporary stage of matter which it passes +through in the procession of changes on the surface +of a cooling planet. Between the fiery mist of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +nebula, and the frigid and consolidated globe, there +is a brief span, ranging over about one hundred and +twenty degrees of temperature, where life appears +and organic evolution takes place. Compared with +the whole scale of temperature, from absolute zero +to the white heat of the hottest stars, it is about a +hand's-breadth compared to a mile.</p> + +<p>Life processes cease, but chemical and mechanical +processes go on forever. Life is as fugitive and uncertain +as the bow in the clouds, and, like the bow +in the clouds, is confined to a limited range of conditions. +Like the bow, also, it is a perpetual creation, +a constant becoming, and its source is not in +the matter through which it is manifested, though +inseparable from it. The material substance of life, +like the rain-drops, is in perpetual flux and change; +it hangs always on the verge of dissolution and +vanishes when the material conditions fail, to be renewed +again when they return. We know, do we +not? that life is as literally dependent upon the sun +as is the rainbow, and equally dependent upon the +material elements; but whether the physical conditions +sum up the whole truth about it, as they do +with the bow, is the insoluble question. Science +says "Yes," but our philosophy and our religion say +"No." The poets and the prophets say "No," and +our hopes and aspirations say "No."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Where, then, shall we look for the key to this mysterious +thing we call life? Modern biochemistry +will not listen to the old notion of a vital force—that +is only a metaphysical will-o'-the-wisp that +leaves us floundering in the quagmire. If I question +the forces about me, what answer do I get? Molecular +attraction and repulsion seem to say, "It is not +in us; we are as active in the clod as in the flower." +The four principal elements—oxygen, nitrogen, +hydrogen, and carbon—say, "It is not in us, because +we are from all eternity, and life is not; we +form only its physical basis." Warmth and moisture +say, "It is not in us; we are only its faithful +nurses and handmaidens." The sun says: "It is not +in me; I shine on dead worlds as well. I but quicken +life after it is planted." The stars say, "It is not in +us; we have seen life come and go among myriads +of worlds for untold ages." No questioning of the +heavens above nor of the earth below can reveal +to us the secret we are in quest of.</p> + +<p>I can fancy brute matter saying to life: "You +tarry with me at your peril. You will always be on +the firing-line of my blind, contending forces; they +will respect you not; you must take your chances +amid my flying missiles. My forces go their eternal +round without variableness or shadow of turning, +and woe to you if you cross their courses. You may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +bring all your gods with you—gods of love, mercy, +gentleness, altruism; but I know them not. Your +prayers will fall upon ears of stone, your appealing +gesture upon eyes of stone, your cries for mercy +upon hearts of stone. I shall be neither your enemy +nor your friend. I shall be utterly indifferent to you. +My floods will drown you, my winds wreck you, my +fires burn you, my quicksands suck you down, and +not know what they are doing. My earth is a theatre +of storms and cyclones, of avalanches and earthquakes, +of lightnings and cloudbursts; wrecks and +ruins strew my course. All my elements and forces +are at your service; all my fluids and gases and solids; +my stars in their courses will fight on your side, +if you put and keep yourself in right relations to +them. My atoms and electrons will build your +houses, my lightning do your errands, my winds sail +your ships, on the same terms. You cannot live +without my air and my water and my warmth; but +each of them is a source of power that will crush or +engulf or devour you before it will turn one hair's-breadth +from its course. Your trees will be uprooted +by my tornadoes, your fair fields will be laid waste +by floods or fires; my mountains will fall on your +delicate forms and utterly crush and bury them; my +glaciers will overspread vast areas and banish or destroy +whole tribes and races of your handiwork; the +shrinking and wrinkling crust of my earth will fold +in its insensate bosom vast forests of your tropical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +growths, and convert them into black rock, and I +will make rock of the myriad forms of minute life +with which you plant the seas; through immense +geologic ages my relentless, unseeing, unfeeling +forces will drive on like the ploughshare that buries +every flower and grass-blade and tiny creature in its +path. My winds are life-giving breezes to-day, and +the besom of destruction to-morrow; my rains will +moisten and nourish you one day, and wash you into +the gulf the next; my earthquakes will bury your +cities as if they were ant-hills. So you must take +your chances, but the chances are on your side. I +am not all tempest, or flood, or fire, or earthquake. +Your career will be a warfare, but you will win more +battles than you will lose. But remember, you are +nothing to me, while I am everything to you. I +have nothing to lose or gain, while you have everything +to gain. Without my soils and moisture and +warmth, without my carbon and oxygen and nitrogen +and hydrogen, you can do or be nothing; without +my sunshine you perish; but you have these +things on condition of effort and struggle. You +have evolution on condition of pain and failure and +the hazard of the warring geologic ages. Fate and +necessity rule in my realm. When you fail, or are +crushed or swallowed by my remorseless forces, do +not blame my gods, or your own; there is no blame, +there is only the price to be paid: the hazards of invading +the closed circle of my unseeing forces."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>In California I saw an epitome of the merciless +way inorganic Nature deals with life. An old, dried, +and hardened asphalt lake near Los Angeles tells a +horrible tale of animal suffering and failure. It had +been a pit of horrors for long ages; it was Nature +concentrated—her wild welter of struggling and +devouring forms through the geologic ages made visible +and tangible in a small patch of mingled pitch +and animal bones. There was nearly as much bone +as pitch. The fate of the unlucky flies that alight +upon tangle-foot fly-paper in our houses had been +the fate of the victims that had perished here. How +many wild creatures had turned appealing eyes to +the great unheeding void as they felt themselves +helpless and sinking in this all-engulfing pitch! In +like manner how many human beings in storms and +disasters at sea and in flood and fire upon land have +turned the same appealing look to the unpitying +heavens! There is no power in the world of physical +forces, or apart from our own kind, that heeds us or +turns aside for us, or bestows one pitying glance +upon us. Life has run, and still runs, the gantlet of +a long line of hostile forces, and escapes by dint of +fleetness of foot, or agility in dodging, or else by +toughness of fibre.</p> + +<p>Yet here we are; here is love and charity and +mercy and intelligence; the fair face of childhood, +the beautiful face of youth, the clear, strong face of +manhood and womanhood, and the calm, benign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +face of old age, seen, it is true, as against a background +of their opposites, but seeming to indicate +something above chance and change at the heart of +Nature. Here is life in the midst of death; but death +forever playing into the hands of life; here is the organic +in the midst of the inorganic, at strife with it, +hourly crushed by it, yet sustained and kept going +by its aid.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>Vitality is only a word, but it marks a class of +phenomena in nature that stands apart from all +merely mechanical manifestations in the universe. +The cosmos is a vast machine, but in this machine—this +tremendous complex of physical forces—there +appears, at least on this earth, in the course of +its evolution, this something, or this peculiar manifestation +of energy, that we call vital. Apparently +it is a transient phase of activity in matter, which, +unlike other chemical and physical activities, has +its beginning and its ending, and out of which have +arisen all the myriad forms of terrestrial life. The +merely material forces, blind and haphazard from +the first, did not arise in matter; they are inseparable +from it; they are as eternal as matter itself; but +the activities called vital arose in time and place, +and must eventually disappear as they arose, while +the career of the inorganic elements goes on as if +life had never visited the sphere. Was it, or is it, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +visitation—something <i>ab extra</i> that implies super-mundane, +or supernatural, powers?</p> + +<p>Added to this wonder is the fact that the vital +order has gone on unfolding through the geologic +ages, mounting from form to form, or from order to +order, becoming more and more complex, passing +from the emphasis of size of body, to the emphasis +of size of brain, and finally from instinct and reflex +activities to free volition, and the reason and consciousness +of man; while the purely physical and +chemical forces remain where they began. There +has been endless change among them, endless +shifting of the balance of power, but always the +tendency to a dead equilibrium, while the genius +of the organic forces has been in the power to disturb +the equilibrium and to ride into port on the +crest of the wave it has created, or to hang forever +between the stable and the unstable.</p> + +<p>So there we are, confronted by two apparently +contrary truths. It is to me unthinkable that the +vital order is not as truly rooted in the constitution +of things as are the mechanical and chemical orders; +and yet, here we are face to face with its limited, +fugitive, or transitional character. It comes and +goes like the dews of the morning; it has all the +features of an exceptional, unexpected, extraordinary +occurrence—of miracle, if you will; but if the +light which physical science turns on the universe +is not a delusion, if the habit of mind which it begets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +is not a false one, then life belongs to the same +category of things as do day and night, rain and sun, +rest and motion. Who shall reconcile these contradictions?</p> + +<p>Huxley spoke for physical science when he said +that he did not know what it was that constituted +life—what it was that made the "wonderful difference +between the dead particles and the living +particles of matter appearing in other respects +identical." He thought there might be some bond +between physico-chemical phenomena, on the one +hand, and vital phenomena, on the other, which +philosophers will some day find out. Living matter +is characterized by "spontaneity of action," which +is entirely absent from inert matter. Huxley cannot +or does not think of a vital force distinct from +all other forces, as the cause of life phenomena, +as so many philosophers have done, from Aristotle +down to our day. He finds protoplasm to be the +physical basis of life; it is one in both the vegetable +and animal worlds; the animal takes it from the +vegetable, and the vegetable, by the aid of sunlight, +takes or manufactures it from the inorganic +elements. But protoplasm is living matter. Before +there was any protoplasm, what brought about +the stupendous change of the dead into the living? +Protoplasm makes more protoplasm, as fire makes +more fire, but what kindled the first spark of this +living flame? Here we corner the mystery, but it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +is still a mystery that defies us. Cause and effect +meet and are lost in each other. Science cannot admit +a miracle, or a break in the continuity of life, yet +here it reaches a point where no step can be taken. +Huxley's illustrations do not help his argument. +"Protoplasm," he says, "is the clay of the potter; +which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, +separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the +commonest brick or sun-dried clod." Clay is certainly +the physical basis of the potter's art, but +would there be any pottery in the world if it contained +only clay? Do we not have to think of the +potter? In the same way, do we not have to think +of something that fashions these myriad forms of +life out of protoplasm?—and back of that, of something +that begat protoplasm out of non-protoplasmic +matter, and started the flame of life going? +Life accounts for protoplasm, but what accounts for +life? We have to think of the living clay as separated +by Nature from the inert "sun-dried clod." +There is something in the one that is not in the +other. There is really no authentic analogy between +the potter's art and Nature's art of life.</p> + +<p>The force of the analogy, if it has any, drives us +to the conclusion that life is an entity, or an agent, +working upon matter and independent of it.</p> + +<p>There is more wit than science in Huxley's question, +"What better philosophical status has vitality +than aquosity?" There is at least this difference:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +When vitality is gone, you cannot recall it, or +reproduce it by your chemistry; but you can recombine +the two gases in which you have decomposed +water, any number of times, and get your aquosity +back again; it never fails; it is a power of chemistry. +But vitality will not come at your beck; it is +not a chemical product, at least in the same sense +that water is; it is not in the same category as the +wetness or liquidity of water. It is a name for a +phenomenon—the most remarkable phenomenon +in nature. It is one that the art of man is powerless +to reproduce, while water may be made to go +through its cycle of change—solid, fluid, vapor, +gas—and always come back to water. Well does +the late Professor Brooks, of Johns Hopkins, say +that "living things do, in some way and in some +degree, control or condition inorganic nature; that +they hold their own by setting the mechanical properties +of matter in opposition to each other, and that +this is their most notable and distinctive characteristic." +Does not Ray Lankester, the irate champion +of the mechanistic view of life, say essentially the +same thing when he calls man the great Insurgent +in Nature's camp—"crossing her courses, reversing +her processes, and defeating her ends?"</p> + +<p>Life appears like the introduction of a new element +or force or tendency into the cosmos. Henceforth +the elements go new ways, form new compounds, +build up new forms, and change the face of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +nature. Rivers flow where they never would have +flowed without it, mountains fall in a space of time +during which they never would have fallen; barriers +arise, rough ways are made smooth, a new world +appears—the world of man's physical and mental +activities.</p> + +<p>If the gods of the inorganic elements are neither +for nor against us, but utterly indifferent to us, how +came we here? Nature's method is always from the +inside, while ours is from the outside; hers is circular +while ours is direct. We think, as Bergson says, of +things created, and of a thing that creates, but +things in nature are not created, they are evolved; +they grow, and the thing that grows is not separable +from the force that causes it to grow. The water +turns the wheel, and can be shut off or let on. This +is the way of the mechanical world. But the wheels +in organic nature go around from something inside +them, a kind of perpetual motion, or self-supplying +power. They are not turned, they turn; they are not +repaired, they repair. The nature of living things +cannot be interpreted by the laws of mechanical +and chemical things, though mechanics and chemistry +play the visible, tangible part in them. If we +must discard the notion of a vital force, we may, as +Professor Hartog suggests, make use of the term +"vital behavior."</p> + +<p>Of course man tries everything by himself and his +own standards. He knows no intelligence but his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +own, no prudence, no love, no mercy, no justice, no +economy, but his own, no god but such a one as fits +his conception.</p> + +<p>In view of all these things, how man got here is a +problem. Why the slender thread of his line of descent +was not broken in the warrings and upheavals +of the terrible geologic ages, what power or agent +took a hand in furthering his development, is beyond +the reach of our biologic science.</p> + +<p>Man's is the only intelligence, as we understand +the word, in the universe, and his intelligence demands +something akin to intelligence in the nature +from which he sprang.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h2>LIFE AND MIND</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + + +<p>There are three kinds of change in the world +in which we live—physical and mechanical +change which goes on in time and place among the +tangible bodies about us, chemical change which +goes on in the world of hidden molecules and atoms +of which bodies are composed, and vital change +which involves the two former, but which also involves +the mysterious principle or activity which +we call life. Life comes and goes, but the physical +and chemical orders remain. The vegetable and +animal kingdoms wax and wane, or disappear entirely, +but the physico-chemical forces are as indestructible +as matter itself. This fugitive and evanescent +character of life, the way it uses and triumphs +over the material forces, setting up new chemical +activities in matter, sweeping over the land-areas of +the earth like a conflagration, lifting the inorganic +elements up into myriads of changing and beautiful +forms, instituting a vast number of new chemical +processes and compounds, defying the laboratory +to reproduce it or kindle its least spark—a flame +that cannot exist without carbon and oxygen, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +of which carbon and oxygen do not hold the secret, +a fire reversed, building up instead of pulling down, +in the vegetable with power to absorb and transmute +the inorganic elements into leaves and fruit +and tissue; in the animal with power to change the +vegetable products into bone and muscle and nerve +and brain, and finally into thought and consciousness; +run by the solar energy and dependent upon +it, yet involving something which the sunlight cannot +give us; in short, an activity in matter, or in +a limited part of matter, as real as the physico-chemical +activity, but, unlike it, defying all analysis +and explanation and all our attempts at synthesis. +It is this character of life, I say, that so easily leads +us to look upon it as something <i>ab extra</i>, or super-added +to matter, and not an evolution from it. It +has led Sir Oliver Lodge to conceive of life as a distinct +entity, existing independent of matter, and it +is this conception that gives the key to Henri Bergson's +wonderful book, "Creative Evolution."</p> + +<p>There is possibly or probably a fourth change in +matter, physical in its nature, but much more subtle +and mysterious than any of the physical changes +which our senses reveal to us. I refer to radioactive +change, or to the atomic transformation of one element +into another, such as the change of radium +into helium, and the change of helium into lead—a +subject that takes us to the borderland between physics +and chemistry where is still debatable ground.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>I began by saying that there were three kinds of +changes in matter—the physical, the chemical, and +the vital. But if we follow up this idea and declare +that there are three kinds of force also, claiming this +distinction for the third term of our proposition, we +shall be running counter to the main current of recent +biological science. "The idea that a peculiar +'vital force' acts in the chemistry of life," says Professor +Soddy, "is extinct."</p> + +<p>"Only chemical and physical agents influence the +vital processes," says Professor Czapek, of the University +of Prague, "and we need no longer take +refuge in mysterious 'vital forces' when we want to +explain these."</p> + +<p>Tyndall was obliged to think of a force that +guided the molecules of matter into the special forms +of a tree. This force was in the ultimate particles +of matter. But when he came to the brain and to +consciousness, he said a new product appeared that +defies mechanical treatment.</p> + +<p>The attempt of the biological science of our time +to wipe out all distinctions between the living and +the non-living, solely because scientific analysis reveals +no difference, is a curious and interesting phenomenon.</p> + +<p>Professor Schäfer, in his presidential address +before the British Association in 1912, argued that +all the main characteristics of living matter, such +as assimilation and disassimilation, growth and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +reproduction, spontaneous and amœboid movement, +osmotic pressure, karyokinesis, etc., were equally +apparent in the non-living; therefore he concluded +that life is only one of the many chemical reactions, +and that it is not improbable that it will yet be produced +by chemical synthesis in the laboratory. The +logic of the position taken by Professor Schäfer +and of the school to which he belongs, demands this +artificial production of life—an achievement that +seems no nearer than it did a half-century ago. +When it has been attained, the problem will be simplified, +but the mystery of life will by no means have +been cleared up. One follows these later biochemists +in working out their problem of the genesis of +life with keen interest, but always with a feeling +that there is more in their conclusions than is justified +by their premises. For my own part, I am +convinced that whatever is, is natural, but to obtain +life I feel the need of something of a different order +from the force that evokes the spark from the flint +and the steel, or brings about the reaction of chemical +compounds. If asked to explain what this something +is that is characteristic of living matter, I +should say intelligence.</p> + +<p>The new school of biologists start with matter +that possesses extraordinary properties—with +matter that seems inspired with the desire for life, +and behaving in a way that it never will behave in +the laboratory. They begin with the earth's surface<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +warm and moist, the atmosphere saturated with +watery vapor and carbon dioxide and many other +complex unstable compounds; then they summon +all the material elements of life—carbon, oxygen, +hydrogen, and nitrogen, with a little sodium, chlorine, +iron, sulphur, phosphorus, and others—and +make these run together to form a jelly-like body +called a colloid; then they endow this jelly mass with +the power of growth, and of subdivision when it gets +too large; they make it able to absorb various unstable +compounds from the air, giving it internal +stores of energy, "the setting free of which would +cause automatic movements in the lump of jelly." +Thus they lay the foundations of life. This carbonaceous +material with properties of movement and +subdivision due to mechanical and physical forces +is the immediate ancestor of the first imaginary living +being, the <i>protobion</i>. To get this <i>protobion</i> the +chemists summon a reagent known as a catalyser. +The catalyser works its magic on the jelly mass. It +sets up a wonderful reaction by its mere presence, +without parting with any of its substance. Thus, if +a bit of platinum which has this catalytic power is +dropped into a vessel containing a mixture of oxygen +and hydrogen, the two gases instantly unite and +form water. A catalyser introduced in the primordial +jelly liberates energy and gives the substance +power to break up the various complex unstable +compounds into food, and promote growth and subdivision.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +In fact, it awakens or imparts a vital force +and leads to "indefinite increase, subdivision, and +movement."</p> + +<p>With Professor Schäfer there is first "the fortuitous +production of life upon this globe"—the +chance meeting or jostling of the elements that resulted +in a bit of living protoplasm, "or a mass of +colloid slime" in the old seas, or on their shores, +"possessing the property of assimilation and therefore +of growth." Here the whole mystery is swallowed +at one gulp. "Reproduction would follow as +a matter of course," because all material of this +physical nature—fluid or semi-fluid in character—"has +a tendency to undergo subdivision when its +bulk exceeds a certain size."</p> + +<p>"A mass of colloidal slime" that has the power of +assimilation and of growth and reproduction, is certainly +a new thing in the world, and no chemical +analysis of it can clear up the mystery. It is easy +enough to produce colloidal slime, but to endow it +with these wonderful powers so that "the promise +and the potency of all terrestrial life" slumbers in it +is a staggering proposition.</p> + +<p>Whatever the character of this subdivision, +whether into equal parts or in the form of buds, +"every separate part would resemble the parent in +chemical and physical properties, and would equally +possess the property of taking in and assimilating +suitable material from its liquid environment, growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +in bulk and reproducing its like by subdivision. +In this way from any beginning of living material a +primitive form of life would spread and would gradually +people the globe. The establishment of life +being once effected, all forms of organization follow +under the inevitable laws of evolution." Why all +forms of organization—why the body and brain of +man—must inevitably follow from the primitive +bit of living matter, is just the question upon which +we want light. The proposition begs the question. +Certainly when you have got the evolutionary process +once started in matter which has these wonderful +powers, all is easy. The professor simply describes +what has taken place and seems to think +that the mystery is thereby cleared up, as if by naming +all the parts of a machine and their relation to +one another, the machine is accounted for. What +caused the iron and steel and wood of the machine +to take this special form, while in other cases the +iron and steel and wood took other radically different +forms, and vast quantities of these substances +took no form at all?</p> + +<p>In working out the evolution of living forms by +the aid of the blind physical and chemical agents +alone, Professor Schäfer unconsciously ascribes the +power of choice and purpose to the individual cells, +as when he says that the cells of the external layer +sink below the surface for better protection and +better nutrition. It seems to have been a matter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +choice or will that the cells developed a nervous system +in the animal and not in the vegetable. Man +came because a few cells in some early form of life +acquired a slightly greater tendency to react to an +external stimulus. In this way they were brought +into closer touch with the outer world and thereby +gained the lead of their duller neighbor cells, and +became the real rulers of the body, and developed +the mind.</p> + +<p>It is bewildering to be told by so competent a +person as Professor Schäfer that at bottom there +is no fundamental difference between the living and +non-living. We need not urge the existence of a peculiar +vital force, as distinct from all other forces, +but all distinctions between things are useless if we +cannot say that a new behavior is set up in matter +which we describe by the word "vital," and that a +new principle is operative in organized matter which +we must call "intelligence." Of course all movements +and processes of living beings are in conformity +with the general laws of matter, but does such a +statement necessarily rule out all idea of the operation +of an organizing and directing principle that is +not operative in the world of inanimate things?</p> + +<p>In Schäfer's philosophy evolution is purely a mechanical +process—there is no inborn tendency, no +inherent push, no organizing effort, but all results +from the blind groping and chance jostling of the +inorganic elements; from the molecules of undifferentiated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +protoplasm to the brain of a Christ or a +Plato, is just one series of unintelligent physical and +chemical activities in matter.</p> + +<p>May we not say that all the marks or characteristics +of a living body which distinguish it in our +experience from an inanimate body, are of a non-scientific +character, or outside the sphere of experimental +science? We recognize them as readily as +we distinguish day from night, but we cannot describe +them in the fixed terms of science. When we +say growth, metabolism, osmosis, the colloidal state, +science points out that all this may be affirmed of +inorganic bodies. When we say a life principle, a +vital force or soul or spirit or intelligence, science +turns a deaf ear.</p> + +<p>The difference between the living and the non-living +is not so much a physical difference as a metaphysical +difference. Living matter is actuated by +intelligence. Its activities are spontaneous and self-directing. +The rock, and the tree that grows beside +it, and the insects and rodents that burrow under it, +may all be made of one stuff, but their difference to +the beholder is fundamental; there is an intelligent +activity in the one that is not in the other. Now no +scientific analysis of a body will reveal the secret +of this activity. As well might your analysis of a +phonographic record hope to disclose a sonata of +Beethoven latent in the waving lines. No power of +chemistry could reveal any difference between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +gray matter of Plato's brain and that of the humblest +citizen of Athens. All the difference between +man, all that makes a man a man, and an ox an ox, +is beyond the reach of any of your physico-chemical +tests. By the same token the gulf that separates +the organic from the inorganic is not within the +power of science to disclose. The biochemist is +bound to put life in the category of the material +forces because his science can deal with no other. +To him the word "vital" is a word merely, it stands +for no reality, and the secret of life is merely a chemical +reaction. A living body awakens a train of +ideas in our minds that a non-living fails to awaken—a +train of ideas that belong to another order from +that awakened by scientific demonstration. We +cannot blame science for ruling out that which it +cannot touch with its analysis, or repeat with its +synthesis. The phenomena of life are as obvious to +us as anything in the world; we know their signs and +ways, and witness their power, yet in the alembic of +our science they turn out to be only physico-chemical +processes; hence that is all there is of them. Vitality, +says Huxley, has no more reality than the +horology of a clock. Yet Huxley sees three equal +realities in the universe—matter, energy, and consciousness. +But consciousness is the crown of a +vital process. Hence it would seem as if there must +be something more real in vitality than Huxley is +willing to admit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Nearly all the later biologists or biological philosophers +are as shy of the term "vital force," and +even of the word "vitality," as they are of the words +"soul," "spirit," "intelligence," when discussing +natural phenomena. To experimental science such +words have no meaning because the supposed realities +for which they stand are quite beyond the reach +of scientific analysis. Ray Lankester, in his "Science +from an Easy Chair," following Huxley, compares +vitality with aquosity, and says that to have +recourse to a vital principle or force to explain a +living body is no better philosophy than to appeal to +a principle of aquosity to explain water. Of course +words are words, and they have such weight with us +that when we have got a name for a thing it is very +easy to persuade ourselves that the thing exists. The +terms "vitality," "vital force," have long been in use, +and it is not easy to convince one's self that they +stand for no reality. Certain it is that living and non-living +matter are sharply separated, though when reduced +to their chemical constituents in the laboratory +they are found to be identical. The carbon, the hydrogen, +the nitrogen, the oxygen, and the lime, sulphur, +iron, etc., in a living body are in no way peculiar, +but are the same as these elements in the rocks +and the soil. We are all made of one stuff; a man and +his dog are made of one stuff; an oak and a pine are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +made of one stuff; Jew and Gentile are made of one +stuff. Should we be justified, then, in saying that +there is no difference between them? There is certainly +a moral and an intellectual difference between +a man and his dog, if there is no chemical +and mechanical difference. And there is as certainly +as wide or a wider difference between living and +non-living matter, though it be beyond the reach of +science to detect. For this difference we have to +have a name, and we use the words "vital," "vitality," +which seem to me to stand for as undeniable +realities as the words heat, light, chemical affinity, +gravitation. There is not a principle of roundness, +though "nature centres into balls," nor of squareness, +though crystallization is in right lines, nor of +aquosity, though two thirds of the surface of the +earth is covered with water. Can we on any better +philosophical grounds say that there is a principle +of vitality, though the earth swarms with living +beings? Yet the word vitality stands for a reality, +it stands for a peculiar activity in matter—for certain +movements and characteristics for which we +have no other term. I fail to see any analogy between +aquosity and that condition of matter we +call vital or living. Aquosity is not an activity, it +is a property, the property of wetness; viscosity is a +term to describe other conditions of matter; solidity, +to describe still another condition; and opacity +and transparency, to describe still others—as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +affect another of our senses. But the vital activity +in matter is a concrete reality. With it there goes +the organizing tendency or impulse, and upon it +hinges the whole evolutionary movement of the biological +history of the globe. We can do all sorts of +things with water and still keep its aquosity. If we +resolve it into its constituent gases we destroy its +aquosity, but by uniting these gases chemically we +have the wetness back again. But if a body loses its +vitality, its life, can we by the power of chemistry, or +any other power within our reach, bring the vitality +back to it? Can we make the dead live? You may +bray your living body in a mortar, destroy every one +of its myriad cells, and yet you may not extinguish +the last spark of life; the protoplasm is still living. +But boil it or bake it and the vitality is gone, and all +the art and science of mankind cannot bring it back +again. The physical and chemical activities remain +after the vital activities have ceased. Do we not then +have to supply a non-chemical, a non-physical force +or factor to account for the living body? Is there no +difference between the growth of a plant or an animal, +and the increase in size of a sand-bank or a +snow-bank, or a river delta? or between the wear +and repair of a working-man's body and the wear +and repair of the machine he drives? Excretion and +secretion are not in the same categories. The living +and the non-living mark off the two grand divisions +of matter in the world in which we live, as no two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +terms merely descriptive of chemical and physical +phenomena ever can. Life is a motion in matter, +but of another order from that of the physico-chemical, +though inseparable from it. We may forego the +convenient term "vital force." Modern science +shies at the term "force." We must have force or +energy or pressure of some kind to lift dead matter +up into the myriad forms of life, though in the last +analysis of it it may all date from the sun. When it +builds a living body, we call it a vital force; when +it builds a gravel-bank, or moves a glacier, we call +it a mechanical force; when it writes a poem or composes +a symphony, we call it a psychic force—all +distinctions which we cannot well dispense with, +though of the ultimate reality for which these terms +stand we can know little. In the latest science heat +and light are not substances, though electricity is. +They are peculiar motions in matter which give rise +to sensations in certain living bodies that we name +light and heat, as another peculiar motion in matter +gives rise to a sensation we call sound. Life is +another kind of motion in certain aggregates of +matter—more mysterious or inexplicable than all +others because it cannot be described in terms of the +others, and because it defies the art and science of +man to reproduce.</p> + +<p>Though the concepts "vital force" and "life +principle" have no standing in the court of modern +biological science, it is interesting to observe how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +often recourse is had by biological writers to terms +that embody the same idea. Thus the German +physiologist Verworn, the determined enemy of the +old conception of life, in his great work on "Irritability," +has recourse to "the specific energy of living +substances." One is forced to believe that without +this "specific energy" his "living substances" would +never have arisen out of the non-living.</p> + +<p>Professor Moore, of Liverpool University, as I +have already pointed out while discussing the term +"vital force," invents a new phrase, "biotic energy," +to explain the same phenomena. Surely a force by +any other name is no more and no less potent. Both +Verworn and Moore feel the need, as we all do, of +some term, or terms, by which to explain that activity +in matter which we call vital. Other writers +have referred to "a peculiar power of synthesis" in +plants and animals, which the inanimate forms do +not possess.</p> + +<p>Ray Lankester, to whom I have already referred +in discussing this subject, helps himself out by inventing, +not a new force, but a new substance in +which he fancies "resides the peculiar property of +living matter." He calls this hypothetical substance +"plasmogen," and thinks of it as an ultimate chemical +compound hidden in protoplasm. Has this +"ultimate molecule of life" any more scientific or +philosophical validity than the old conception of a +vital force? It looks very much like another name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +for the same thing—an attempt to give the mind +something to take hold of in dealing with the mystery +of living things. This imaginary "life-stuff" +of the British scientist is entirely beyond the reach +of chemical analysis; no man has ever seen it or +proved its existence. In fact it is simply an invention +of Ray Lankester to fill a break in the sequence +of observed phenomena. Something seems to possess +the power of starting or kindling that organizing +activity in a living body, and it seems to me it +matters little whether we call it "plasmogen," or a +"life principle," or "biotic energy," or what not; it +surely leavens the loaf. Matter takes on new activities +under its influence. Ray Lankester thinks that +plasmogen came into being in early geologic ages, +and that the conditions which led to its formation +have probably never recurred. Whether he thinks +its formation was merely a chance hit or not, he +does not say.</p> + +<p>We see matter all about us, acted upon by the +mechanico-chemical forces, that never takes on any +of the distinctive phenomena of living bodies. Yet +Verworn is convinced that if we could bring the elements +of a living body together as Nature does, in +the same order and proportion, and combine them +in the selfsame way, or bring about the vital conditions, +a living being would result. Undoubtedly. +It amounts to saying that if we had Nature's power +we could do what she does. <i>If</i> we could marry the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +elements as she does, and bless the banns as she +seems to, we could build a man out of a clay-bank. +But clearly physics and chemistry alone, as we know +and practice them, are not equal to the task.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>One of the fundamental characteristics of life is +power of adaptation; it will adapt itself to almost +any condition; it is willing and accommodating. +It is like a stream that can be turned into various +channels; the gall insects turn it into channels to +suit their ends when they sting the leaf of a tree or +the stalk of a plant, and deposit an egg in the wound. +"Build me a home and a nursery for my young," +says the insect. "With all my heart," says the leaf, +and forthwith forgets its function as a leaf, and proceeds +to build up a structure, often of great delicacy +and complexity, to house and cradle its enemy. +The current of life flows on blindly and takes any +form imposed upon it. But in the case of the vegetable +galls it takes life to control life. Man cannot +produce these galls by artificial means. But we can +take various mechanical and chemical liberties with +embryonic animal life in its lower sea-forms. Professor +Loeb has fertilized the eggs of sea-urchins by +artificial means. The eggs of certain forms may be +made to produce twins by altering the constitution +of the sea-water, and the twins can be made to grow +together so as to produce monstrosities by another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +chemical change in the sea-water. The eyes of certain +fish embryos may be fused into a single cyclopean +eye by adding magnesium chloride to the +water in which they live. Loeb says, "It is <i>a priori</i> +obvious that an unlimited number of pathological +variations might be produced by a variation in the +concentration and constitution of the sea water, and +experience confirms this statement." It has been +found that when frog's eggs are turned upside down +and compressed between two glass plates for a number +of hours, some of the eggs give rise to twins. +Professor Morgan found that if he destroyed half +of a frog's egg after the first segmentation, the remaining +half gave rise to half an embryo, but that +if he put the half-egg upside down, and compressed +it between two glass plates, he got a perfect embryo +frog of half the normal size. Such things show how +plastic and adaptive life is. Dr. Carrel's experiments +with living animal tissue immersed in a +proper mother-liquid illustrate how the vital process—cell-multiplication—may +be induced to go +on and on, blindly, aimlessly, for an almost indefinite +time. The cells multiply, but they do not organize +themselves into a constructive community and +build an organ or any purposeful part. They may +be likened to a lot of blind masons piling up brick +and mortar without any architect to direct their +work or furnish them a plan. A living body of the +higher type is not merely an association of cells; it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +an association and coöperation of communities of +cells, each community working to a definite end and +building an harmonious whole. The biochemist who +would produce life in the laboratory has before him +the problem of compounding matter charged with +this organizing tendency or power, and doubtless +if he ever should evoke this mysterious process +through his chemical reactions, it would possess +this power, as this is what distinguishes the organic +from the inorganic.</p> + +<p>I do not see mind or intelligence in the inorganic +world in the sense in which I see it in the organic. +In the heavens one sees power, vastness, sublimity, +unspeakable, but one sees only the physical laws +working on a grander scale than on the earth. +Celestial mechanics do not differ from terrestrial +mechanics, however tremendous and imposing the +result of their activities. But in the humblest living +thing—in a spear of grass by the roadside, in a +gnat, in a flea—there lurks a greater mystery. In +an animate body, however small, there abides something +of which we get no trace in the vast reaches of +astronomy, a kind of activity that is incalculable, +indeterminate, and super-mechanical, not lawless, +but making its own laws, and escaping from the +iron necessity that rules in the inorganic world.</p> + +<p>Our mathematics and our science can break into +the circle of the celestial and the terrestrial forces, +and weigh and measure and separate them, and in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +degree understand them; but the forces of life defy +our analysis as well as our synthesis.</p> + +<p>Knowing as we do all the elements that make up +the body and brain of a man, all the physiological +processes, and all the relations and interdependence +of his various organs, if, in addition, we knew all +his inheritances, his whole ancestry back to the primordial +cells from which he sprang, and if we also +knew that of every person with whom he comes in +contact and who influences his life, could we forecast +his future, predict the orbit in which his life would +revolve, indicate its eclipses, its perturbations, and +the like, as we do that of an astronomic body? or +could we foresee his affinities and combinations as +we do that of a chemical body? Had we known any +of the animal forms in his line of ascent, could we +have foretold man as we know him to-day? Could +we have foretold the future of any form of life from +its remote beginnings? Would our mathematics and +our chemistry have been of any avail in our dealing +with such a problem? Biology is not in the same +category with geology and astronomy. In the inorganic +world, chemical affinity builds up and pulls +down. It integrates the rocks and, under changed +conditions, it disintegrates them. In the organic +world chemical affinity is equally active, but it plays +a subordinate part. It neither builds up nor pulls +down. Vital activities, if we must shun the term +"vital force," do both. Barring accidents, the life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +of all organisms is terminated by other organisms. +In the order of nature, life destroys life, and compounds +destroy compounds. When the air and soil +and water hold no invisible living germs, organic +bodies never decay. It is not the heat that begets +putrefaction, but germs in the air. Sufficient heat +kills the germs, but what disintegrates the germs and +reduces them to dust? Other still smaller organisms? +and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>? Does the sequence of life +have no end? The destruction of one chemical compound +means the formation of other chemical compounds; +chemical affinity cannot be annulled, but +the activity we call vital is easily arrested. A living +body can be killed, but a chemical body can only +be changed into another chemical body.</p> + +<p>The least of living things, I repeat, holds a more +profound mystery than all our astronomy and our +geology hold. It introduces us to activities which +our mathematics do not help us to deal with. Our +science can describe the processes of a living body, +and name all the material elements that enter into +it, but it cannot tell us in what the peculiar activity +consists, or just what it is that differentiates living +matter from non-living. Its analysis reveals no +difference. But this difference consists in something +beyond the reach of chemistry and of physics; it is +active intelligence, the power of self-direction, of +self-adjustment, of self-maintenance, of adapting +means to an end. It is notorious that the hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +cannot always cover the flea; this atom has will, and +knows the road to safety. Behold what our bodies +know over and above what we know! Professor +Czapek reveals to us a chemist at work in the body +who proceeds precisely like the chemist in his laboratory; +they might both have graduated at the same +school. Thus the chemist in the laboratory is accustomed +to dissolve the substance which is to be used +in an experiment to react on other substances. The +chemical course in living cells is the same. All substances +destined for reactions are first dissolved. No +compound is taken up in living cells before it is dissolved. +Digestion is essentially identical with dissolving +or bringing into a liquid state. On the other +hand, when the chemist wishes to preserve a living +substance from chemical change, he transfers it from +a state of solution into a solid state. The chemist in +the living body does the same thing. Substances +which are to be stored up, such as starch, fat, or protein +bodies, are deposited in insoluble form, ready to +be dissolved and used whenever wanted for the life +processes. Poisonous substances are eliminated from +living bodies by the same process of precipitation. +Oxalic acid is a product of oxidation in living cells, +and has strong poisonous properties. To get rid of it, +the chemist inside the body, by the aid of calcium +salts, forms insoluble compounds of it, and thus casts +it out. To separate substances from each other by +filtration, or by shaking with suitable liquids, is one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +of the daily tasks of the chemist. Analogous processes +occur regularly in living cells. Again, when +the chemist wishes to finish his filtration quickly, +he uses filters which have a large surface. "In living +protoplasms, this condition is very well fulfilled +by the foam-like structure which affords an immense +surface in a very small space." In the laboratory +the chemist mixes his substances by stirring. +The body chemist achieves the same result by the +streaming of protoplasm. The cells know what they +want, and how to attain it, as clearly as the chemist +does. The intelligence of the living body, or what +we must call such for want of a better term, is shown +in scores of ways—by the means it takes to protect +itself against microbes, by the antitoxins that +it forms. Indeed, if we knew all that our bodies +know, what mysteries would be revealed to us!</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Life goes up-stream—goes against the tendency +to a static equilibrium in matter; decay and death +go down. What is it in the body that struggles +against poisons and seeks to neutralize their effects? +What is it that protects the body against a second +attack of certain diseases, making it immune? +Chemical changes, undoubtedly, but what brings +about the chemical changes? The body is a <i>colony</i> +of living units called cells, that behaves much like a +colony of insects when it takes measures to protect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +itself against its enemies. The body forms anti-toxins +when it has to. It knows how to do it as well +as bees know how to ventilate the hive, or how to +seal up or entomb the grub of an invading moth. +Indeed, how much the act of the body, in encysting +a bullet in its tissues, is like the act of the bees in +encasing with wax a worm in the combs!</p> + +<p>What is that in the body which at great altitudes +increases the number of red corpuscles in the blood, +those oxygen-bearers, so as to make up for the lessened +amount of oxygen breathed by reason of the +rarity of the air? Under such conditions, the amount +of hæmoglobin is almost doubled. I do not call this +thing a force; I call it an intelligence—the intelligence +that pervades the body and all animate nature, +and does the right thing at the right time. We, +no doubt, speak too loosely of it when we say that it +prompts or causes the body to do this, or to do that; +it <i>is</i> the body; the relation of the two has no human +analogy; the two are one.</p> + +<p>Man breaks into the circuit of the natural inorganic +forces and arrests them and controls them, +and makes them do his work—turn his wheels, +drive his engines, run his errands, etc.; but he cannot +do this in the same sense with the organic forces; +he cannot put a spell upon the pine tree and cause it +to build him a house or a nursery. Only the insects +can do a thing like that; only certain insects can +break into the circuit of vegetable life and divert its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +forces to serve their special ends. One kind of an +insect stings a bud or a leaf of the oak, and the tree +forthwith grows a solid nutlike protuberance the +size of a chestnut, in which the larvæ of the insect +live and feed and mature. Another insect stings the +same leaf and produces the common oak-apple—a +smooth, round, green, shell-like body filled with a +network of radiating filaments, with the egg and +then the grub of the insect at the centre. Still another +kind of insect stings the oak bud and deposits +its eggs there, and the oak proceeds to grow a +large white ball made up of a kind of succulent vegetable +wool with red spots evenly distributed over +its surface, as if it were some kind of spotted fruit +or flower. In June, it is about the size of a small +apple. Cut it in half and you find scores of small +shell-like growths radiating from the bud-stem, like +the seeds of the dandelion, each with a kind of vegetable +pappus rising from it, and together making up +the ball as the pappus of the dandelion seeds makes +up the seed-globe of this plant. It is one of the most +singular vegetable products, or vegetable perversions, +that I know of. A sham fruit filled with sham +seeds; each seed-like growth contains a grub, which +later in the season pupates and eats its way out, a +winged insect. How foreign to anything we know as +mechanical or chemical it all is!—the surprising +and incalculable tricks of life!</p> + +<p>Another kind of insect stings the oak leaf and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +there develops a pale, smooth, solid, semi-transparent +sphere, the size of a robin's egg, dense and succulent +like the flesh of an apple, with the larvæ of +the insect subsisting in its interior. Each of these +widely different forms is evoked from the oak leaf +by the magic of an insect's ovipositor. Chemically, +the constituents of all of them are undoubtedly the +same.</p> + +<p>It is one of the most curious and suggestive +things in living nature. It shows how plastic and +versatile life is, and how utterly unmechanical. +Life plays so many and such various tunes upon the +same instruments; or rather, the living organism is +like many instruments in one; the tones of all instruments +slumber in it to be awakened when the +right performer appears. At least four different +insects get four different tunes, so to speak, out of +the oak leaf.</p> + +<p>Certain insects avail themselves of the animal organism +also and go through their cycle of development +and metamorphosis within its tissues or organs +in a similar manner.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>On the threshold of the world of living organisms +stands that wonderful minute body, the cell, the +unit of life—a piece of self-regulating and self-renewing +mechanism that holds the key to all the +myriads of living forms that fill the world, from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +amœba up to man. For chemistry to produce the +cell is apparently as impossible as for it to produce +a bird's egg, or a living flower, or the heart and +brain of man. The body is a communal state made +up of myriads of cells that all work together to build +up and keep going the human personality. There is +the same coöperation and division of labor that +takes place in the civic state, and in certain insect +communities. As in the social and political organism, +thousands of the citizen cells die every day and +new cells of the same kind take their place. Or, it is +like an army in battle being constantly recruited—as +fast as a soldier falls another takes his place, till +the whole army is changed, and yet remains the +same. The waste is greatest at the surface of the +body through the skin, and through the stomach +and lungs. The worker cells, namely, the tissue +cells, like the worker bees in the hive, pass away the +most rapidly; then, according to Haeckel, there are +certain constants, certain cells that remain throughout +life. "There is always a solid groundwork of +conservative cells, the descendants of which secure +the further regeneration." The traditions of the +state are kept up by the citizen-cells that remain, +so that, though all is changed in time, the genius +of the state remains; the individuality of the man +is not lost. "The sense of personal identity is maintained +across the flight of molecules," just as it is +maintained in the state or nation, by the units that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +remain, and by the established order. There is an +unwritten constitution, a spirit that governs, like +Maeterlinck's "spirit of the hive." The traditions +of the body are handed down from mother cell to +daughter cell, though just what that means in terms +of physiology or metabolism I do not know. But +this we know—that you are you and I am I, and +that human life and personality can never be fully +explained or accounted for in terms of the material +forces.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h2>LIFE AND SCIENCE</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + + +<p>The limited and peculiar activity which arises +in matter and which we call vital; which comes +and goes; which will not stay to be analyzed; which +we in vain try to reproduce in our laboratories; +which is inseparable from chemistry and physics, +but which is not summed up by them; which seems +to use them and direct them to new ends,—an +entity which seems to have invaded the kingdom of +inert matter at some definite time in the earth's +history, and to have set up an insurgent movement +there; cutting across the circuits of the mechanical +and chemical forces; turning them about, pitting one +against the other; availing itself of gravity, of chemical +affinity, of fluids and gases, of osmosis and exosmosis, +of colloids, of oxidation and hydration, and +yet explicable by none of these things; clothing itself +with garments of warmth and color and perfume +woven from the cold, insensate elements; setting up +new activities in matter; building up myriads of +new unstable compounds; struggling against the +tendency of the physical forces to a dead equilibrium; +indeterminate, intermittent, fugitive; limited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +in time, limited in space; present in some +worlds, absent from others; breaking up the old +routine of the material forces, and instituting new +currents, new tendencies; departing from the linear +activities of the inorganic, and setting up the circular +activities of living currents; replacing change by +metamorphosis, revolution by evolution, accretion +by secretion, crystallization by cell-formation, aggregation +by growth; and, finally, introducing a +new power into the world—the mind and soul of +man—this wonderful, and apparently transcendental +something which we call life—how baffling +and yet how fascinating is the inquiry into its nature +and origin! Are we to regard it as Tyndall did, +and as others before and since his time did and do, +as potential in the constitution of matter, and self-evolved, +like the chemical compounds that are involved +in its processes?</p> + +<p>As mechanical energy is latent in coal, and in all +combustible bodies, is vital energy latent in carbon, +hydrogen, oxygen, and so forth, needing only the +right conditions to bring it out? Mechanical energy +is convertible into electrical energy, and <i>vice versa</i>. +Indeed, the circle of the physical forces is easily +traced, easily broken into, but when or how these +forces merge into the vital and psychic forces, or +support them, or become them—there is the puzzle. +If we limit the natural to the inorganic order, +then are living bodies supernatural? Super-mechanical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +and super-chemical certainly, and chemics and +mechanics and electro-statics include all the material +forces. Is life outside this circle? It is certain that +this circle does not always include life, but can life +exist outside this circle? When it appears it is always +inside it.</p> + +<p>Science can only deal with life as a physical phenomenon; +as a psychic phenomenon it is beyond its +scope, except so far as the psychic is manifested +through the physical. Not till it has produced living +matter from dead can it speak with authority +upon the question of the origin of life. Its province +is limited to the description and analysis of life +processes, but when it essays to name what institutes +the processes, or to disclose the secret of organization, +it becomes philosophy or theology. When +Haeckel says that life originated spontaneously, he +does not speak with the authority of science, because +he cannot prove his assertion; it is his opinion, +and that is all. When Helmholtz says that life had +no beginning, he is in the same case. When our +later biophysicists say that life is of physico-chemical +origin, they are in the same case; when Tyndall +says that there is no energy in the universe but solar +energy, he is in the same case; when Sir Oliver +Lodge says that life is an entity outside of and independent +of matter, he is in the same case. Philosophy +and theology can take leaps in the dark, but +science must have solid ground to go upon. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +it speculates or theorizes, it must make its speculations +good. Scientific prophecy is amenable to the +same tests as other prophecy. In the absence of +proof by experiment—scientific proof—to get the +living out of the non-living we have either got to +conceive of matter itself as fundamentally creative, +as the new materialism assumes, or else we have got +to have an external Creator, as the old theology assumes. +And the difference is more apparent than +real. Tyndall is "baffled and bewildered" by the +fact that out of its molecular vibrations and activities +"things so utterly incongruous with them as +sensation, thought, and emotion can be derived." +His science is baffled and bewildered because it cannot, +bound as it is by the iron law of the conservation +and correlation of energy, trace the connection +between them. But his philosophy or his theology +would experience little difficulty. Henri Bergson +shows no hesitation in declaring that the fate of consciousness +is not involved in the fate of the brain +through which it is manifested, but it is his philosophy +and not his science that inspires this faith. +Tyndall deifies matter to get life out of it—makes +the creative energy potential in it. Bergson deifies +or spiritualizes life as a psychic, creative principle, +and makes matter its instrument or vehicle.</p> + +<p>Science is supreme in its own sphere, the sphere, +or hemisphere, of the objective world, but it does +not embrace the whole of human life, because human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +life is made up of two spheres, or hemispheres, +one of which is the subjective world. There is a +world within us also, the world of our memories, +thoughts, emotions, aspirations, imaginings, which +overarches the world of our practical lives and material +experience, as the sky overarches the earth. +It is in the spirit of science that we conquer and use +the material world in which we live; it is in the +spirit of art and literature, philosophy and religion, +that we explore and draw upon the immaterial +world of our own hearts and souls. Of course the +man of science is also a philosopher—may I not +even say he is also a prophet and poet? Not otherwise +could he organize his scientific facts and see +their due relations, see their drift and the sequence +of forces that bind the universe into a whole. As a +man of science he traces out the causes of the tides +and the seasons, the nature and origin of disease, +and a thousand and one other things; but only as a +philosopher can he see the body as a whole and speculate +about the mystery of its organization; only as +a philosopher can he frame theories and compare +values and interpret the phenomena he sees about +him.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>We can only know, in the scientific sense, the +physical and chemical phenomena of life; its essence, +its origin, we can only know as philosophy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +and idealism know them. We have to turn philosophers +when we ask any ultimate question. The feeling +we have that the scientific conception of life is +inadequate springs from the philosophical habit of +mind. Yet this habit is quite as legitimate as the +scientific habit, and is bound to supplement the +latter all through life.</p> + +<p>The great men of science, like Darwin and Huxley, +are philosophers in their theories and conclusions, +and men of science in their observations and +experiments. The limitations of science in dealing +with such a problem are seen in the fact that science +can take no step till it has life to begin with. When +it has got the living body, it can analyze its phenomena +and reduce them to their chemical and physical +equivalents, and thus persuade itself that the secret +of life may yet be hit upon in the laboratory. Professor +Czapek, of the University of Prague, in his work +on "The Chemical Phenomena of Life" speaks for +science when he says, "What we call life is nothing +else but a complex of innumerable chemical reactions +in the living substance which we call protoplasm." +The "living substance" is assumed to begin +with, and then we are told that the secret of its +living lies in its chemical and physical processes. +This is in one sense true. No doubt at all that if +these processes were arrested, life would speedily +end, but do they alone account for its origin? Is it +not like accounting for a baby in terms of its breathing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +and eating? It was a baby before it did either, +and it would seem as if life must in some way ante-date +the physical and chemical processes that attend +it, or at least be bound up in them in a way that +no scientific analysis can reveal.</p> + +<p>If life is merely a mode of motion in matter, it is +fundamentally unlike any and all other modes of +motion, because, while we can institute all the +others at will, we are powerless to institute this. +The mode of motion we call heat is going on in varying +degrees of velocity all about us at all times and +seasons, but the vital motion of matter is limited to +a comparatively narrow circle. We can end it, but +we cannot start it.</p> + +<p>The rigidly scientific type of mind sees no greater +mystery in the difference in contour of different +animal bodies than a mere difference in the density +of the germ cells: "one density results in a sequence +of cell-densities to form a horse; another a dog; another +a cat"; and avers that if we "repeat the same +complex conditions, the same results are as inevitable +as the sequences of forces that result in the formation +of hydrogen monoxide from hydrogen and +oxygen."</p> + +<p>Different degrees of density may throw light on +the different behavior of gases and fluids and solids, +but can it throw any light on the question of why a +horse is a horse, and a dog a dog? or why one is an +herbivorous feeder, and the other a carnivorous?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>The scientific explanation of life phenomena is +analogous to reducing a living body to its ashes and +pointing to them—the lime, the iron, the phosphorus, +the hydrogen, the oxygen, the carbon, the +nitrogen—as the whole secret.</p> + +<p>Professor Czapek is not entirely consistent. He +says that it is his conviction that there is something +in physiology that transcends the chemistry +and the physics of inorganic nature. At the same +time he affirms, "It becomes more and more improbable +that Life develops forces which are unknown +in inanimate Nature." But psychic forces +are a product of life, and they certainly are not +found in inanimate nature. But without laying +stress upon this fact, may we not say that if no new +force is developed by, or is characteristic of, life, +certainly new effects, new processes, new compounds +of matter are produced by life? Matter undergoes +some change that chemical analysis does not reveal. +The mystery of isomeric substances appears, +a vast number of new compounds of carbon appear, +the face of the earth changes. The appearance of +life in inert matter is a change analogous to the appearance +of the mind of man in animate nature. +The old elements and forces are turned to new and +higher uses. Man does not add to the list of forces +or elements in the earth, but he develops them, and +turns them to new purposes; they now obey and +serve him, just as the old chemistry and physics<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +obey and serve life. Czapek tells us of the vast +number of what are called enzymes, or ferments, +that appear in living bodies—"never found in inorganic +Nature and not to be gained by chemical +synthesis." Orders and suborders of enzymes, they +play a part in respiration, in digestion, in assimilation. +Some act on the fats, some on the carbohydrates, +some produce inversion, others dissolution +and precipitation. These enzymes are at once the +products and the agents of life. They must exert +force, chemical force, or, shall we say, they transform +chemical force into life force, or, to use Professor +Moore's term, into "biotic energy"?</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>The inorganic seems dreaming of the organic. Behold +its dreams in the fern and tree forms upon the +window pane and upon the stone flagging of a winter +morning! In the Brunonian movement of matter in +solution, in crystallization, in chemical affinity, in +polarity, in osmosis, in the growth of flint or chert +nodules, in limestone formations—like seeking +like—in these and in other activities, inert matter +seems dreaming of life.</p> + +<p>The chemists have played upon this tendency in +the inorganic to parody or simulate some of the +forms of living matter. A noted European chemist, +Dr. Leduc, has produced what he calls "osmotic +growths," from purely unorganized mineral matter—growths<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +in form like seaweed and polyps and +corals and trees. His seeds are fragments of calcium +chloride, and his soil is a solution of the alkaline +carbonates, phosphates, or silicates. When his seeds +are sown in these solutions, we see inert matter germinating, +"putting forth bud and stem and root and +branch and leaf and fruit," precisely as in the living +vegetable kingdom. It is not a growth by accretion, +as in crystallization, but by intussusception, as in +life. These ghostly things exhibit the phenomena of +circulation and respiration and nutrition, and a +crude sort of reproduction by budding; they repair +their injuries, and are able to perform periodic +movements, just as does an animal or a plant; they +have a period of vigorous youthful growth, of old +age, of decay, and of death. In form, in color, in +texture, and in cell structure, they imitate so closely +the cell structures of organic growth as to suggest +something uncanny or diabolical. And yet the author +of them does not claim that they are alive. +They are not edible, they contain no protoplasm—no +starch or sugar or peptone or fats or carbohydrates. +These chemical creations by Dr. Leduc are +still dead matter—dead colloids—only one remove +from crystallization; on the road to life, fore-runners +of life, but not life. If he could set up the +chlorophyllian process in his chemical reactions +among inorganic compounds, the secret of life +would be in his hands. But only the green leaf can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +produce chlorophyll; and yet, which was first, the +leaf or the chlorophyll?</p> + +<p>Professor Czapek is convinced that "some substances +must exist in protoplasm which are directly +responsible for the life processes," and yet the chemists +cannot isolate and identify those substances.</p> + +<p>How utterly unmechanical a living body is, at +least how far it transcends mere mechanics is +shown by what the chemists call "autolysis." Pulverize +your watch, and you have completely destroyed +everything that made it a watch except the +dead matter; but pulverize or reduce to a pulp a +living plant, and though you have destroyed all cell +structure, you have not yet destroyed the living +substance; you have annihilated the mechanism, +but you have not killed the something that keeps up +the life process. Protoplasm takes time to die, but +your machine stops instantly, and its elements are +no more potent in a new machine than they were at +first. "In the pulp prepared by grinding down living +organisms in a mortar, some vital phenomena +continue for a long time." The life processes cease, +and the substances or elements of the dead body remain +as before. Their chemical reactions are the +same. There is no new chemistry, no new mechanics, +no new substance in a live body, but there is a new +tendency or force or impulse acting in matter, inspiring +it, so to speak, to new ends. It is here that idealism +parts company with exact science. It is here that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +the philosophers go one way, and the rigid scientists +the other. It is from this point of view that the +philosophy of Henri Bergson, based so largely as it +is upon scientific material, has been so bitterly assailed +from the scientific camp.</p> + +<p>The living cell is a wonderful machine, but if we +ask which is first, life or the cell, where are we? +There is the synthetical reaction in the cell, and +the analytical or splitting reaction—the organizing, +and the disorganizing processes—what keeps up +this seesaw and preserves the equilibrium? A life +force, said the older scientists; only chemical laws, +say the new. A prodigious change in the behavior +of matter is wrought by life, and whether we say it +is by chemical laws, or by a life force, the mystery +remains.</p> + +<p>The whole secret of life centres in the cell, in the +plant cell; and this cell does not exceed .005 millimetres +in diameter. An enormous number of chemical +reactions take place in this minute space. It +is a world in little. Here are bodies of different +shapes whose service is to absorb carbon dioxide, +and form sugar and carbohydrates. Must we go outside +of matter itself, and of chemical reactions, to +account for it? Call this unknown factor "vital +force," as has so long been done, or name it "biotic +energy," as Professor Moore has lately done, and +the mystery remains the same. It is a new behavior +in matter, call it by what name we will.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<p>Inanimate nature seems governed by definite +laws; that is, given the same conditions, the same +results always follow. The reactions between two +chemical elements under the same conditions are +always the same. The physical forces go their unchanging +ways, and are variable only as the conditions +vary. In dealing with them we know exactly +what to expect. We know at what degree of temperature, +under the same conditions, water will boil, +and at what degree of temperature it will freeze. +Chance and probability play no part in such matters. +But when we reach the world of animate nature, +what a contrast we behold! Here, within certain +limits, all is in perpetual flux and change. Living +bodies are never two moments the same. Variability +is the rule. We never know just how a living +body will behave, under given conditions, till we try +it. A late spring frost may kill nearly every bean +stalk or potato plant or hill of corn in your garden, +or nearly every shoot upon your grapevine. The +survivors have greater powers of resistance—a +larger measure of that mysterious something we call +vitality. One horse will endure hardships and exposures +that will kill scores of others. What will +agitate one community will not in the same measure +agitate another. What will break or discourage one +human heart will sit much more lightly upon another. +Life introduces an element of uncertainty or +indeterminateness that we do not find in the inorganic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +world. Bodies still have their laws or conditions +of activity, but they are elastic and variable. +Among living things we have in a measure escaped +from the iron necessity that holds the world of dead +matter in its grip. Dead matter ever tends to a +static equilibrium; living matter to a dynamic poise, +or a balance between the intake and the output of +energy. Life is a peculiar activity in matter. If the +bicyclist stops, his wheel falls down; no mechanical +contrivance could be devised that could take his +place on the wheel, and no combination of purely +chemical and physical forces can alone do with +matter what life does with it. The analogy here +hinted at is only tentative. I would not imply that +the relation of life to matter is merely mechanical +and external, like that of the rider to his wheel. In +life, the rider and his wheel are one, but when life +vanishes, the wheel falls down. The chemical and +physical activity of matter is perpetual; with a high-power +microscope we may see the Brunonian movement +in liquids and gases any time and at all times, +but the movement we call vitality dominates these +and turns them to new ends. I suppose the nature +of the activity of the bombarding molecules of gases +and liquids is the same in our bodies as out; that +turmoil of the particles goes on forever; it is, in itself, +blind, fateful, purposeless; but life furnishes, or <i>is</i>, +an organizing principle that brings order and purpose +out of this chaos. It does not annul any of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +mechanical or chemical principles, but under its +tutelage or inspiration they produce a host of new +substances, and a world of new and beautiful and +wonderful forms.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>Bergson says the intellect is characterized by a +natural inability to understand life. Certain it is, +I think, that science alone cannot grasp its mystery. +We must finally appeal to philosophy; we must have +recourse to ideal values—to a non-scientific or super-scientific +principle. We cannot live intellectually or +emotionally upon science alone. Science reveals to +us the relations and inter-dependence of things in the +physical world and their relations to our physical +well-being; philosophy reveals their relations to our +mental and spiritual life, their meanings and their +ideal values. Poor, indeed, is the man who has no +philosophy, no commanding outlook over the tangles +and contradictions of the world of sense. There +is probably some unknown and unknowable factor +involved in the genesis of life, but that that factor +or principle does not belong to the natural, universal +order is unthinkable. Yet to fail to see that what we +must call intelligence pervades and is active in all organic +nature is to be spiritually blind. But to see it +as something foreign to or separable from nature is to +do violence to our faith in the constancy and sufficiency +of the natural order. One star differeth from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +another in glory. There are degrees of mystery in the +universe. The most mystifying thing in inorganic +nature is electricity,—that disembodied energy +that slumbers in the ultimate particles of matter, +unseen, unfelt, unknown, till it suddenly leaps forth +with such terrible vividness and power on the face +of the storm, or till we summon it through the transformation +of some other form of energy. A still +higher and more inscrutable mystery is life, that +something which clothes itself in each infinitely +varied and beautiful as well as unbeautiful form of +matter. We can evoke electricity at will from many +different sources, but we can evoke life only from +other life; the biogenetic law is inviolable.</p> + +<p>Professor Soddy says, "Natural philosophy may +explain a rainbow but not a rabbit." There is no +secret about a rainbow; we can produce it at will +out of perfectly colorless beginnings. "But nothing +but rabbits will or can produce a rabbit, a proof +again that we cannot say what a rabbit is, though +we may have a perfect knowledge of every anatomical +and microscopic detail."</p> + +<p>To regard life as of non-natural origin puts it beyond +the sphere of legitimate inquiry; to look upon +it as of natural origin, or as bound in a chain of +chemical sequences, as so many late biochemists do, +is still to put it where our science cannot unlock the +mystery. If we should ever succeed in producing +living matter in our laboratories, it would not lessen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +the mystery any more than the birth of a baby in +the household lessens the mystery of generation. +It only brings it nearer home.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>What is peculiar to organic nature is the living +cell. Inside the cell, doubtless, the same old chemistry +and physics go on—the same universal law +of the transformation of energy is operative. In its +minute compass the transmutation of the inorganic +into the organic, which constitutes what Tyndall +called "the miracle and the mystery of vitality," +is perpetually enacted. But what is the secret of the +cell itself? Science is powerless to tell us. You may +point out to your heart's content that only chemical +and physical forces are discoverable in living matter; +that there is no element or force in a plant +that is not in the stone beside which it grew, or in +the soil in which it takes root; and yet, until your +chemistry and your physics will enable you to produce +the living cell, or account for its mysterious +self-directed activities, your science avails not. +"Living cells," says a late European authority, +"possess most effective means to accelerate reactions +and to cause surprising chemical results."</p> + +<p>Behold the four principal elements forming stones +and soils and water and air for whole geologic or +astronomic ages, and then behold them forming +plants and animals, and finally forming the brains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +that give us art and literature and philosophy and +modern civilization. What prompted the elements +to this new and extraordinary behavior? Science +is dumb before such a question.</p> + +<p>Living bodies are immersed in physical conditions +as in a sea. External agencies—light, moisture, +air, gravity, mechanical and chemical influences—cause +great changes in them; but their power to +adapt themselves to these changes, and profit by +them, remains unexplained. Are morphological +processes identical with chemical ones?</p> + +<p>In the inorganic world we everywhere see mechanical +adjustment, repose, stability, equilibrium, +through the action and interaction of outward physical +forces; a natural bridge is a striking example +of the action of blind mechanical forces among the +rocks. In the organic world we see living adaptation +which involves a non-mechanical principle. An adjustment +is an outward fitting together of parts; +an adaptation implies something flowing, unstable, +plastic, compromising; it is a moulding process; +passivity on one side, and activity on the other. Living +things struggle; they struggle up as well as down; +they struggle all round the circle, while the pull of +dead matter is down only.</p> + +<p>Behold what a good chemist a plant is! With +what skill it analyzes the carbonic acid in the air, +retaining the carbon and returning the oxygen to +the atmosphere! Then the plant can do what no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +chemist has yet been able to do; it can manufacture +chlorophyll, a substance which is the basis of all life +on the globe. Without chlorophyll (the green substance +in plants) the solar energy could not be +stored up in the vegetable world. Chlorophyll makes +the plant, and the plant makes chlorophyll. To ask +which is first is to call up the old puzzle, Which is +first, the egg, or the hen that laid it?</p> + +<p>According to Professor Soddy, the engineer's +unit of power, that of the British cart-horse, has to +be multiplied many times in a machine before it can +do the work of a horse. He says that a car which +two horses used to pull, it now takes twelve or fifteen +engine-horse to pull. The machine horse belongs +to a different order. He does not respond to +the whip; he has no nervous system; he has none of +the mysterious reserve power which a machine built +up of living cells seems to possess; he is inelastic, +non-creative, non-adaptive; he cannot take advantage +of the ground; his pull is a dead, unvarying pull. +Living energy is elastic, adaptive, self-directive, +and suffers little loss through friction, or through +imperfect adjustment of the parts. A live body converts +its fuel into energy at a low temperature. One +of the great problems of the mechanics of the future +is to develop electricity or power directly from fuel +and thus cut out the enormous loss of eighty or +ninety per cent which we now suffer. The growing +body does this all the time; life possesses this secret;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +the solar energy stored up in fuel suffers no loss in +being transformed into work by the animal mechanism.</p> + +<p>Soddy asks whether or not the minute cells of the +body may not have the power of taking advantage +of the difference in temperature of the molecules +bombarding them, and thus of utilizing energy that +is beyond the capacity of the machinery of the +motor-car. Man can make no machine that can +avail itself of the stores of energy in the uniform +temperature of the earth or air or water, or that can +draw upon the potential energy of the atoms, but +it may be that the living cell can do this, and thus a +horse can pull more than a one-horse-power engine. +Soddy makes the suggestive inquiry: "If life begins +in a single cell, does intelligence? does the physical +distinction between living and dead matter begin +in the jostling molecular crowd? Inanimate molecules, +in all their movements, obey the law of probability, +the law which governs the successive falls +of a true die. In the presence of a rudimentary +intelligence, do they still follow that law, or do they +now obey another law—the law of a die that is +loaded?" In a machine the energy of fuel has first +to be converted into heat before it is available, but +in a living machine the chemical energy of food +undergoes direct transformation into work, and +the wasteful heat-process is cut off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>Professor Soddy, in discussing the relation of life +to energy, does not commit himself to the theory of +the vitalistic or non-mechanical origin of life, but +makes the significant statement that there is a consensus +of opinion that the life processes are not +bound by the second law of thermo-dynamics, +namely, the law of the non-availability of the energy +latent in low temperatures, or in the chaotic movements +of molecules everywhere around us. To get +energy, one must have a fall or an incline of some +sort, as of water from a higher to a lower level, or of +temperature from a higher to a lower degree, or of +electricity from one condition of high stress to another +less so. But the living machine seems able to +dispense with this break or incline, or else has the +secret of creating one for itself.</p> + +<p>In the living body the chemical energy of food is +directly transformed into work, without first being +converted into heat. Why a horse can do more work +than a one-horse-power engine is probably because +his living cells can and do draw upon this molecular +energy. Molecules of matter outside the living body +all obey the law of probability, or the law of chance; +but inside the living body they at least seem to +obey some other law—the law of design, or of +dice that are loaded, as Soddy says. They are more +likely always to act in a particular way. Life supplies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +a directing agency. Soddy asks if the physical +distinction between living and dead matter begins +in the jostling molecular crowd—begins by the +crowd being directed and governed in a particular +way. If so, by what? Ah! that is the question. +Science will have none of it, because science would +have to go outside of matter for such an agent, and +that science cannot do. Such a theory implies intelligence +apart from matter, or working in matter. +Is that a hard proposition? Intelligence clearly +works in our bodies and brains, and in those of all +the animals—a controlled and directed activity in +matter that seems to be life. The cell which builds +up all living bodies behaves not like a machine, but +like a living being; its activities, so far as we can +judge, are spontaneous, its motions and all its other +processes are self-prompted. But, of course, in it +the mechanical, the chemical, and the vital are so +blended, so interdependent, that we may never hope +to separate them; but without the activity called +vital, there would be no cell, and hence no body.</p> + +<p>It were unreasonable to expect that scientific +analysis should show that the physics and chemistry +of a living body differs from that of the non-living. +What is new and beyond the reach of science to explain +is the <i>kind of activity</i> of these elements. They +enter into new compounds; they build up bodies +that have new powers and properties; they people +the seas and the air and the earth with living creatures,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +they build the body and brain of man. The +secret of the activity in matter that we call vital is +certainly beyond the power of science to tell us. +It is like expecting that the paint and oil used in a +great picture must differ from those in a daub. The +great artist mixed his paint with brains, and the +universal elements in a living body are mixed with +something that science cannot disclose. Organic +chemistry does not differ intrinsically from inorganic; +the difference between the two lies in the +purposive activity of the elements that build up a +living body.</p> + +<p>Or is life, as a New England college professor +claims, "an <i>x</i>-entity, additional to matter and energy, +but of the same cosmic rank as they," and +"manifesting itself to our senses only through its +power to keep a certain quantity of matter and +energy in the continuous orderly ferment we call +life"?</p> + +<p>I recall that Huxley said that there was a third +reality in this universe besides matter and energy, +and this third reality was consciousness. But neither +the "<i>x</i>-entity" of Professor Ganong nor the "consciousness" +of Huxley can be said to be of the +same cosmic rank as matter and energy, because +they do not pervade the universe as matter and energy +do. These forces abound throughout all space +and endure throughout all time, but life and consciousness +are flitting and uncertain phenomena of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +matter. A prick of a pin, or a blow from a hammer, +may destroy both. Unless we consider them as potential +in all matter (and who shall say that they +are not?) may we look upon them as of cosmic rank?</p> + +<p>It is often urged that it is not the eye that sees, +or the brain that thinks, but something in them. +But it is something in them that never went into +them; it arose in them. It is the living eye and the +living brain that do the seeing and the thinking. +When the life activity ceases, these organs cease to +see and to think. Their activity is kept up by certain +physiological processes in the organs of the +body, and to ask what keeps up these is like the +puppy trying to overtake its own tail, or to run a +race with its own shadow.</p> + +<p>The brain is not merely the organ of the mind in +an external and mechanical sense; it is the mind. +When we come to living things, all such analogies +fail us. Life is not a thing; thought is not a thing; +but rather the effect of a certain activity in matter, +which mind alone can recognize. When we try to +explain or account for that which we are, it is as if +a man were trying to lift himself.</p> + +<p>Life seems like something apart. It does not seem +to be amenable to the law of the correlation and +conservation of forces. You cannot transform it into +heat or light or electricity. The force which a man +extracts from the food he eats while he is writing +a poem, or doing any other mental work, seems lost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +to the universe. The force which the engine, or any +machine, uses up, reappears as work done, or as heat +or light or some other physical manifestation. But +the energy of foodstuffs which a man uses up in a +mental effort does not appear again in the circuit +of the law of the conservation of energy. A man +uses up more energy in his waking moments, though +his body be passive, than in his sleeping. What we +call mental force cannot be accounted for in terms +of physical force. The sun's energy goes into our +bodies through the food we eat, and so runs our +mental faculties, but how does it get back again +into the physical realm? Science does not know.</p> + +<p>It must be some sort of energy that lights the +lamps of the firefly and the glow-worm, and it must +be some sort or degree of energy that keeps consciousness +going. The brain of a Newton, or of a +Plato, must make a larger draft on the solar energy +latent in food-stuffs than the brain of a day laborer, +and his body less. The same amount of food-consumption, +or of oxidation, results in physical force +in the one case, and mental force in the other, but +the mental force escapes the great law of the equivalence +of the material forces.</p> + +<p>John Fiske solves the problem when he drops his +physical science and takes up his philosophy, declaring +that the relation of the mind to the body is +that of a musician to his instrument, and this is +practically the position of Sir Oliver Lodge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>Inheritance and adaptation, says Haeckel, are +sufficient to account for all the variety of animal +and vegetable forms on the earth. But is there not +a previous question? Do we not want inheritance +and adaptation accounted for? What mysteries +they hold! Does the river-bed account for the river? +How can a body adapt itself to its environment unless +it possess an inherent, plastic, changing, and +adaptive principle? A stone does not adapt itself +to its surroundings; its change is external and not +internal. There is mechanical adjustment between +inert bodies, but there is no adaptation without the +push of life. A response to new conditions by change +of form implies something actively responsive—something +that profits by the change.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>If we could tell what determines the division of +labor in the hive of bees or a colony of ants, we could +tell what determines the division of labor among +the cells in the body. A hive of bees and a colony +of ants is a unit—a single organism. The spirit +of the body, that which regulates all its economies, +which directs all its functions, which coördinates +its powers, which brings about all its adaptations, +which adjusts it to its environment, which sees to +its repairs, heals its wounds, meets its demands, +provides more force when more is needed, which +makes one organ help do the work of another, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +wages war on disease germs by specific ferments, +which renders us immune to this or that disease; in +fact, which carries on all the processes of our physical +life without asking leave or seeking counsel of +us,—all this is on another plane from the mechanical +or chemical—super-mechanical.</p> + +<p>The human spirit, the brute spirit, the vegetable +spirit—all are mere names to fill a void. The spirit +of the oak, the beech, the pine, the palm—how +different! how different the plan or idea or interior +economies of each, though the chemical and mechanical +processes are the same, the same mineral +and gaseous elements build them up, the same sun +is their architect! But what physical principle can +account for the difference between a pine and an +oak, or, for that matter, between a man and his +dog, or a bird and a fish, or a crow and a lark? What +play and action or interaction and reaction of purely +chemical and mechanical forces can throw any light +on the course evolution has taken in the animal life +of the globe—why the camel is the camel, and the +horse the horse? or in the development of the nervous +system, or the circulatory system, or the digestive +system, or of the eye, or of the ear?</p> + +<p>A living body is never in a state of chemical repose, +but inorganic bodies usually are. Take away +the organism and the environment remains essentially +the same; take away the environment and +the organism changes rapidly and perishes—it goes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +back to the inorganic. Now, what keeps up the +constant interchange—this seesaw? The environment +is permanent; the organism is transient. The +spray of the falls is permanent; the bow comes and +goes. Life struggles to appropriate the environment; +a rock, for example, does not, in the same +sense, struggle with its surroundings, it weathers +passively, but a tree struggles with the winds, and +to appropriate minerals and water from the soil, +and the leaves struggle to store up the sun's energy. +The body struggles to eliminate poisons or +to neutralize them; it becomes immune to certain +diseases, learns to resist them; the thing is <i>alive</i>. +Organisms struggle with one another; inert bodies +clash and pulverize one another, but do not devour +one another.</p> + +<p>Life is a struggle between two forces, a force +within and a force without, but the force within +does all the struggling. The air does not struggle to +get into the lungs, nor the lime and iron to get into +our blood. The body struggles to digest and assimilate +the food; the chlorophyll in the leaf struggles +to store up the solar energy. The environment +is unaware of the organism; the light is indifferent +to the sensitized plate of the photographer. Something +in the seed we plant avails itself of the heat +and the moisture. The relation is not that of a thermometer +or hygrometer to the warmth and moisture +of the air; it is a vital relation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>Life may be called an aquatic phenomenon, because +there can be no life without water. It may +be called a thermal phenomenon, because there +can be no life below or above a certain degree of +temperature. It may be called a chemical phenomenon, +because there can be no life without chemical +reactions. Yet none of these things define life. We +may discuss biological facts in terms of chemistry +without throwing any light on the nature of life +itself. If we say the particular essence of life is +chemical, do we mean any more than that life is +inseparable from chemical reactions?</p> + +<p>After we have mastered the chemistry of life, +laid bare all its processes, named all its transformations +and transmutations, analyzed the living cell, +seen the inorganic pass into the organic, and beheld +chemical reaction, the chief priestess of this +hidden rite, we shall have to ask ourselves, Is chemistry +the creator of life, or does life create or use +chemistry? These "chemical reaction complexes" +in living cells, as the biochemists call them, are +they the cause of life, or only the effect of life? We +shall decide according to our temperaments or our +habits of thought.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h2>THE JOURNEYING ATOMS</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + + +<p>Emerson confessed in his "Journal" that he +could not read the physicists; their works did +not appeal to him. He was probably repelled by +their formulas and their mathematics. But add a +touch of chemistry, and he was interested. Chemistry +leads up to life. He said he did not think he +would feel threatened or insulted if a chemist should +take his protoplasm, or mix his hydrogen, oxygen, +and carbon, and make an animalcule incontestably +swimming and jumping before his eyes. It would +be only evidence of a new degree of power over +matter which man had attained to. It would all +finally redound to the glory of matter itself, which, +it appears, "is impregnated with thought and +heaven, and is really of God, and not of the Devil, +as we had too hastily believed." This conception of +matter underlies the new materialism of such men +as Huxley and Tyndall. But there is much in the +new physics apart from its chemical aspects that +ought to appeal to the Emersonian type of mind. +Did not Emerson in his first poem, "The Sphinx," +sing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i0">Journeying atoms,<br /></div> +<div class="i0">Primordial wholes?<br /></div> +</div></div> + +<p>In those ever-moving and indivisible atoms he +touches the very corner-stone of the modern scientific +conception of matter. It is hardly an exaggeration +to say that in this conception we are brought +into contact with a kind of transcendental physics. +A new world for the imagination is open—a world +where the laws and necessities of ponderable bodies +do not apply. The world of gross matter disappears, +and in its place we see matter dematerialized, and +escaping from the bondage of the world of tangible +bodies; we see a world where friction is abolished, +where perpetual motion is no longer impossible; +where two bodies may occupy the same space at the +same time; where collisions and disruptions take +place without loss of energy; where subtraction +often means more—as when the poison of a substance +is rendered more virulent by the removal of +one or more atoms of one of the elements; and where +addition often means less—as when three parts +of the gases of oxygen and hydrogen unite and form +only two parts of watery vapor; where mass and +form, centre and circumference, size and structure, +exist without any of the qualities ordinarily associated +with these things through our experience in a +three-dimension world. We see, or contemplate, +bodies which are indivisible; if we divide them, +their nature changes; if we divide a molecule of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +water, we get atoms of hydrogen and oxygen gas; +if we divide a molecule of salt, we get atoms of +chlorine gas and atoms of the metal sodium, which +means that we have reached a point where matter +is no longer divisible in a mechanical sense, but only +in a chemical sense; which again means that great +and small, place and time, inside and outside, +dimensions and spatial relations, have lost their +ordinary meanings. Two bodies get inside of each +other. To the physicist, heat and motion are one; +light is only a mechanical vibration in the ether; +sound is only a vibration in the air, which the ear +interprets as sound. The world is as still as death +till the living ear comes to receive the vibrations in +the air; motion, or the energy which it implies, is the +life of the universe.</p> + +<p>Physics proves to us the impossibility of perpetual +motion among visible, tangible bodies, at the same +time that it reveals to us a world where perpetual +motion is the rule—the world of molecules and +atoms. In the world of gross matter, or of ponderable +bodies, perpetual motion is impossible because +here it takes energy, or its equivalent, to beget +energy. Friction very soon turns the kinetic energy +of motion into the potential energy of heat, +which quickly disappears in that great sea of energy, +the low uniform temperature of the earth. But +when we reach the interior world of matter, the +world of molecules, atoms, and electrons, we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +reached a world where perpetual motion <i>is</i> the rule; +we have reached the fountain-head of energy, and +the motion of one body is not at the expense of the +motion of some other body, but is a part of the spontaneous +struggling and jostling and vibration that +go on forever in all the matter of the universe. What +is called the Brunonian movement (first discovered +by the botanist Robert Brown in 1827) is +within reach of the eye armed with a high-power +microscope. Look into any liquid that holds in suspension +very small particles of solid matter, such +as dust particles in the air, or the granules of ordinary +water-color paints dissolved in water: not a +single one of the particles is at rest; they are all mysteriously +agitated; they jump hither and thither; +it is a wild chaotic whirl and dance of minute particles. +Brown at first thought they were alive, but +they were only non-living particles dancing to the +same tune which probably sets suns and systems +whirling in the heavens. Ramsay says that tobacco +smoke confined in the small flat chamber formed in +the slide of a microscope, shows this movement, in +appearance like the flight of minute butterflies. +The Brunonian movement is now believed to be due +to the bombardment of the particles by the molecules +of the liquid or gas in which they are suspended. +The smaller the particles, the livelier they are. These +particles themselves are made up of a vast number +of molecules, among which the same movement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +or agitation, much more intense, is supposed to be +taking place; the atoms which compose the molecules +are dancing and frisking about like gnats in +the air, and the electrons inside the atoms are still +more rapidly changing places.</p> + +<p>We meet with the same staggering figures in the +science of the infinitely little that we do in the science +of the infinitely vast. Thus the physicist deals +with a quantity of matter a million million times +smaller than can be detected in the most delicate +chemical balance. Molecules inconceivably small +rush about in molecular space inconceivably small. +Ramsay calculates how many collisions the molecules +of gas make with other molecules every second, +which is four and one half quintillions. This +staggers the mind like the tremendous revelations of +astronomy. Mathematics has no trouble to compute +the figures, but our slow, clumsy minds feel helpless +before them. In every drop of water we drink, and +in every mouthful of air we breathe, there is a movement +and collision of particles so rapid in every second +of time that it can only be expressed by four +with eighteen naughts. If the movement of these +particles were attended by friction, or if the energy +of their impact were translated into heat, what hot +mouthfuls we should have! But the heat, as well +as the particles, is infinitesimal, and is not perceptible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>The molecules and atoms and electrons into which +science resolves matter are hypothetical bodies which +no human eye has ever seen, or ever can see, but +they build up the solid frame of the universe. The +air and the rocks are not so far apart in their constituents +as they might seem to our senses. The invisible +and indivisible molecules of oxygen which +we breathe, and which keep our life-currents going, +form about half the crust of the earth. The soft +breeze that fans and refreshes us, and the rocks that +crush us, are at least half-brothers. And herein we +get a glimpse of the magic of chemical combinations. +That mysterious property in matter which we call +chemical affinity, a property beside which human +affinities and passions are tame and inconstant +affairs, is the architect of the universe. Certain elements +attract certain other elements with a fierce +and unalterable attraction, and when they unite, the +resultant compound is a body totally unlike either +of the constituents. Both substances have disappeared, +and a new one has taken their place. This +is the magic of chemical change. A physical change, +as of water into ice, or into steam, is a simple matter; +it is merely a matter of more or less heat; but the +change of oxygen and hydrogen into water, or of +chlorine gas and the mineral sodium into common +salt, is a chemical change. In nature, chlorine and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +sodium are not found in a free or separate state; they +hunted each other up long ago, and united to produce +the enormous quantities of rock salt that the +earth holds. One can give his imagination free range +in trying to picture what takes place when two or +more elements unite chemically, but probably there +is no physical image that can afford even a hint of +it. A snake trying to swallow himself, or two fishes +swallowing each other, or two bullets meeting in the +air and each going through the centre of the other, +or the fourth dimension, or almost any other impossible +thing, from the point of view of tangible bodies, +will serve as well as anything. The atoms seem to +get inside of one another, to jump down one another's +throats, and to suffer a complete transformation. +Yet we know that they do not; oxygen is still +oxygen, and carbon still carbon, amid all the strange +partnerships entered into, and all the disguises assumed. +We can easily evoke hydrogen and oxygen +from water, but just how their molecules unite, how +they interpenetrate and are lost in one another, it +is impossible for us to conceive.</p> + +<p>We cannot visualize a chemical combination because +we have no experience upon which to found +it. It is so fundamentally unlike a mechanical mixture +that even our imagination can give us no clew +to it. It is thinkable that the particles of two or +more substances however fine, mechanically mixed, +could be seen and recognized if sufficiently magnified;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +but in a chemical combination, say like iron +sulphide, no amount of magnification could reveal +the two elements of iron and sulphur. They no +longer exist. A third substance unlike either has +taken their place.</p> + +<p>We extract aluminum from clay, but no conceivable +power of vision could reveal to us that metal in +the clay. It is there only potentially. In a chemical +combination the different substances interpenetrate +and are lost in one another: they are not mechanically +separable nor individually distinguishable. +The iron in the red corpuscles of the blood is not +the metal we know, but one of its many chemical +disguises. Indeed it seems as if what we call the +ultimate particles of matter did not belong to the +visible order and hence were incapable of magnification.</p> + +<p>That mysterious force, chemical affinity, is the +true and original magic. That two substances +should cleave to each other and absorb each other +and produce a third totally unlike either is one of +the profound mysteries of science. Of the nature of +the change that takes place, I say, we can form no +image. Chemical force is selective; it is not promiscuous +and indiscriminate like gravity, but specific +and individual. Nearly all the elements have their +preferences and they will choose no other. Oxygen +comes the nearest to being a free lover among the +elements, but its power of choice is limited.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>Science conceives of all matter as grained or discrete, +like a bag of shot, or a pile of sand. Matter +does not occupy space continuously, not even in the +hardest substances, such as the diamond; there is +space, molecular space, between the particles. A +rifle bullet whizzing past is no more a continuous +body than is a flock of birds wheeling and swooping +in the air. Air spaces separate the birds, and molecular +spaces separate the molecules of the bullet. +Of course it is unthinkable that indivisible particles +of matter can occupy space and have dimensions. +But science goes upon this hypothesis, and the hypothesis +proves itself.</p> + +<p>After we have reached the point of the utmost +divisibility of matter in the atom, we are called upon +to go still further and divide the indivisible. The +electrons, of which the atom is composed, are one +hundred thousand times smaller, and two thousand +times lighter than the smallest particle hitherto +recognized, namely, the hydrogen atom. A French +physicist conceives of the electrons as rushing about +in the interior of the atom like swarms of gnats whirling +about in the dome of a cathedral. The smallest +particle of dust that we can recognize in the air is +millions of times larger than the atom, and millions +of millions of times larger than the electron. Yet +science avers that the manifestations of energy +which we call light, radiant heat, magnetism, and +electricity, all come from the activities of the electrons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +Sir J. J. Thomson conceives of a free electron +as dashing about from one atom to another at a +speed so great as to change its location forty million +times a second. In the electron we have matter dematerialized; +the electron is not a material particle. +Hence the step to the electric constitution of matter +is an easy one. In the last analysis we have pure +disembodied energy. "With many of the feelings of +an air-man," says Soddy, "who has left behind for +the first time the solid ground beneath him," we +make this plunge into the demonstrable verities of +the newest physics; matter in the old sense—gross +matter—fades away. To the three states in which +we have always known it, the solid, the liquid, and +the gaseous, we must add a fourth, the ethereal—the +state of matter which Sir Oliver Lodge thinks +borders on, or is identical with, what we call the +spiritual, and which affords the key to all the occult +phenomena of life and mind.</p> + +<p>As we have said, no human eye has ever seen, or +will see, an atom; only the mind's eye, or the imagination, +sees atoms and molecules, yet the atomic +theory of matter rests upon the sure foundation of +experimental science. Both the chemist and the +physicist are as convinced of the existence of these +atoms as they are of the objects we see and touch. +The theory "is a necessity to explain the experimental +facts of chemical composition." "Through +metaphysics first," says Soddy, "then through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +alchemy and chemistry, through physical and astronomical +spectroscopy, lastly through radio-activity, +science has slowly groped its way to the +atom." The physicists make definite statements +about these hypothetical bodies all based upon +definite chemical phenomena. Thus Clerk Maxwell +assumes that they are spherical, that the spheres +are hard and elastic like billiard-balls, that they collide +and glance off from one another in the same +way, that is, that they collide at their surfaces and +not at their centres.</p> + +<p>Only two of our senses make us acquainted with +matter in a state which may be said to approach the +atomic—smell and taste. Odors are material emanations, +and represent a division of matter into inconceivably +small particles. What are the perfumes +we smell but emanations, flying atoms or electrons, +radiating in all directions, and continuing for a +shorter or longer time without any appreciable +diminution in bulk or weight of the substances that +give them off? How many millions or trillions of +times does the rose divide its heart in the perfume +it sheds so freely upon the air? The odor of the +musk of certain animals lingers under certain conditions +for years. The imagination is baffled in trying +to conceive of the number and minuteness of +the particles which the fox leaves of itself in the +snow where its foot was imprinted—so palpable +that the scent of a hound can seize upon them hours<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +after the fox has passed! The all but infinite divisibility +of matter is proved by every odor that the +breeze brings us from field and wood, and by the +delicate flavors that the tongue detects in the food +we eat and drink. But these emanations and solutions +that affect our senses probably do not represent +a chemical division of matter; when we smell +an apple or a flower, we probably get a real fragment +of the apple, or of the flower, and not one or +more of its chemical constituents represented by +atoms or electrons. A chemical analysis of odors, +if it were possible, would probably show the elements +in the same state of combination as the substances +from which the odors emanated.</p> + +<p>The physicists herd these ultimate particles of +matter about; they have a regular circus with them; +they make them go through films and screens; they +guide them through openings; they count them as +their tiny flash is seen on a sensitized plate; they +weigh them; they reckon their velocity. The alpha-rays +from radio-active substances are swarms of tiny +meteors flying at the incredible speed of twelve +thousand miles a second, while the meteors of the +midnight sky fly at the speed of only forty miles a +second. Those alpha particles are helium atoms. +They are much larger than beta particles, and have +less penetrative power. Sir J. J. Thomson has devised +a method by which he has been able to photograph +the atoms. The photographic plate upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +which their flight is recorded suggests a shower of +shooting stars. Oxygen is found to be made up of +atoms of several different forms.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>The "free path" of molecules, both in liquids +and in gases, is so minute as to be beyond the reach +of the most powerful microscope. This free path in +liquids is a zigzag course, owing to the perpetual +collisions with other molecules. The molecular behavior +of liquids differs from that of gases only in +what is called surface tension. Liquids have a skin, +a peculiar stress of the surface molecules; gases do +not, but tend to dissipate and fill all space. A drop +of water remains intact till vaporization sets in; +then it too becomes more and more diffused.</p> + +<p>When two substances combine chemically, more +or less heat is evolved. When the combination is +effected slowly, as in an animal's body, heat is +slowly evolved. When the combustion is rapid, as +in actual fire, heat is rapidly evolved. The same +phenomenon may reach the eye as light, and the +hand as heat, though different senses get two different +impressions of the same thing. So a mechanical +disturbance may reach the ear as sound, and be +so interpreted, and reach the hand as motion in +matter. In combustion, the oxygen combines rapidly +with the carbon, giving out heat and light and carbon +dioxide, but why it does so admits of no explanation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +Herein again is where life differs from +fire; we can describe combustion in terms of chemistry, +but after we have described life in the same +terms something—and this something is the main +thing—remains untouched.</p> + +<p>The facts of radio-activity alone demonstrate +the truth of the atomic theory. The beta rays, or +emanations from radium, penetrating one foot of +solid iron are very convincing. And this may go on +for hundreds of years without any appreciable +diminution of size or weight of the radio-active substance. +"A gram of such substance," says Sir Oliver +Lodge, "might lose a few thousand of atoms a second, +and yet we could not detect the loss if we continued +to weigh it for a century." The volatile +essences of organic bodies which we detect in odors +and flavors, are not potent like the radium emanations. +We can confine them and control them, but +we cannot control the rays of radio-active matter +any more than we can confine a spirit. We can +separate the three different kinds of rays—the +alpha, the beta, and the gamma—by magnetic +devices, but we cannot cork them up and isolate +them, as we can musk and the attar of roses.</p> + +<p>And these emanations are taking place more or less +continuously all about us and we know it not. In +fact, we are at all times subjected to a molecular +bombardment of which we never dream; minute +projectiles, indivisible points of matter, are shot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +out at us in the form of electrons from glowing +metals, from lighted candles, and from other noiseless +and unsuspected batteries at a speed of tens of +thousands of miles a second, and we are none the +wiser for it. Indeed, if we could see or feel or be +made aware of it, in what a different world we +should find ourselves! How many million-or billion-fold +our sense of sight and touch would have +to be increased to bring this about! We live in a +world of collisions, disruptions, and hurtling missiles +of which our senses give us not the slightest +evidence, and it is well that they do not. There is +a tremendous activity in the air we breathe, in the +water we drink, in the food we eat, and in the soil +we walk upon, which, if magnified till our senses +could take it in, would probably drive us mad. It +is in this interior world of molecular activity, this +world of electric vibrations and oscillations, that +the many transformations of energy take place. +This is the hiding-place of the lightning, of the electrons +which moulded together make the thunderbolt. +What an underworld of mystery and power it +is! In it slumbers all the might and menace of the +storm, the power that rends the earth and shakes +the heavens. With the mind's eye one can see the +indivisible atoms giving up their electrons, see the +invisible hosts, in numbers beyond the power of +mathematics to compute, being summoned and +marshalled by some mysterious commander and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +hurled in terrible fiery phalanxes across the battlefield +of the storm.</p> + +<p>The physicist describes the atom and talks about +it as if it were "a tangible body which one could +hold in his hand like a baseball." "An atom," Sir +Oliver Lodge says, "consists of a globular mass of +positive electricity with minute negative electrons +embedded in it." He speaks of the spherical form +of the atom, and of its outer surface, of its centre, +and of its passing through other atoms, and of the +electrons that revolve around its centre as planets +around a sun. The electron, one hundred thousand +times smaller than an atom, yet has surface, and +that surface is a dimpled and corrugated sheet—like +the cover of a mattress. What a flight of the +scientific imagination is that!</p> + +<p>The disproportion between the size of an atom +and the size of an electron is vastly greater than +that between the sun and the earth. Represent an +atom, says Sir Oliver Lodge, by a church one hundred +and sixty feet long, eighty feet broad, and forty +feet high; the electrons are like gnats inside it. Yet +on the electric theory of matter, electrons are all of +the atom there is; there is no church, but only the +gnats rushing about. We know of nothing so empty +and hollow, so near a vacuum, as matter in this +conception of it. Indeed, in the new physics, matter +is only a hole in the ether. Hence the newspaper +joke about the bank sliding down and leaving the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +woodchuck-hole sticking out, looks like pretty good +physics. The electrons give matter its inertia, and +give it the force we call cohesion, give it its toughness, +its strength, and all its other properties. They +make water wet, and the diamond hard. They are +the fountain-head of the immense stores of the inter-atomic +energy, which, if it could be tapped and controlled, +would so easily do all the work of the world. +But this we cannot do. "We are no more competent," +says Professor Soddy, "to make use of +these supplies of atomic energy than a savage, +ignorant of how to kindle a fire, could make use of +a steam-engine." The natural rate of flow of this +energy from its atomic sources we get as heat, and +it suffices to keep life going upon this planet. It is +the source of all the activity we see upon the globe. +Its results, in the geologic ages, are stored up for us +in coal and oil and natural gas, and, in our day, are +available in the winds, the tides, and the waterfalls, +and in electricity.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The electric constitution of matter is quite beyond +anything we can imagine. The atoms are +little worlds by themselves, and the whole mystery +of life and death is in their keeping. The whole difference +in the types of mind and character among +men is supposed to be in their keeping. The different +qualities and properties of bodies are in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +keeping. Whether an object is hot or cold to our +senses, depends upon the character of their vibrations; +whether it be sweet or sour, poisonous or +innocuous to us, depends upon how the atoms select +their partners in the whirl and dance of their activities. +The hardness and brilliancy of the diamond is +supposed to depend upon how the atoms of carbon +unite and join hands.</p> + +<p>I have heard the view expressed that all matter, +as such, is dead matter, that the molecules of hydrogen, +oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, iron, phosphorus, +calcium, and so on, in a living body, are themselves +no more alive than the same molecules in inorganic +matter. Nearly nine tenths of a living body is +water; is not this water the same as the water we +get at the spring or the brook? is it any more alive? +does water undergo any chemical change in the +body? is it anything more than a solvent, than a +current that carries the other elements to all parts +of the body? There are any number of chemical +changes or reactions in a living body, but are the +atoms and molecules that are involved in such +changes radically changed? Can oxygen be anything +but oxygen, or carbon anything but carbon? +Is what we call life the result of their various new +combinations? Many modern biologists hold to +this view. In this conception merely a change in +the order of arrangement of the molecules of a substance—which +follows which or which is joined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +to which—is fraught with consequences as great +as the order in which the letters of the alphabet are +arranged in words, or the words themselves are +arranged in sentences. The change of one letter in +a word often utterly changes the meaning of that +word, and the changing of a word in the sentence +may give expression to an entirely different idea. +Reverse the letters in the word "God," and you +get the name of our faithful friend the dog. Huxley +and Tyndall both taught that it was the way that +the ultimate particles of matter are compounded +that makes the whole difference between a cabbage +and an oak, or between a frog and a man. It is a +hard proposition. We know with scientific certainty +that the difference between a diamond and a piece +of charcoal, or between a pearl and an oyster-shell, +is the way that the particles of carbon in the one +case, and of calcium carbide in the other, are arranged. +We know with equal certainty that the +difference between certain chemical bodies, like +alcohol and ether, is the arrangement of their ultimate +particles, since both have the same chemical +formula. We do not spell acetic acid, alcohol, sugar, +starch, animal fat, vegetable oils, glycerine, and the +like, with the same letters; yet nature compounds +them all of the same atoms of carbon, hydrogen, +and oxygen, but in different proportions and in +different orders.</p> + +<p>Chemistry is all-potent. A mechanical mixture of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +two or more elements is a simple affair, but a chemical +mixture introduces an element of magic. No +conjurer's trick can approach such a transformation +as that of oxygen and hydrogen gases into +water. The miracle of turning water into wine is +tame by comparison. Dip plain cotton into a mixture +of nitric and sulphuric acids and let it dry, and +we have that terrible explosive, guncotton. Or, +take the cellulose of which cotton is composed, and +add two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, and +we have sugar. But we are to remember that the +difference here indicated is not a quantitative, but a +qualitative one, not one affecting bulk, but affecting +structure. Truly chemistry works wonders. Take +ethyl alcohol, or ordinary spirits of wine, and add +four more atoms of carbon to the carbon molecule, +and we have the poison carbolic acid. Pure alcohol +can be turned into a deadly poison, not by adding +to, but simply by taking from it; take out one atom +of carbon and two of hydrogen from the alcohol +molecule, and we have the poison methyl alcohol. +But we are to remember that the difference here +indicated is not a quantitative, but a qualitative +one, not one affecting bulk, but affecting structure.</p> + +<p>In our atmosphere we have a mechanical mixture +of nitrogen and oxygen, four parts of nitrogen to +one of oxygen. By uniting the nitrogen and oxygen +chemically (N<sub>2</sub>O) we have nitrous oxide, laughing-gas. +Ordinary starch is made up of three different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +elements—six parts of carbon, ten parts of +hydrogen, and five parts of oxygen (C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>10</sub>O<sub>5</sub>). +Now if we add water to this compound, we have a +simple mixture of starch and water, but if we bring +about a chemical union with the elements of water +(hydrogen and oxygen), we have grape sugar. This +sugar is formed in green leaves by the agency of +sunlight, and is the basis of all plant and animal +food, and hence one of the most important things +in nature.</p> + +<p>Carbon is a solid, and is seen in its pure state in +the diamond, the hardest body in nature and the +most valued of all precious stones, but it enters +largely into all living bodies and is an important +constituent of all the food we eat. As a gas, united +with the oxygen of the air, forming carbon dioxide, +it was present at the beginning of life, and probably +helped kindle the first vital spark. In the shape of +wood and coal, it now warms us and makes the +wheels of our material civilization go round. Diamond +stuff, through the magic of chemistry, plays +one of the principle rôles in our physical life; we eat +it, and are warmed and propelled by it, and cheered +by it. Taken as carbonic acid gas into our lungs, it +poisons us; taken into our stomachs, it stimulates +us; dissolved in water, it disintegrates the rocks, +eating out the carbonate of lime which they contain. +It is one of the principal actors in the drama of +organized matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>We have a good illustration of the power of +chemistry, and how closely it is dogging the footsteps +of life, in the many organic compounds it has +built up out of the elements, such as sugar, starch, +indigo, camphor, rubber, and so forth, all of which +used to be looked upon as impossible aside from life-processes. +It is such progress as this that leads +some men of science to believe that the creation of +life itself is within the reach of chemistry. I do not +believe that any occult or transcendental principle +bars the way, but that some unknown and perhaps +unknowable condition does, as mysterious and unrepeatable +as that which separates our mental life +from our physical. The transmutation of the physical +into the psychical takes place, but the secret of it +we do not know. It does not seem to fall within the +law of the correlation and the conservation of energy.</p> + +<p>Free or single atoms are very rare; they all +quickly find their mates or partners. This eagerness +of the elements to combine is one of the mysteries. +If the world of visible matter were at one stroke +resolved into its constituent atoms, it would practically +disappear; we might smell it, or taste it, if we +were left, but we could not see it, or feel it; the +water would vanish, the solid ground would vanish—more +than half of it into oxygen atoms, and the +rest mainly into silicon atoms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>The atoms of different bodies are all alike, and +presumably each holds the same amount of electric +energy. One wonders, then, how the order in which +they are arranged can affect them so widely as to +produce bodies so unlike as, say, alcohol and ether. +This brings before us again the mystery of chemical +arrangement or combination, so different from anything +we know among tangible bodies. It seems to +imply that each atom has its own individuality. +Mix up a lot of pebbles together, and the result +would be hardly affected by the order of the arrangement, +but mix up a lot of people, and the result +would be greatly affected by the fact of who is +elbowing who. It seems the same among the mysterious +atoms, as if some complemented or stimulated +those next them, or had an opposite effect. +But can we think of the atoms in a chemical compound +as being next one another, or merely in +juxtaposition? Do we not rather have to think of +them as identified with one another to an extent +that has no parallel in the world of ponderable +bodies? A kind of sympathy or affinity makes them +one in a sense that we only see realized among living +beings.</p> + +<p>Chemical activity is the first step from physical +activity to vital activity, but the last step is taken +rarely—the other two are universal. Chemical +changes involve the atom. What do vital changes +involve? We do not know. We can easily bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +about the chemical changes, but not so the vital +changes. A chemical change destroys one or more +substances and produces others totally unlike them; +a vital change breaks up substances and builds up +other bodies out of them; it results in new compounds +that finally cover the earth with myriads +of new and strange forms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h2>THE VITAL ORDER</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + + +<p>The mechanistic theory of life—the theory +that all living things can be explained and +fully accounted for on purely physico-chemical +principles—has many defenders in our day. The +main aim of the foregoing chapters is to point out +the inadequacy of this view. At the risk of wearying +my reader I am going to collect under the above +heading a few more considerations bearing on this +point.</p> + +<p>A thing that grows, that develops, cannot, except +by very free use of language, be called a machine. +We speak of the body as a machine, but we have to +qualify it by prefixing the adjective living—the +living machine, which takes it out of the mechanical +order of things fabricated, contrived, built up from +without, and puts it in the order we call vital, the +order of things self-developed from within, the order +of things autonomous, as contrasted with things +automatic. All the mechanical principles are operative +in the life processes, but they have been vitalized, +not changed in any way but in the service of a +new order of reality. The heart with its chambers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +and valves is a pump that forces the blood through +the system, but a pump that works itself and does +not depend upon pneumatic pressure—a pump in +which vital energy takes the place of gravitational +energy. The peristaltic movement in the intestines +involves a mechanical principle, but it is set up by +an inward stimulus, and not by outward force. It +is these inward stimuli, which of course involve +chemical reactions, that afford the motive power for +all living bodies and that put the living in another +order from the mechanical. The eye is an optical +instrument,—a rather crude one, it is said,—but +it cannot be separated from its function, as can a +mere instrument—the eye sees as literally as the +brain thinks. In breathing we unconsciously apply +the principle of the bellows; it is a bellows again +which works itself, but the function of which, in a +very limited sense, we can inhibit and control. An +artificial, or man-made, machine always implies an +artificer, but the living machine is not made in any +such sense; it grows, it arises out of the organizing +principle that becomes active in matter under conditions +that we only dimly understand, and that we +cannot reproduce.</p> + +<p>The vital and the mechanical coöperate in all +our bodily functions. Swallowing our food is a +mechanical process, the digestion of it is a chemical +process and the assimilation and elimination of it +a vital process. Inhaling and exhaling the air is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +mechanical process, the oxidation of the blood is a +chemical process, and the renewal of the corpuscles +is a vital process. Growth, assimilation, elimination, +reproduction, metabolism, and secretion, are all +vital processes which cannot be described in terms +of physics and chemistry. All our bodily movements—lifting, +striking, walking, running—are +mechanical, but seeing, hearing, and tasting, are of +another order. And that which controls, directs, +coördinates, and inhibits our activities belongs to a +still higher order, the psychic. The world of thoughts +and emotions within us, while dependent upon and +interacting with the physical world without us, +cannot be accounted for in terms of the physical +world. A living thing is more than a machine, +more than a chemical laboratory.</p> + +<p>We can analyze the processes of a tree into their +mechanical and chemical elements, but there is besides +a kind of force there which we must call vital. +The whole growth and development of the tree, its +manner of branching and gripping the soil, its fixity +of species, its individuality—all imply something +that does not belong to the order of the inorganic, +automatic forces. In the living animal how the +psychic stands related to the physical or physiological +and arises out of it, science cannot tell us, but +the relation must be real; only philosophy can +grapple with that question. To resolve the <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'pyschic'">psychic</ins> +and the vital into the mechanical and chemical and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +refuse to see any other factors at work is the essence +of materialism.</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>Any contrivance which shows an interdependence +of parts, that results in unity of action, is +super-mechanical. The solar system may be regarded +as a unit, but it has not the purposive unity +of a living body. It is one only in the sense that its +separate bodies are all made of one stuff, and obey +the same laws and move together in the same direction, +but a living body is a unit because all its +parts are in the service of one purposive end. An +army is a unit, a flock of gregarious birds, a colony +of ants or bees, is a unit because the spirit and purpose +of one is the spirit and purpose of all; the unity +is psychological.</p> + +<p>Only living bodies are adaptive. Adaptation, of +course, has its physics or its chemistry, because it +is a physical phenomenon; but there is no adaptation +of a rock or a clay-bank to its environment; +there is only mechanical and chemical adjustment. +The influence of the environment may bring about +chemical and physical changes in a non-living body, +but they are not purposive as in a living body. The +fat in the seeds of plants in northern countries is +liquid and solid at a lower temperature than in +tropical climates. Living organisms alone react in +a formative or deformative way to external stimuli.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +In warm climates the fur of animals and the wool +of sheep become thin and light. The colder the +climate, the thicker these coverings. Such facts +only show that in the matter of adaptation among +living organisms, there is a factor at work other +than chemistry and physics—not independent of +them, but making a purposive use of them. Cut +off the central shoot that leads the young spruce +tree upwards, and one of the shoots from the whirl +of lateral branches below it slowly rises up and +takes the place of the lost leader. Here is an action +not prompted by the environment, but by the morphological +needs of the tree, and it illustrates how +different is its unity from the unity of a mere machine. +I am only aiming to point out that in all +living things the material forces behave in a purposive +way to a degree that cannot be affirmed of +them in non-living, and that, therefore, they imply +intelligence.</p> + +<p>Evidently the cells in the body do not all have +the same degree of life,—that is, the same degree +of irritability. The bone cells and the hair cells, for +instance, can hardly be so much alive—or so irritable—as +the muscle cells; nor these as intensely +alive as the nerve and brain cells. Does not a bird +possess a higher degree of life than a mollusk, or a +turtle? Is not a brook trout more alive than a mud-sucker? +You can freeze the latter as stiff as an icicle +and resuscitate it, but not the former. There is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +scale of degrees in life as clearly as there is a scale +of degrees in temperature. There is an endless gradation +of sensibilities of the living cells, dependent +probably upon the degree of differentiation of function. +Anæsthetics dull or suspend this irritability. +The more highly developed and complex the nervous +system, the higher the degree of life, till we +pass from mere physical life to psychic life. Science +might trace this difference to cell structure, but +what brings about the change in the character of +the cell, or starts the cells to building a complex +nervous system, is a question unanswerable to +science. The biologist imagines this and that about +the invisible or hypothetical molecular structure; +he assigns different functions to the atoms; some +are for endosmosis, others for contraction, others +for conduction of stimuli. Intramolecular oxygen +plays a part. Other names are given to the mystery—the +micellar strings of Naegeli, the biophores +of Weismann, the plastidules of Haeckel; they all +presuppose millions of molecules peculiarly arranged +in the protoplasm.</p> + +<p>On purely mechanical and chemical principles +Tyndall accounts for the growth from the germ of a +tree. The germ would be quiet, but the solar light +and heat disturb its dreams, break up its atomic +equilibrium. The germ makes an "effort" to restore +it (why does it make an effort?), which effort +is necessarily defeated and incessantly renewed, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +in the turmoil or "scrapping" between the germ +and the solar forces, matter is gathered from the soil +and from the air and built into the special form of a +tree. Why not in the form of a cabbage, or a donkey, +or a clam? If the forces are purely automatic, why +not? Why should matter be gathered in at all in a +mechanical struggle between inorganic elements? +But these are not all inorganic; the seed is organic. +Ah! that makes the difference! That accounts for +the "effort." So we have to have the organic to +start with, then the rest is easy. No doubt the molecules +of the seed would remain in a quiescent state, +if they were not disturbed by external influences, +chemical and mechanical. But there is something +latent or potential in that seed that is the opposite of +the mechanical, namely, the vital, and in what that +consists, and where it came from, is the mystery.</p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>I fancy that the difficulty which an increasing +number of persons find in accepting the mechanistic +view of life, or evolution,—the view which Herbert +Spencer built into such a ponderous system of philosophy, +and which such men as Huxley, Tyndall, +Gifford, Haeckel, Verworn, and others, have upheld +and illustrated,—is temperamental rather +than logical. The view is distasteful to a certain +type of mind—the flexible, imaginative, artistic, +and literary type—the type that loves to see itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +reflected in nature or that reads its own thoughts +and emotions into nature. In a few eminent examples +the two types of mind to which I refer seem +more or less blended. Sir Oliver Lodge is a case in +point. Sir Oliver is an eminent physicist who in his +conception of the totality of things is yet a thoroughgoing +idealist and mystic. His solution of the +problem of living things is extra-scientific. He sees +in life a distinct transcendental principle, not involved +in the constitution of matter, but independent +of it, entering into it and using it for its own purposes.</p> + +<p>Tyndall was another great scientist with an inborn +idealistic strain in him. His famous, and to +many minds disquieting, declaration, made in his +Belfast address over thirty years ago, that in matter +itself he saw the promise and the potency of all +terrestrial life, stamps him as a scientific materialist. +But his conception of matter, as "at bottom essentially +mystical and transcendental," stamps him as +also an idealist. The idealist in him speaks very +eloquently in the passage which, in the same address, +he puts into the mouth of Bishop Butler, in +the latter's imaginary debate with Lucretius: "Your +atoms," says the Bishop, "are individually without +sensation, much more are they without intelligence. +May I ask you, then, to try your hand upon +this problem. Take your dead hydrogen atoms, +your dead oxygen atoms, your dead carbon atoms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +your dead nitrogen atoms, your dead phosphorus +atoms, and all the other atoms, dead as grains of +shot, of which the brain is formed. Imagine them +separate and sensationless, observe them running +together and forming all imaginable combinations. +This, as a purely mechanical process, is <i>seeable</i> by +the mind. But can you see or dream, or in any way +imagine, how out of that mechanical art, and from +these individually dead atoms, sensation, thought, +and emotion are to arise? Are you likely to extract +Homer out of the rattling of dice, or the Differential +Calculus out of the clash of billiard balls?" Could +any vitalist, or Bergsonian idealist have stated his +case better?</p> + +<p>Now the Bishop Butler type of mind—the visualizing, +idealizing, analogy-loving, literary, and +philosophical mind—is shared by a good many +people; it is shared by or is characteristic of all the +great poets, artists, seers, idealists of the world; +it is the humanistic type that sees man everywhere +reflected in nature; and is radically different from +the strictly scientific type which dehumanizes nature +and reduces it to impersonal laws and forces, which +distrusts analogy and sentiment and poetry, and +clings to a rigid logical method.</p> + +<p>This type of mind is bound to have trouble in +accepting the physico-chemical theory of the nature +and origin of life. It visualizes life, sees it as a distinct +force or principle working in and through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +matter but not of it, super-physical in its origin and +psychological in its nature. This is the view Henri +Bergson exploits in his "Creative Evolution." This +is the view Kant took when he said, "It is quite +certain that we cannot even satisfactorily understand, +much less explain, the nature of an organism +and its internal forces on purely mechanical principles." +It is the view Goethe took when he said, +"Matter can never exist without spirit, nor spirit +without matter."</p> + +<p>Tyndall says Goethe was helped by his poetic +training in the field of natural history, but hindered +as regards the physical and mechanical sciences. +"He could not formulate distinct mechanical conceptions; +he could not see the force of mechanical +reasoning." His literary culture helped him to a +literary interpretation of living nature, but not to a +scientific explanation of it; it helped put him in +sympathy with living things, and just to that extent +barred him from the mechanistic conception of +those of pure science. Goethe, like every great poet, +saw the universe through the colored medium of his +imagination, his emotional and æsthetic nature; in +short, through his humanism, and not in the white +light of the scientific reason. His contributions to +literature were of the first order, but his contributions +to science have not taken high rank. He was a +"prophet of the soul," and not a disciple of the +scientific understanding.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<p>If we look upon life as inherent or potential in the +constitution of matter, dependent upon outward +physical and chemical conditions for its development, +we are accounting for life in terms of matter +and motion, and are in the ranks of the materialists. +But if we find ourselves unable to set the ultimate +particles of matter in action, or so working as to +produce the reaction which results in life, without +conceiving of some new force or principle operating +upon them, then we are in the ranks of the +vitalists or idealists. The idealists see the original +atoms slumbering there in rock and sea and soil for +untold ages, till, moved upon by some unknown +factor, they draw together in certain fixed order and +numbers, and life is the result. Something seems to +put a spell upon them and cause them to behave so +differently from the way they behaved before they +were drawn into the life circuit.</p> + +<p>When we think of life, as the materialists do, as +of mechanico-chemical origin, or explicable in terms +of the natural universal order, we think of the play +of material forces amid which we live, we think of +their subtle action and interaction all about us—of +osmosis, capillarity, radio-activity, electricity, +thermism, and the like; we think of the four states +of matter,—solid, fluid, gaseous, and ethereal,—of +how little our senses take in of their total activities, +and we do not feel the need of invoking a +transcendental principle to account for it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yet to fail to see that what we must call intelligence +pervades and is active in all organic nature is +to be spiritually blind. But to see it as something +foreign to, or separable from, nature is to do violence +to our faith in the constancy and sufficiency of the +natural order. One star differeth from another star +in glory. There are degrees of mystery in the universe. +The most mysterious thing in inorganic nature +is electricity—that disembodied energy that +slumbers in the ultimate particles of matter—unseen, +unfelt, unknown, till it suddenly leaps forth +with such terrible vividness and power on the face +of the storm, or till we summon it through the transformation +of some other form of energy. A still +higher and more inscrutable mystery is life—that +something which clothes itself in such infinitely +varied and beautiful as well as unbeautiful forms +of matter. We can evoke electricity at will from +many different sources, but we can evoke life only +from other life; the biogenetic law is inviolable.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>It takes some of the cold iron out of the mechanistic +theory of life if we divest it of all our associations +with the machine-mad and machine-ridden +world in which we live and out of which our material +civilization came. The mechanical, the automatic, +is the antithesis of the spontaneous and the poetic, +and it repels us on that account. We are so made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +that the artificial systems please us far less than the +natural systems. A sailing-ship takes us more than +a steamship. It is nearer life, nearer the winged +creatures. There is determinism in nature, mechanical +forces are everywhere operative, but there are +no machines in the proper sense of the word. When +we call an organism a living machine we at once +take it out of the categories of the merely mechanical +and automatic and lift it into a higher order—the +vital order.</p> + +<p>Professor Le Dantec says we are mechanisms in +the third degree, a mechanism of a mechanism of +a mechanism. The body is a mechanism by virtue +of its anatomy—its framework, its levers, its +hinges; it is a mechanism by virtue of its chemical +activities; and it is a mechanism by virtue of its +colloid states—three kinds of mechanisms in one, +and all acting together harmoniously and as a unit—in +other words, a super-mechanical combination +of activities.</p> + +<p>The mechanical conception of life repels us because +of its association in our minds with the fabrications +of our own hands—the dead metal and +wood and the noise and dust of our machine-ridden +and machine-produced civilization.</p> + +<p>But Nature makes no machines like our own. +She uses mechanical principles everywhere, in inert +matter and in living bodies, but she does not use +them in the bald and literal way we do. We must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +divest her mechanisms of the rigidity and angularity +that pertain to the works of our own hands. Her +hooks and hinges and springs and sails and coils +and aeroplanes, all involve mechanical contrivances, +but how differently they impress us from our own +application of the same principles! Even in inert +matter—in the dews, the rains, the winds, the +tides, the snows, the streams,—her mechanics +and her chemistry and her hydrostatics and pneumatics, +seem much nearer akin to life than our +own. We must remember that Nature's machines +are not human machines. When we place our machine +so that it is driven by the great universal +currents,—the wheel in the stream, the sail on the +water,—the result is much more pleasing and poetic +than when propelled by artificial power. The +more machinery we get between ourselves and Nature, +the farther off Nature seems. The marvels +of crystallization, the beautiful vegetable forms +which the frost etches upon the stone flagging of the +sidewalk, and upon the window-pane, delight us and +we do not reason why. A natural bridge pleases +more than one which is the work of an engineer, yet +the natural bridge can only stand when it is based +upon good engineering principles. I found at the +great Colorado Cañon, that the more the monuments +of erosion were suggestive of human structures, +or engineering and architectural works, the +more I was impressed by them. We are pleased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +when Nature imitates man, and we are pleased +when man imitates Nature, and yet we recoil from +the thought that life is only applied mechanics and +chemistry. But the thought that it is mechanics +and chemistry applied by something of which they +as such, form no part, some agent or principle which +we call vitality, is welcome to us. No machine we +have ever made or seen can wind itself up, or has +life, no chemical compound from the laboratories +ever develops a bit of organic matter, and therefore +we are disbelievers in the powers of these things.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Is gravity or chemical affinity any more real to +the mind than vitality? Both are names for mysteries. +Something which we call life lifts matter +up, in opposition to gravity, into thousands of living +forms. The tree lifts potash, silica, and lime +up one or two hundred feet into the air; it elbows +the soil away from its hole where it enters the +ground; its roots split rocks. A giant sequoia lifts +tons of solid matter and water up hundreds of feet. +So will an explosion of powder or dynamite, but +the tree does it slowly and silently by the organizing +power of life. The vital is as inscrutably identified +with the mechanical and chemical as the soul +is identified with the body. They are one while yet +they are two.</p> + +<p>For purely mechanical things we can find equivalents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +Arrest a purely mechanical process, and the +machine only rests or rusts; arrest a vital process, +and the machine evaporates, disintegrates, myriads +of other machines reduce it to its original mineral +and gaseous elements. In the organic world we +strike a principle that is incalculable in its operation +and incommensurable in its results. The physico-chemical +forces we can bring to book; we know their +orbits, their attractions and repulsions, and just +what they will and will not do; we can forecast +their movements and foresee their effects. But the +vital forces transcend all our mathematics; we cannot +anticipate their behavior. Start inert matter +in motion and we know pretty nearly what will +happen to it; mix the chemical elements together +and we can foresee the results; but start processes +or reactions we call life, and who can foresee the +end? We know the sap will mount in the tree and +the tree will be true to its type, but what do we or +can we know of what it is that determines its kind +and size? We know that in certain plants the +leaves will always be opposite each other on the +stalk, and that in other plants the leaves will alternate; +that certain plants will have conspicuous and +others inconspicuous flowers; but how can we know +what it is in the cells of the plants that determines +these things? We can graft the scion of a sour apple +tree upon a sweet, and <i>vice versa</i>, and the fruit of the +scion will be true to its kind, but no analysis of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +scion or of the stock will reveal the secret, as it +would in the case of chemical compounds. In inorganic +nature we meet with concretions, but not +secretions; with crystallization, but not with assimilation +and growth from within. Chemistry +tells us that the composition of animal bodies is +identical with that of vegetable; that there is nothing +in one that is not in the other; and yet, behold +the difference! a difference beyond the reach of +chemistry to explain. Biology can tell us all about +these differences and many other things, but it cannot +tell us the secret we are looking for,—what it +is that fashions from the same elements two bodies +so unlike as a tree and a man.</p> + +<p>Decay and disintegration in the inorganic world +often lead to the production of beautiful forms. In +life the reverse is true; the vital forces build up +varied and picturesque forms which when pulled +down are shapeless and displeasing. The immense +layers of sandstone and limestone out of which the +wonderful forms that fill the Grand Cañon of the +Colorado are carved were laid down in wide uniform +sheets; if the waters had deposited their material +in the forms which we now see, it would have +been a miracle. We marvel and admire as we gaze +upon them now; we do more, we have to speculate +as to how it was all done by the blind, unintelligent +forces. Giant stairways, enormous alcoves, dizzy, +highly wrought balustrades, massive vertical walls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +standing four-square like huge foundations—how +did all the unguided erosive forces do it? The secret +is in the structure of the rock, in the lines of cleavage, +in the unequal hardness, and in the impulsive, +irregular, and unequal action of the eroding agents. +These agents follow the lines of least resistance; they +are active at different times and seasons, and from +different directions; they work with infinite slowness; +they undermine, they disintegrate, they dislodge, +they transport; the hard streaks resist them, +the soft streaks invite them; water charged with +sand and gravel saws down; the wind, armed with +fine sand, rounds off and hollows out; and thus the +sculpturing goes on. But after you have reasoned +out all these things, you still marvel at the symmetry +and the structural beauty of the forms. They look +like the handiwork of barbarian gods. They are +the handiwork of physical forces which we can see +and measure and in a degree control. But what a +gulf separates them from the handiwork of the +organic forces!</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>Some things come and some things arise; things +that already exist may come, but potential things +arise; my friend comes to visit me, the tide comes +up the river, the cold or hot wave comes from the +west; but the seasons, night and morning, health +and disease, and the like, do not come in this sense;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +they arise. Life does not come to dead matter in +this sense; it arises. Day and night are not traveling +round the earth, though we view them that way; +they arise from the turning of the earth upon its +axis. If we could keep up with the flying moments,—that +is, with the revolution of the earth,—we +could live always at sunrise, or sunset, or at noon, +or at any other moment we cared to elect. Love or +hate does not come to our hearts; it is born there; +the breath does not come to the newborn infant; +respiration arises there automatically. See how the +life of the infant is involved in that first breath, yet +it is not its life; the infant must first be alive before +it can breathe. If it is still-born, the respiratory +reaction does not take place. We can say, then, +that the breath means life, and the life means +breath; only we must say the latter first. We can +say in the same way that organization means life, +and life means organization. Something sets up +the organizing process in matter. We may take all +the physical elements of life known to us and jumble +them together and shake them up to all eternity, +and life will not result. A little friction between +solid bodies begets heat, a little more and we get +fire. But no amount of friction begets life. Heat +and life go together, but heat is the secondary +factor.</p> + +<p>Life is always a vanishing-point, a constant becoming—an +unstable something that escapes us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +while we seem to analyze it. In its nature or essence, +it is a metaphysical problem, and not one of +physical science. Science cannot grasp it; it evaporates +in its crucibles. And science is compelled +finally to drive it into an imaginary region—I had +almost said, metaphysical region, the region of the +invisible, hypothetical atoms of matter. Here in the +mysteries of molecular attraction and repulsion, +it conceives the secret of life to lie.</p> + +<p>"Life is a wave," says Tyndall, but does not one +conceive of something, some force or impulse in the +wave that is not of the wave? What is it that travels +along lifting new water each moment up into waves? +It is a physical force communicated usually by the +winds. When the wave dies upon the shore, this +force is dissipated, not lost, or is turned into heat. +Why may we not think of life as a vital force traveling +through matter and lifting up into organic life +waves in the same way? But not translatable into +any other form of energy because not derivable +from any other form.</p> + +<p>Every species of animal has something about it +that is unique and individual and that no chemical +or physiological analysis of it will show—probably +some mode of motion among its ultimate particles +that is peculiar to itself. This prevents cross-breeding +among different species and avoids a chaos of +animal and vegetable forms. Living tissues and +living organs from one species cannot be grafted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +upon the individuals of another species; the kidney +of a cat, for instance, cannot be substituted for +that of a dog, although the functions and the anatomy +of the two are identical. It is suggested that +an element of felineness and an element of canineness +adhere in the cells of each, and the two are +antagonistic. This specific quality, or selfness, of +an animal pervades every drop of its blood, so that +the blood relationship of the different forms may +be thus tested, where chemistry is incompetent to +show agreement or antagonism. The reactions of +life are surer and more subtle than those of chemistry. +Thus the blood relationship between birds +and reptiles is clearly shown, as is the relationship +of man and the chimpanzee and the orang-outang. +The same general fact holds true in the vegetable +world. You cannot graft the apple upon the oak, +or the plum upon the elm. It seems as if there were +the quality of oakness and the quality of appleness, +and they would not mix.</p> + +<p>The same thing holds among different chemical +compounds. Substances which have precisely the +same chemical formulæ (called isomers) have properties +as widely apart as alcohol and ether.</p> + +<p>If chemistry is powerless to trace the relationship +between different forms of life, is it not highly +improbable that the secret of life itself is in the +keeping of chemistry?</p> + +<p>Analytical science has reached the end of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +tether when it has resolved a body into its constituent +elements. Why or how these elements build +up a man in the one case, and a monkey in another, +is beyond its province to say. It can deal with all +the elements of the living body, vegetable and animal; +it can take them apart and isolate them in +different bottles; but it cannot put them together +again as they were in life. It knows that the human +body is built up of a vast multitude of minute cells, +that these cells build tissues, that the tissues build +organs, that the organs build the body; but the +secret of the man, or the dog, or even the flea, is +beyond its reach. The secret of biology, that which +makes its laws and processes differ so widely from +those of geology or astronomy, is a profound mystery. +Science can take living tissue and make it grow +outside of the body from which it came, but it will +only repeat endlessly the first step of life—that +of cell-multiplication; it is like a fire that will burn +as long as fuel is given it and the ashes are removed; +but it is entirely purposeless; it will not build up +the organ of which it once formed a part, much less +the whole organized body.</p> + +<p>The difference between one man and another +does not reside in his anatomy or physiology, or in +the elements of which the brains and bodies are +composed, but in something entirely beyond the +reach of experimental science to disclose. The difference +is psychological, or, we may say, philosophical,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +and science is none the wiser for it. The mechanics +and the chemistry of a machine are quite +sufficient to account for it, plus the man behind it. +To the physics and chemistry of a living body, we +are compelled to add some intangible, unknowable +principle or tendency that physics and chemistry +cannot disclose or define. One hesitates to make +such a statement lest he do violence to that oneness, +that sameness, that pervades the universe.</p> + +<p>All trees go to the same soil for their ponderable +elements, their ashes, and to the air and the light +for their imponderable,—their carbon and their +energy,—but what makes the tree, and makes one +tree differ from another? Has the career of life upon +this globe, the unfolding of the evolutionary process, +been accounted for when you have named all +the physical and material elements and processes +which it involves? We take refuge in the phrase +"the nature of things," but the nature of things +evidently embraces something not dreamed of in +our science.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>It is reported that a French scientist has discovered +the secret of the glow-worm's light. Of +course it is a chemical reaction,—what else could +it be?—but it is a chemical reaction in a vital process. +Our mental and spiritual life—our emotions +of art, poetry, religion—are inseparable from physical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +processes in the brain and the nervous system; +but is that their final explanation? The sunlight +has little effect on a withered leaf, but see what +effect it has upon the green leaf upon the tree! The +sunlight is the same, but it falls upon a new force +or potency in the chlorophyll of the leaf,—a bit +of chemistry there inspired by life,—and the heat +of the sun is stored up in the carbon or woody tissues +of the plant or tree, to be given out again in +our stoves or fireplaces. And behold how much +more of the solar heat is stored up in one kind of a +tree than in certain other kinds,—how much in the +hickory, oak, maple, and how little comparatively +in the pine, spruce, linden,—all through the magic +of something in the leaf, or shall we say of the +spirit of the tree? If the laws of matter and force +alone account for the living organism, if we do not +have to think of something that organizes, then +how do we account for the marvelous diversity of +living forms, and their still more marvelous power +of adaptation to changed conditions, since the laws +of matter and force are the same everywhere? +Science can deal only with the mechanism and +chemistry of life, not with its essence; that which +sets up the new activity in matter that we call +vital is beyond its analysis. It is hard to believe +that we have told the whole truth about a living +body when we have enumerated all its chemical +and mechanical activities. It is by such enumeration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +that we describe a watch, or a steam-engine, +or any other piece of machinery. Describe +I say, but such description does not account for the +watch or tell us its full significance. To do this, we +must include the watchmaker, and the world of +mind and ideas amid which he lives. Now, in a living +machine, the machine and the maker are one. +The watch is perpetually self-wound and self-regulated +and self-repaired. It is made up of millions of +other little watches, the cells, all working together +for one common end and ticking out the seconds +and minutes of life with unfailing regularity. Unlike +the watch we carry in our pockets, if we take +it apart so as to stop its ticking, it can never be put +together again. It has not merely stopped; it is dead.</p> + +<p>The late William Keith Brooks, of Johns Hopkins +University, said in opposition to Huxley that he +held to the "old-fashioned conviction that living +things do in some way, and in some degree, control +or condition inorganic nature; that they hold +their own by setting the mechanical properties of +matter in opposition to each other, and that this is +their most notable and distinctive characteristic." +And yet, he said, to think of the living world as +"anything but natural" is impossible.</p> + + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p>Life seems to beget a new kind of chemistry, the +same elements behave so differently when they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +drawn into the life circuit from what they did before. +Carbon, for instance, enters into hundreds of +new compounds in the organic world that are unknown +in the inorganic world. I am thus speaking +of life as if it were something, some force or agent, +that antedates its material manifestations, whereas +in the eyes of science there is no separation of the +one from the other. In an explosion there is usually +something anterior to, or apart from, the explosive +compound, that pulls the trigger, or touches the +match, or completes the circuit, but in the slow +and gentle explosions that keep the life machinery +going, we cannot make such a distinction. The +spark and the powder are one; the gun primes and +fires itself; the battery is perpetually self-charged; +the lamp is self-trimmed and self-lit.</p> + +<p>Sir Oliver Lodge is apparently so impressed with +some such considerations that he spiritualizes life, +and makes it some mysterious entity in itself, existing +apart from the matter which it animates and +uses; not a source of energy but a timer and releaser +of energy. Henri Bergson, in his "Creative Evolution," +expounds a similar philosophy of life. Life +is a current in opposition to matter which it enters +into, and organizes into the myriads of living forms.</p> + +<p>I confess that it is easier for me to think of life in +these terms than in terms of physical science. The +view falls in better with our anthropomorphic +tendencies. It appeals to the imagination and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +our myth-making aptitudes. It gives a dramatic +interest to the question. With Bergson we see life +struggling with matter, seeking to overcome its +obduracy, compromising with it, taking a half-loaf +when it cannot get a whole one; we see evolution +as the unfolding of a vast drama acted upon the +stage of geologic time. Creation becomes a perpetual +process, the creative energy an ever-present +and familiar fact. Bergson's book is a wonderful +addition to the literature of science and of philosophy. +The poet, the dreamer, the mystic, in each +of us takes heart at Bergson's beautiful philosophy; +it seems like a part of life; it goes so well with living +things. As James said, it is like the light of the +morning and the singing of birds; we glory in seeing +the intellect humbled as he humbles it. The concepts +of science try our mettle. They do not appeal +to our humanity, or to our myth-making tendencies; +they appeal to the purely intellectual, impersonal +force within us. Though all our gods totter and fall, +science goes its way; though our hearts are chilled +and our lives are orphaned, science cannot turn +aside, or veil its light. It does not temper the wind +to the shorn lamb.</p> + +<p>Hence the scientific conception of the universe +repels many people. They are not equal to it. To +think of life as involved in the very constitution of +matter itself is a much harder proposition than to +conceive of it as Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge do,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +as an independent reality. The latter view gives +the mind something more tangible to lay hold of. +Indeed, science gives the mind nothing to take hold +of. Does any chemical process give the mind any +separate reality to take hold of? Is there a spirit of +fire, or of decay, or of disease, or of health?</p> + + +<h3>IX</h3> + +<p>Behold a man with his wonderful body, and still +more wonderful mind; try to think of him as being +fathered and mothered by the mere mechanical and +chemical forces that we see at work in the rocks +and soil underfoot, begotten by chemical affinity or +the solar energy working as molecular physic, and +mothered by the warmth and moisture, by osmosis +and the colloid state—and all through the chance +clashings and groupings of the irrational physical +forces. Nothing is added to them, nothing guides +or inspires them, nothing moves upon the face of +the waters, nothing breathes upon the insensate +clay. The molecules or corpuscles of the four principal +elements—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and +oxygen—just happened to come together in certain +definite numbers, and in a certain definite order, +and invented or built up that most marvelous thing +in the universe, the cell. The cells put their heads, +or bodies, together, and built the tissues, the tissues +formed the organs, the organs in convention assembled +organized themselves into the body, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +behold! a man, a bird, or a tree!—as chance a happening +as the juxtaposition of the grains of sand +upon the shore, or the shape of the summer clouds +in the sky.</p> + +<p>Aristotle dwells upon the internal necessity. The +teeth of an animal arise from necessity, he says; +the animal must have them in order to live. Yet +it must have lived before it had them, else how +would the necessity arise? If the horns of an animal +arise from the same necessity, the changing +conditions of its life begat the necessity; its life +problem became more and more complicated, till +new tools arose to meet new wants. But without +some indwelling principle of development and progress, +how could the new wants arise? Spencer says +this progress is the result of the action and reaction +between organisms and their changing environment. +But you must first get your organism before the +environment can work its effects, and you must +have something in the organism that organizes and +reacts from the environment. We see the agents +he names astronomic, geologic, meteorologic, having +their effects upon inanimate objects as well, +but they do not start the process of development +in them; they change a stone, but do not transform +it into an organism. The chemist can take the living +body apart as surely as the watchmaker can take +a watch apart, but he cannot put the parts together +again so that life will reappear, as the watchmaker<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +can restore the time-keeping power of the watch. +The watch is a mere mechanical contrivance with +parts fitted to parts externally, while the living body +is a mechanical and chemical contrivance, with +parts blended with parts internally, so to speak, and +acting together through sympathy, and not merely +by mechanical adjustment. Do we not have to +think of some organizing agent embracing and controlling +all the parts, and integral in each of them, +making a vital bond instead of a mechanical one?</p> + +<p>There are degrees of vitality in living things, +whereas there are only degrees of complexity and +delicacy and efficiency in mechanical contrivances. +One watch differs from another in the perfection of +its works, but not as two living bodies with precisely +similar structure differ from each other in their hold +upon life, or in their measure of vitality. No analysis +possible to science could show any difference in the +chemistry and physics of two persons of whom one +would withstand hardships and diseases that would +kill the other, or with whom one would have the +gift of long life and the other not. Machines differ +from one another quantitatively—more or less +efficiency; a living body differs from a machine +qualitatively—its efficiency is of a different order; +its unity is of a different order; its complexity is of +a different order; the interdependence of its parts +is of a different order. Yet what a parallel there is +between a machine and a living body! Both are run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +by external forces or agents, solar energy in one +applied mechanically from without; in the other +applied vitally from within; both suffer from the +wear and tear of time and from abuse, but one is +self-repaired and the other powerless in this respect—two +machines with the same treatment +running the same number of years, but two men +with the same treatment running a very unequal +number of years. Machines of the same kind differ +in durability, men differ in powers of endurance; +a man can "screw up his courage," but a machine +has no courage to screw up. Science may be unable +to see any difference between vital mechanics, vital +chemistry, and the chemics and mechanics of inorganic +bodies—its analysis reveals no difference; +but that there is a difference as between two different +orders, all men see and feel.</p> + +<p>Science cannot deal with fundamental questions. +Only philosophy can do this. Science is only a tool +or a key, and it can unlock only certain material +problems. It cannot appraise itself. It is not a +judge but a witness. Problems of mind, of character, +moral, æsthetic, literary, artistic problems, are not +its sphere. It counts and weighs and measures and +analyzes, it traces relations, but it cannot appraise +its own results. Science and religion come in conflict +only when the latter seeks to deal with objective +facts, and the former seeks to deal with subjective +ideas and emotions. On the question of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +miracle they clash, because religion is then dealing +with natural phenomena and challenges science. +Philosophy offends science when it puts its own +interpretation upon scientific facts. Science displeases +literature when it dehumanizes nature and +shows us irrefragable laws when we had looked for +humanistic divinities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h2>THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIT</h2> + + +<p>In my youth I once heard the then well-known +lecturer Starr King speak on "The Law of +Disorder." I have no recollection of the main +thought of his discourse, but can see that it might +have been upon the order and harmony that finally +come out of the disharmonies of nature and of man. +The whole universe goes blundering on, but surely +arrives. Collisions and dispersions in the heavens +above, and failure and destruction among living +things on the earth below, yet here we all are in a +world good to be in! The proof that it is good to be +in is that we are actually here. It is as if the Creator +played his right hand against his left—what one +loses the other gains.</p> + +<p>It has been aptly said that while Darwin's theory +of natural selection may account for the survival of +the fittest, it does not account for the arrival of the +fittest. The arrival of the fittest, sooner or later, +seems in some way guaranteed by tendencies that +are beyond the hit-and-miss method of natural +selection.</p> + +<p>When we look back over the course of organic +evolution, we see the unfolding of a great drama, +or tragedy, in which, for millions upon millions of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +years the sole actors are low and all but brainless +forms of life, devouring and devoured, in the old +seas. We see, during other millions upon millions of +years, a savage carnival of huge bestial forms upon +the land, amphibian monsters and dragons of the +land and air, devouring and being devoured, a riot +of blood and carnage. We see the shifting of land +and sea, the folding and crumpling of the earth's +crust, the rise of mountains, the engulfing of forests, +a vast destruction of life, immense numbers of animal +forms becoming extinct through inability to +adapt themselves to new conditions, or from other +causes. We see creatures, half beast, half bird, or +half dragon, half fish; we see the evolutionary process +thwarted or delayed apparently by the hardening +or fixing of its own forms. We see it groping its +way like a blind man, and experimenting with this +device and with that, fumbling, awkward, ineffectual, +trying magnitude of body and physical strength +first, and then shifting the emphasis to size of brain +and delicacy and complexity of nerve-organization, +pushing on but gropingly, learning only by experience, +regardless of pain and waste and suffering; +whole races of sentient beings swept away by some +terrestrial cataclysm, as at the end of Palæozoic and +Mesozoic times; prodigal, inhuman, riotous, arming +some vegetable growths with spurs and thorns that +tear and stab, some insects with stings, some serpents +with deadly fangs, the production of pain as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +much a part of the scheme of things as the production +of pleasure; the creative impulse feeling its way +through the mollusk to the fish, and through the fish +to the amphibian and the reptile, through the reptile +to the mammal, and through the mammal to the anthropoid +apes, and through the apes to man, then +through the rude and savage races of man, the long-jawed, +small-brained, Pliocene man, hairy and savage, +to the cave-dwellers and stone-implement man +of Pleistocene times, and so on to our rude ancestors +whom we see dimly at the dawn of history, and thus +rapidly upward to the European man of our own +era. What a record! What savagery, what thwartings +and delays, what carnage and suffering, what +an absence of all that we mean by intelligent planning +and oversight, of love, of fatherhood! Just a +clash of forces, the battle to the strong and the race +to the fleet.</p> + +<p>It is hard to believe that the course of organic +evolution would have eventuated in man and the +other higher forms of life without some guiding +principle; yet it is equally difficult to believe that +the course of any guiding intelligence down the ages +would have been strewn with so many failures +and monstrosities, so much waste and suffering and +delay. Man has not been specially favored by one +force or element in nature. Behold the enemies that +beset him without and within, and that are armed +for his destruction! The intelligence that appears to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> +pervade the organic world, and that reaches its conscious +expression in the brain of man, is just as manifest +in all the forms of animals and plants that are +inimical to him, in all his natural enemies,—venomous +snakes and beasts of prey, and insect pests,—as +in anything else. Nature is as wise and solicitous +for rats and mice as for men. In fact, she has endowed +many of the lower creatures with physical +powers that she has denied him. Evidently man is +only one of the cards in her pack; doubtless the +highest one, but the game is not played for him +alone.</p> + +<p>There is no economy of effort or of material in +nature as a whole, whatever there may be in special +parts. The universe is not run on modern business-efficiency +principles. There is no question of time, +or of profit, of solvency or insolvency. The profit-and-loss +account in the long run always balances. +In our astronomic age there are probably vastly +more dead suns and planets strewing the depths of +sidereal space than there are living suns and planets. +But in some earlier period in the cycle of time the +reverse may have been true, or it may be true in +some future period.</p> + +<p>There is economy of effort in the individual organism, +but not in the organic series, at least from +the human point of view. During the biologic ages +there have been a vast number of animal forms, +great and small, and are still, that had no relation to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +man, that were not in his line of descent, and played +no part in his evolution. During that carnival of +monstrous and gigantic forms in Mesozoic time the +ancestor of man was probably some small and insignificant +creature whose life was constantly imperiled +by the huge beasts about it. That it survived at all +in the clash of forces, bestial and elemental, during +those early ages, is one of the wonders of time. The +drama or tragedy of evolution has had many actors, +some of them fearful and terrible to look upon, who +have played their parts and passed off the stage, as +if the sole purpose was the entertainment of some +unseen spectator. When we reach human history, +what wasted effort, what failures, what blind groping, +what futile undertakings!—war, famine, pestilence, +delaying progress or bringing to naught the +wisdom of generations of men! Those who live in +this age are witnessing in the terrible European war +something analogous to the blind, wasteful fury of +the elemental forces; millions of men who never saw +one another, and who have not the shadow of a +quarrel, engage in a life-and-death struggle, armed +with all the aids that centuries of science and civilization +can give them—a tragedy that darkens the +very heavens and makes a mockery of all our age-old +gospel of peace and good will to men. It is a +catastrophe on a scale with the cataclysms of geologic +time when whole races disappeared and the +face of continents was changed. It seems that men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +in the aggregate, with all their science and religion, +are no more exempt from the operation of cosmic +laws than are the stocks and stones. Each party to +this gigantic struggle declares that he is in it against +his will; the fate that rules in the solar system seems +to have them all in its grip; the working of forces +and tendencies for which no man was responsible +seems to have brought it about. Social communities +grow in grace and good-fellowship, but governments +in their relations to one another, and often in relation +to their own subjects, are still barbarous. Men +become christianized, but man is still a heathen, +the victim of savage instincts. In this struggle one +of the most admirable and efficient of nations, and +one of the most solicitous for the lives and well-being +of its citizens, is suddenly seized with a fury of +destruction, hurling its soldiers to death as if they +were only the waste of the fields, and trampling +down other peoples whose geographic position +placed them in their way as if they were merely +vermin, throwing international morality to the +winds, looking upon treaties as "scraps of paper," +regarding themselves as the salt of the earth, the +chosen of the Lord, appropriating the Supreme +Being as did the colossal egotism of old Israel, and +quickly getting down to the basic principle of savage +life—that might makes right.</p> + +<p>Little wonder that the good people are asking, +Have we lost faith? We may or we may not have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +lost faith, but can we not see that our faith does not +give us a key to the problem? Our faith is founded +on the old prescientific conception of a universe in +which good and evil are struggling with each other, +with a Supreme Being aiding and abetting the good. +We fail to appreciate that the cosmic laws are no +respecters of persons. Emerson says there is no god +dare wrong a worm, but worms dare wrong one +another, and there is no god dare take sides with +either. The tides in the affairs of men are as little +subject to human control as the tides of the sea and +the air. We may fix the blame of the European war +upon this government or upon that, but race antagonisms +and geographical position are not matters of +choice. An island empire, like England, is bound to +be jealous of all rivals upon the sea, because her very +life, when nations clash, depends upon her control of +it; and an inland empire, like Germany, is bound to +grow restless under the pressure of contiguous states +of other races. A vast empire, like Russia, is always +in danger of falling apart by its own weight. It is +fused and consolidated by a turn of events that +arouse the patriotic emotions of the whole people +and unite them in a common enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The evolution of nations is attended by the same +contingencies, the same law of probability, the same +law of the survival of the fit, as are organic bodies. I +say the survival of the fit; there are degrees of fitness +in the scale of life; the fit survive, and the fittest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +lead and dominate, as did the reptiles in Mesozoic +time, and the mammals in Tertiary time. Among +the mammals man is dominant because he is the +fittest. Nations break up or become extinct when +they are no longer fit, or equal to the exigencies of +the struggles of life. The Roman Empire would +still exist if it had been entirely fit. The causes of +its unfitness form a long and intricate problem. +Germany of to-day evidently looks upon herself as +the dominant nation, the one fittest to survive, +and she has committed herself to the desperate +struggle of justifying her self-estimate. She tramples +down weaker nations as we do the stubble of +the fields. She would plough and harrow the world +to plant her Prussian <i>Kultur</i>. This <i>Kultur</i> is a +mighty good product, but we outside of its pale +think that French <i>Kultur</i>, and English <i>Kultur</i>, and +American <i>Kultur</i> are good products also, and +equally fit to survive. We naturally object to being +ploughed under. That Russian <i>Kultur</i> has so far +proved itself a vastly inferior product cannot be +doubted, but the evolutionary processes will in time +bring a finer and higher Russia out of this vast weltering +and fermenting mass of humanity. In all +these things impersonal laws and forces are at work, +and the balance of power, if temporarily disturbed, +is bound, sooner or later, to be restored just as it is +in the inorganic realm.</p> + +<p>Evolution is creative, as Bergson contends. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +wonder is that, notwithstanding the indifference of +the elemental forces and the blind clashing of opposing +tendencies among living forms,—a universe +that seems run entirely on the trial-and-error principle,—evolution +has gone steadily forward, a certain +order and stability has been reached in the +world of inert bodies and forces, and myriads of +forms of wonderful fitness and beauty have been +reached in the organic realm. Just as the water-system +and the weather-system of the globe have +worked themselves out on the hit-and-miss plan, +but not without serious defects,—much too much +water and heat at a few places, and much too little +at a few others,—so the organic impulse, warred +upon by the blind inorganic elements and preyed +upon by the forms it gave rise to, has worked itself +out and peopled the world as we see it peopled to-day—not +with forms altogether admirable and +lovely from our point of view, but so from the point +of view of the whole. The forests get themselves +planted by the go-as-you-please winds and currents, +the pines in one place, the spruce, the oaks, the +elms, the beeches, in another, all with a certain fitness +and system. The waters gather themselves +together in great bodies and breathe salubrity and +fertility upon the land.</p> + +<p>A certain order and reasonableness emerges from +the chaos and cross-purposes. There are harmony +and coöperation among the elemental forces, as well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +as strife and antagonism. Life gets on, for all +groping and blundering. There is the inherent +variability of living forms to begin with—the +primordial push toward the development from +within which, so far as we can see, is not fortuitous, +but predestined; and there is the stream of influences +from without, constantly playing upon and modifying +the organism and taken advantage of by it.</p> + +<p>The essence of life is in adaptability; it goes into +partnership with the forces and conditions that surround +it. It is this trait which leads the teleological +philosopher to celebrate the fitness of the environment +when its fitness is a foregone conclusion. Shall +we praise the fitness of the air for breathing, or of +the water for drinking, or of the winds for filling our +sails? If we cannot say explicitly, without speaking +from our anthropomorphism, that there is a guiding +intelligence in the evolution of living forms, we can +at least say, I think, that the struggle for life is +favored by the very constitution of the universe and +that man in some inscrutable way was potential in +the fiery nebula itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h2>THE NATURALIST'S VIEW OF LIFE</h2> + + +<h3>I</h3> + +<p>William James said that one of the privileges +of a philosopher was to contradict +other philosophers. I may add in the same spirit +that one of the fatalities of many philosophers is, +sooner or later, to contradict themselves. I do not +know that James ever contradicted himself, but I +have little doubt that a critical examination of his +works would show that he sometimes did so; I remember +that he said he often had trouble to make +both ends of his philosophy meet. Any man who +seeks to compass any of the fundamental problems +with the little span of his finite mind, is bound at +times to have trouble to make both ends meet. +The man of science seldom has any such trouble +with his problems; he usually knows what is the +matter and forthwith seeks to remedy it. But the +philosopher works with a much more intangible and +elusive material, and is lucky if he is ever aware +when both ends fail to meet.</p> + +<p>I have often wondered if Darwin, who was a great +philosopher as well as a great man of science, saw +or felt the contradiction between his theory of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +origin of species through natural selection working +upon fortuitous variations, and his statement, +made in his old age, that he could not look upon +man, with all his wonderful powers, as the result of +mere chance. The result of chance man certainly +is—is he not?—as are all other forms of life, if +evolution is a mere mechanical process set going and +kept going by the hit-and-miss action of the environment +upon the organism, or by the struggle for +existence. If evolution involves no intelligence in +nature, no guiding or animating principle, then is +not man an accidental outcome of the blind clashing +and jolting of the material forces, as much so as +the great stone face in the rocks which Hawthorne +used so suggestively in one of his stories?</p> + +<p>I have wondered if Huxley was aware that both +ends of his argument did not quite meet when he +contended for the truth of determinism—that there +is and can be no free or spontaneous volition; and +at the same time set man apart from the cosmic +order, and represented him as working his will upon +it, crossing and reversing its processes. In one of +his earlier essays, Huxley said that to the student of +living things, as contrasted with the student of inert +matter, the aspect of nature is reversed. "In living +matter, incessant, and so far as we know, spontaneous, +change is the rule, rest the exception, the +anomaly, to be accounted for. Living things have +no inertia, and tend to no equilibrium," except the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +equilibrium of death. This is good vitalistic doctrine, +as far as it goes, yet Huxley saw no difference +between the matter of life and other matter, except +in the manner in which the atoms are aggregated. +Probably the only difference between a diamond +and a piece of charcoal, or between a pearl and an +oyster-shell, is the manner in which the atoms are +aggregated; but that the secret of life is in the peculiar +compounding of the atoms or molecules—a +spatial arrangement of them—is a harder proposition. +It seems to me also that Haeckel involves +himself in obvious contradictions when he ascribes +will, sensation, inclination, dislike, though of a low +order, to the atoms of matter; in fact, sees them as +living beings with souls, and then denies soul, will, +power of choice, and the like to their collective +unity in the brain of man.</p> + +<p>A philosopher cannot well afford to assume the +air of lofty indifference that the poet Whitman does +when he asks, "Do I contradict myself? Very well, +then, I contradict myself"; but he may take comfort +in the thought that contradictions are often +only apparent, and not real, as when two men standing +on opposite sides of the earth seem to oppose +each other, and yet their heads point to the same +heavens, and their feet to the same terrestrial centre. +The logic of the earth completely contradicts the +ideas we draw from our experience with other +globes, both our artificial globes and the globes in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +the forms of the sun and the moon that we see in +the heavens. The earth has only one side, the outside, +which is always the upper side; at the South +Pole, as at the North, we are on the top side. I +fancy the whole truth of any of the great problems, +if we could see it, would reconcile all our half-truths, +all the contradictions in our philosophy.</p> + +<p>In considering this problem of the mystery of +living things, I have had a good deal of trouble in +trying to make my inborn idealism go hand in hand +with my inborn naturalism; but I am not certain +that there is any real break or contradiction between +them, only a surface one, and that deeper +down the strata still unite them. Life seems beyond +the capacity of inorganic nature to produce; and +yet here is life in its myriad forms, here is the body +and mind of man, and here is the world of inanimate +matter out of which all living beings arise, and into +which they sooner or later return; and we must +either introduce a new principle to account for it +all, or else hold to the idea that what is is natural—a +legitimate outcome of the universal laws and +processes that have been operating through all +time. This last is the point of view of the present +chapter,—the point of view of naturalism; not +strictly the scientific view which aims to explain +all life phenomena in terms of exact experimental +science, but the larger, freer view of the open-air +naturalist and literary philosopher. I cannot get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +rid of, or hold in abeyance, my inevitable idealism, +if I would; neither can I do violence to my equally +inevitable naturalism, but may I not hope to make +the face of my naturalism beam with the light of the +ideal—the light that never was in the physico-chemical +order, and never can be there?</p> + + +<h3>II</h3> + +<p>The naturalist cannot get away from the natural +order, and he sees man, and all other forms of life, +as an integral part of it—the order, which in inert +matter is automatic and fateful, and which in living +matter is prophetic and indeterminate; the +course of one down the geologic ages, seeking only +a mechanical repose, being marked by collisions +and disruptions; the other in its course down the +biologic ages seeking a vital and unstable repose, +being marked by pain, failure, carnage, extinction, +and ceaseless struggle with the physical order upon +which it depends. Man has taken his chances in +the clash of blind matter, and in the warfare of +living forms. He has been the pet of no god, the +favorite of no power on earth or in heaven. He is +one of the fruits of the great cosmic tree, and is subject +to the same hazards and failures as the fruit of +all other trees. The frosts may nip him in the bud, +the storms beat him down, foes of earth and air +prey upon him, and hostile influences from all sides +impede or mar him. The very forces that uphold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +him and furnish him his armory of tools and of +power, will destroy him the moment he is off his +guard. He is like the trainer of wild beasts who, at +his peril, for one instant relaxes his mastery over +them. Gravity, electricity, fire, flood, hurricane, +will crush or consume him if his hand is unsteady +or his wits tardy. Nature has dealt with him upon +the same terms as with all other forms of life. She +has shown him no favor. The same elements—the +same water, air, lime, iron, sulphur, oxygen, carbon, +and so on—make up his body and his brain as make +up theirs, and the same make up theirs as are the +constituents of the insensate rocks, soils, and clouds. +The same elements, the same atoms and molecules, +but a different order; the same solar energy, but +working to other ends; the same life principle but +lifted to a higher plane. How can we separate man +from the total system of things, setting him upon one +side and them upon another, making the relation +of the two mechanical or accidental? It is only in +thought, or in obedience to some creed or philosophy, +that we do it. In life, in action, we unconsciously +recognize ourselves as a part of Nature. +Our success and well-being depend upon the closeness +and spontaneousness of the relation.</p> + +<p>If all this is interpreted to mean that life, that +the mind and soul of man, are of material origin, +science does not shrink from the inference. Only +the inference demands a newer and higher concep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>tion +of matter—the conception that Tyndall expressed +when he wrote the word with a capital M, +and declared that Matter was "at bottom essentially +mystical and transcendental"; that Goethe expressed +when he called matter "the living garment +of God"; and that Whitman expressed when he said +that the soul and the body were one. The materialism +of the great seers and prophets of science who +penetrate into the true inwardness of matter, who +see through the veil of its gross obstructive forms +and behold it translated into pure energy, need disturb +no one.</p> + +<p>In our religious culture we have beggared matter +that we might exalt spirit; we have bankrupted +earth that we might enrich heaven; we have debased +the body that we might glorify the soul. But +science has changed all this. Mankind can never +again rest in the old crude dualism. The Devil has +had his day, and the terrible Hebrew Jehovah has +had his day; the divinities of this world are now +having their day.</p> + +<p>The puzzle or the contradiction in the naturalistic +view of life appears when we try to think of a +being as a part of Nature, having his genesis in her +material forces, who is yet able to master and direct +Nature, reversing her processes and defeating her +ends, opposing his will to her fatalism, his mercy to +her cruelty—in short, a being who thinks, dreams, +aspires, loves truth, justice, goodness, and sits in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +judgment upon the very gods he worships. Must +he not bring a new force, an alien power? Can a part +be greater than the whole? Can the psychic dominate +the physical out of which it came? Again we +have only to enlarge our conception of the physical—the +natural—or make our faith measure up to +the demands of reason. Our reason demands that +the natural order be all-inclusive. Can our faith in +the divinity of matter measure up to this standard? +Not till we free ourselves from the inherited prejudices +which have grown up from our everyday +struggles with gross matter. We must follow the +guidance of science till we penetrate this husk and +see its real mystical and transcendental character, +as Tyndall did.</p> + +<p>When we have followed matter from mass to +molecule, from molecule to atom, from atom to +electron, and seen it in effect dematerialized,—seen +it in its fourth or ethereal, I had almost said +spiritual, state,—when we have grasped the wonder +of radio-activity, and the atomic transformations +that attend it, we shall have a conception of the +potencies and possibilities of matter that robs scientific +materialism of most of its ugliness. Of course, +no deductions of science can satisfy our longings for +something kindred to our own spirits in the universe. +But neither our telescopes nor our microscopes +reveal such a reality. Is this longing only +the result of our inevitable anthropomorphism, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +is it the evidence of things unseen, the substance of +things hoped for, the prophecy of our kinship with +the farthest star? Can soul arise out of a soulless +universe?</p> + +<p>Though the secret of life is under our feet, yet +how strange and mysterious it seems! It draws our +attention away from matter. It arises among the +inorganic elements like a visitant from another +sphere. It is a new thing in the world. Consciousness +is a new thing, yet Huxley makes it one of his +trinity of realities—matter, energy, and consciousness. +We are so immersed in these realities that +we do not see the divinity they embody. We call +that sacred and divine which is far off and unattainable. +Life and mind are so impossible of explanation +in terms of matter and energy, that it is +not to be wondered at that mankind has so long +looked upon their appearance upon this earth as a +miraculous event. But until science opened our +eyes we did not know that the celestial and the +terrestrial are one, and that we are already in the +heavens among the stars. When we emancipate +ourselves from the bondage of wont and use, and +see with clear vision our relations to the Cosmos, +all our ideas of materialism and spiritualism are +made over, and we see how the two are one; how +life and death play into each other's hands, and how +the whole truth of things cannot be compassed by +any number of finite minds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>III</h3> + +<p>When we are bold enough to ask the question, Is +life an addition to matter or an evolution from +matter? how all these extra-scientific theories about +life as a separate entity wilt and fade away! If we +know anything about the ways of creative energy, +we know that they are not as our ways; we know its +processes bear no analogy to the linear and external +doings of man. Creative energy works from within; +it identifies itself with, and is inseparable from, the +element in which it works. I know that in this very +statement I am idealizing the creative energy, but +my reader will, I trust, excuse this inevitable anthropomorphism. +The way of the creative energy +is the way of evolution. When we begin to introduce +things, when we begin to separate the two orders, +the vital and the material, or, as Bergson says, when +we begin to think of things created, and of a thing +that creates, we are not far from the state of mind +of our childhood, and of the childhood of the race. +We are not far from the Mosaic account of creation. +Life appears as an introduction, man and his soul as +introductions.</p> + +<p>Our reason, our knowledge of the method of Nature, +declare for evolution; because here we are, +here is this amazing world of life about us, and here +it goes on through the action and interaction of +purely physical and chemical forces. Life seems as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +natural as day and night, as the dews and the rain. +Our studies of the past history of the globe reveal +the fact that life appeared upon a cooling planet +when the temperature was suitable, and when its +basic elements, water and carbon dioxide, were at +hand. How it began, whether through insensible +changes in the activities of inert matter, lasting +whole geologic ages, or by a sudden transformation +at many points on the earth's surface, we can never +know. But science can see no reason for believing +that its beginning was other than natural; it was +inevitable from the constitution of matter itself. +Moreover, since the law of evolution seems of universal +application, and affords the key to more great +problems than any other generalization of the human +mind, one would say on <i>a priori</i> grounds that +life is an evolution, that its genesis is to be sought +in the inherent capacities and potentialities of matter +itself. How else could it come? Science cannot +go outside of matter and its laws for an explanation +of any phenomena that appear in matter. It +goes inside of matter instead, and in its mysterious +molecular attractions and repulsions, in the whirl +and dance of the atoms and electrons, in their emanations +and transformations, in their amazing +potencies and activities, sees, or seems to see, the +secret of the origin of life itself. But this view is +distasteful to a large number of thinking persons. +Many would call it frank materialism, and declare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +that it is utterly inadequate to supply the spiritual +and ideal background which is the strength and +solace of our human life.</p> + + +<h3>IV</h3> + +<p>The lay mind can hardly appreciate the necessity +under which the man of science feels to account for +all the phenomena of life in terms of the natural +order. To the scientist the universe is complete in +itself. He can admit of no break or discontinuity +anywhere. Threads of relation, visible and invisible,—chemical, +mechanical, electric, magnetic, +solar, lunar, stellar, geologic, biologic,—forming +an intricate web of subtle forces and influences, +bind all things, living and dead, into a cosmic unity. +Creation is one, and that one is symbolized by the +sphere which rests forever on itself, which is whole +at every point, which holds all forms, which reconciles +all contradictions, which has no beginning and +no ending, which has no upper and no under, and +all of whose lines are fluid and continuous. The +disruptions and antagonisms which we fancy we see +are only the result of our limited vision; nature is +not at war with itself; there is no room or need for +miracle; there is no outside to the universe, because +there are no bounds to matter or spirit; all is inside; +deep beneath deep, height above height, and this +mystery and miracle that we call life must arise out +of the natural order in the course of time as inevitably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +as the dew forms and the rain falls. When the +rains and the dews and the snows cease to fall,—a +time which science predicts,—then life, as we +know it, must inevitably vanish from the earth. +Human life is a physical phenomenon, and though +it involves, as we believe, a psychic or non-physical +principle, it is still not exempt from the operation +of the universal physical laws. It came by them or +through them, and it must go by them or through +them.</p> + +<p>The rigidly scientific mind, impressed with all +these things as the lay mind cannot be, used to the +searching laboratory methods, and familiar with +the phenomenon of life in its very roots, as it were, +dealing with the wonders of chemical compounds, +and the forces that lurk in molecules and atoms, +seeing in the cosmic universe, and in the evolution +of the earth, only the operation of mechanical and +chemical principles; seeing the irrefragable law of +the correlation and the conservation of forces; tracing +consciousness and all our changes in mental +states to changes in the brain substance; drilled in +methods of proof by experimentation; knowing that +the same number of ultimate atoms may be so combined +or married as to produce compounds that differ +as radically as alcohol and ether,—conversant with +all these things, and more, I say,—the strictly scientific +mind falls naturally and inevitably into the +mechanistic conception of all life phenomena.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>Science traces the chain of cause and effect everywhere +and finds no break. It follows down animal +life till it merges in the vegetable, though it cannot +put its finger or its microscope on the point where +one ends and the other begins. It finds forms that +partake of the characteristics of both. It is reasonable +to expect that the vegetable merges into +the mineral by the same insensible degrees, and that +the one becomes the other without any real discontinuity. +The change, if we may call it such, +probably takes place in the interior world of matter +among the primordial atoms, where only the imagination +can penetrate. In that sleep of the ultimate +corpuscle, what dreams may come, what miracles +may be wrought, what transformations take place! +When I try to think of life as a mode of motion in +matter, I seem to see the particles in a mystic dance, +a whirling maze of motions, the infinitely little people +taking hold of hands, changing partners, facing +this way and that, doing all sorts of impossible +things, like jumping down one another's throats, or +occupying one another's bodies, thrilled and vibrating +at an inconceivable rate.</p> + +<p>The theological solution of this problem of life +fails more and more to satisfy thinking men of to-day. +Living things are natural phenomena, and we +feel that they must in some way be an outcome of +the natural order. Science is more and more familiarizing +our minds with the idea that the universe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +is a universe, a oneness; that its laws are continuous. +We follow the chemistry of it to the farthest +stars and there is no serious break or exception; it +is all of one stuff. We follow the mechanics of it into +the same abysmal depths, and there are no breaks or +exceptions. The biology of it we cannot follow beyond +our own little corner of the universe; indeed, +we have no proof that there is any biology anywhere +else. But if there is, it must be similar to our own. +There is only one kind of electricity (though two +phases of it), only one kind of light and heat, one +kind of chemical affinity, in the universe; and hence +only one kind of life. Looked at in its relation to the +whole, life appears like a transient phenomenon of +matter. I will not say accidental; it seems inseparably +bound up with the cosmic processes, but, I +may say, fugitive, superficial, circumscribed. Life +comes and goes; it penetrates but a little way into +the earth; it is confined to a certain range of temperature. +Beyond a certain degree of cold, on the one +hand, it does not appear; and beyond a certain degree +of heat, on the other, it is cut off. Without +water or moisture, it ceases; and without air, it is +not. It has evidently disappeared from the moon, +and probably from the inferior planets, and it is +doubtful if it has yet appeared on any of the superior +planets, save Mars.</p> + +<p>Life comes to matter as the flowers come in the +spring,—when the time is ripe for it,—and it disap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>pears +when the time is over-ripe. Man appears in +due course and has his little day upon the earth, +but that day must as surely come to an end. Yet +can we conceive of the end of the physical order? +the end of gravity? or of cohesion? The air may disappear, +the water may disappear, combustion may +cease; but oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon +will continue somewhere.</p> + + +<h3>V</h3> + +<p>Science is the redeemer of the physical world. It +opens our eyes to its true inwardness, and purges it +of the coarse and brutal qualities with which, in our +practical lives, it is associated. It has its inner +world of activities and possibilities of which our +senses give us no hint. This inner world of molecules +and atoms and electrons, thrilled and vibrating with +energy, the infinitely little, the almost infinitely +rapid, in the bosom of the infinitely vast and distant +and automatic—what a revelation it all is! +what a glimpse into "Nature's infinite book of +secrecy"!</p> + +<p>Our senses reveal to us but one kind of motion—mass +motion—the change of place of visible bodies. +But there is another motion in all matter which our +senses do not reveal to us as motion—molecular +vibration, or the thrill of the atoms. At the heart +of the most massive rock this whirl of the atoms or +corpuscles is going on. If our ears were fine enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +to hear it, probably every rock and granite monument +would sing, as did Memnon, when the sun +shone upon it. This molecular vibration is revealed +to us as heat, light, sound, electricity. Heat is only +a mode of this invisible motion of the particles of +matter. Mass motion is quickly converted into this +molecular motion when two bodies strike each other. +May not life itself be the outcome of a peculiar +whirl of the ultimate atoms of matter?</p> + +<p>Says Professor Gotch, as quoted by J. Arthur +Thomson in his "Introduction to Science": "To the +thought of a scientific mind the universe with all its +suns and worlds is throughout one seething welter of +modes of motion, playing in space, playing in ether, +playing in all existing matter, playing in all living +things, playing, therefore, in ourselves." Physical +science, as Professor Thomson says, leads us from +our static way of looking at things to the dynamic +way. It teaches us to regard the atom, not as a fixed +and motionless structure, like the bricks in a wall, +but as a centre of ever-moving energy; it sees the +whole universe is in a state of perpetual flux, a +flowing stream of creative energy out of which +life arises as one of the manifestations of this +energy.</p> + +<p>When we have learned all that science can tell us +about the earth, is it not more rather than less wonderful? +When we know all it can tell us about the +heavens above, or about the sea, or about our own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +bodies, or about a flower, or a bird, or a tree, or a +cloud, are they less beautiful and wonderful? The +mysteries of generation, of inheritance, of cell life, +are rather enhanced by science.</p> + + +<h3>VI</h3> + +<p>When the man of science seeks to understand and +explain the world in which we live, he guards himself +against seeing double, or seeing two worlds instead +of one, as our unscientific fathers did—an +immaterial or spiritual world surrounding and interpenetrating +the physical world, or the supernatural +enveloping and directing the natural. He +sees but one world, and that a world complete in +itself; surrounded, it is true, by invisible forces, and +holding immeasured and immeasurable potencies; a +vastly more complex and wonderful world than our +fathers ever dreamed of; a fruit, as it were, of the +great sidereal tree, bound by natal bonds to myriads +of other worlds, of one stuff with them, ahead or +behind them in its ripening, but still complete in +itself, needing no miracle to explain it, no spirits or +demons to account for its processes, not even its +vital processes.</p> + +<p>In the light of what he knows of the past history +of the earth, the man of science sees with his mind's +eye the successive changes that have taken place +in it; he sees the globe a mass of incandescent matter +rolling through space; he sees the crust cooling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +and hardening; he sees the waters appear, the air +and the soil appear, he sees the clouds begin to form +and the rain to fall, he sees living things appear in +the waters, then upon the land, and in the air; he +sees the two forms of life arise, the vegetable and +the animal, the latter standing upon the former; he +sees more and more complex forms of both vegetable +and animal arise and cover the earth. They all +appear in the course of the geologic ages on the surface +of the earth; they arise out of it; they are a part +of it; they come naturally; no hand reaches down +from heaven and places them there; they are not an +addendum; they are not a sudden creation; they +are an evolution; they were potential in the earth +before they arose out of it. The earth ripened, her +crust mellowed, and thickened, her airs softened +and cleared, her waters were purified, and in due +time her finer fruits were evolved, and, last of all, +man arose. It was all one process. There was no +miracle, no first day of creation; all were days of +creation. Brooded by the sun, the earth hatched her +offspring; the promise and the potency of all terrestrial +life was in the earth herself; her womb was fertile +from the first. All that we call the spiritual, the +divine, the celestial, were hers, because man is hers. +Our religions and our philosophies and our literatures +are hers; man is a part of the whole system of +things; he is not an alien, nor an accident, nor an +interloper; he is here as the rains, the dews, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +flowers, the rocks, the soil, the trees, are here. He +appeared when the time was ripe, and he will disappear +when the time is over-ripe. He is of the +same stuff as the ground he walks upon; there is no +better stuff in the heavens above him, nor in the +depths below him, than sticks to his own ribs. The +celestial and the terrestrial forces unite and work +together in him, as in all other creatures. We cannot +magnify man without magnifying the universe +of which he is a part; and we cannot belittle it without +belittling him.</p> + +<p>Now we can turn all this about and look upon it +as mankind looked upon it in the prescientific ages, +and as so many persons still look upon it, and think +of it all as the work of external and higher powers. +We can think of the earth as the footstool of some +god, or the sport of some demon; we can people the +earth and the air with innumerable spirits, high +and low; we can think of life as something apart +from matter. But science will not, cannot follow +us; it cannot discredit the world it has disclosed—I +had almost said, the world it has created. Science +has made us at home in the universe. It has visited +the farthest stars with its telescope and spectroscope, +and finds we are all akin. It has sounded the depths +of matter with its analysis, and it finds nothing alien +to our own bodies. It sees motion everywhere, +motion within motion, transformation, metamorphosis +everywhere, energy everywhere, currents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +and counter-currents everywhere, ceaseless change +everywhere; it finds nothing in the heavens more +spiritual, more mysterious, more celestial, more +godlike, than it finds upon this earth. This does +not imply that evolution may not have progressed +farther upon other worlds, and given rise to a higher +order of intelligences than here; it only implies that +creation is one, and that the same forces, the same +elements and possibilities, exist everywhere.</p> + + +<h3>VII</h3> + +<p>Give free rein to our anthropomorphic tendencies, +and we fill the world with spirits, good and bad—bad +in war, famine, pestilence, disease; good in all +the events and fortunes that favor us. Early man +did this on all occasions; he read his own hopes and +fears and passions into all the operations of nature. +Our fathers did it in many things; good people of +our own time do it in exceptional instances, and +credit any good fortune to Providence. Men high in +the intellectual and philosophical world, still invoke +something antithetical to matter, to account for the +appearance of life on the planet.</p> + +<p>It may be justly urged that the effect upon our +habits of thought of the long ages during which this +process has been going on, leading us to differentiate +matter and spirit and look upon them as two opposite +entities, hindering or contending with each +other,—one heavenly, the other earthly, one everlasting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +the other perishable, one the supreme good, +the other the seat and parent of all that is evil,—the +cumulative effect of this habit of thought in the +race-mind is, I say, not easily changed or overcome. +We still think, and probably many of us always will +think, of spirit as something alien to matter, something +mystical, transcendental, and not of this +world. We look upon matter as gross, obstructive, +and the enemy of the spirit. We do not know how +we are going to get along without it, but we solace +ourselves with the thought that by and by, in some +other, non-material world, we shall get along without +it, and experience a great expansion of life by +reason of our emancipation from it. Our practical +life upon this planet is more or less a struggle with +gross matter; our senses apprehend it coarsely; of its +true inwardness they tell us nothing; of the perpetual +change and transformation of energy going on +in bodies about us they tell us nothing; of the wonders +and potencies of matter as revealed in radio-activity, +in the X-ray, in chemical affinity and +polarity, they tell us nothing; of the all-pervasive +ether, without which we could not see or live at +all, they tell us nothing. In fact we live and move +and have our being in a complex of forces and tendencies +of which, even by the aid of science, we but +see as through a glass darkly. Of the effluence of +things, the emanations from the minds and bodies of +our friends, and from other living forms about us,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +from the heavens above and from the earth below, +our daily lives tell us nothing, any more than our +eyes tell us of the invisible rays in the sun's spectrum, +or than our ears tell us of the murmurs of the +life-currents in growing things. Science alone unveils +the hidden wonders and sleepless activities of +the world forces that play through us and about +us. It alone brings the heavens near, and reveals +the brotherhood or sisterhood of worlds. It alone +makes man at home in the universe, and shows us +how many friendly powers wait upon him day and +night. It alone shows him the glories and the wonders +of the voyage we are making upon this ship in +the stellar infinitude, and that, whatever the port, +we shall still be on familiar ground—we cannot +get away from home.</p> + +<p>There is always an activity in inert matter that +we little suspect. See the processes going on in the +stratified rocks that suggest or parody those of life. +See the particles of silica that are diffused through +the limestone, hunting out each other and coming +together in concretions and forming flint or chert +nodules; or see them in the process of petrifaction +slowly building up a tree of chalcedony or onyx in +place of a tree of wood, repeating every cell, every +knot, every worm-hole—dead matter copying exactly +a form of living matter; or see the phenomenon +of crystallization everywhere; see the solution +of salt mimicking, as Tyndall says, the architecture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +of Egypt, building up miniature pyramids, terrace +upon terrace, from base to apex, forming a series +of steps like those up which the traveler in Egypt +is dragged by his guides! We can fancy, if we like, +these infinitesimal structures built by an invisible +population which swarms among the constituent +molecules, controlled and coerced by some invisible +matter, says Tyndall. This might be called +literature, or poetry, or religion, but it would not +be science; science says that these salt pyramids are +the result of the play of attraction and repulsion +among the salt molecules themselves; that they are +self-poised and self-quarried; it goes further than +that and says that the quality we call saltness is the +result of a certain definite arrangement of their ultimate +atoms of matter; that the qualities of things +as they affect our senses—hardness, softness, sweetness, +bitterness—are the result of molecular motion +and combination among the ultimate atoms. All +these things seem on the threshold of life, waiting +in the antechamber, as it were; to-morrow they will +be life, or, as Tyndall says, "Incipient life, as it +were, manifests itself throughout the whole of what +is called inorganic nature."</p> + + +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<p>The question of the nature and origin of life is a +kind of perpetual motion question in biology. Life +without antecedent life, so far as human experi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>ence +goes, is an impossibility, and motion without +previous motion, is equally impossible. Yet, while +science shows us that this last is true among ponderable +bodies where friction occurs, it is not true +among the finer particles of matter, where friction +does not exist. Here perpetual or spontaneous motion +is the rule. The motions of the molecules of +gases and liquids, and their vibrations in solids, are +beyond the reach of our unaided senses, yet they +are unceasing. By analogy we may infer that while +living bodies, as we know them, do not and cannot +originate spontaneously, yet the movement that we +call life may and probably does take place spontaneously +in the ultimate particles of matter. But +can atomic energy be translated into the motion of +ponderable bodies, or mass energy? In like manner +can, or does, this potential life of the world of +atoms and electrons give rise to organized living +beings?</p> + +<p>This distrust of the physical forces, or our disbelief +in their ability to give rise to life, is like a survival +in us of the Calvinistic creed of our fathers. +The world of inert matter is dead in trespasses and +sin and must be born again before it can enter the +kingdom of the organic. We must supplement the +natural forces with the spiritual, or the supernatural, +to get life. The common or carnal nature, like +the natural man, must be converted, breathed upon +by the non-natural or divine, before it can rise to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +the plane of life—the doctrine of Paul carried into +the processes of nature.</p> + +<p>The scientific mind sees in nature an infinitely +complex mechanism directed to no special human +ends, but working towards universal ends. It sees +in the human body an infinite number of cell units +building up tissues and organs,—muscles, nerves, +bones, cartilage,—a living machine of infinite complexity; +but what shapes and coördinates the parts, +how the cells arose, how consciousness arose, how +the mind is related to the body, how or why the +body acts as a unit—on these questions science can +throw no light. With all its mastery of the laws of +heredity, of cytology, and of embryology, it cannot +tell why a man is a man, and a dog is a dog. No +cell-analysis will give the secret; no chemical conjuring +with the elements will reveal why in the one +case they build up a head of cabbage, and in the +other a head of Plato.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that the scientific conception +of the universe robs us of something—it is hard +to say just what—that we do not willingly part +with; yet who can divest himself of this conception? +And the scientific conception of the nature of life, +hard and unfamiliar as it may seem in its mere +terms, is difficult to get away from. Life must arise +through the play and transformations of matter and +energy that are taking place all around us; though +it seems a long and impossible road from mere chemistry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +to the body and soul of man. But if life, with +all that has come out of it, did not come by way of +matter and energy, by what way did it come? Must +we have recourse to the so-called supernatural?—as +Emerson's line puts it,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="i0">"When half-gods go, the gods arrive."<br /></div> +</div></div> + +<p>When our traditional conception of matter as +essentially vulgar and obstructive and the enemy +of the spirit gives place to the new scientific conception +of it as at bottom electrical and all-potent, +we may find the poet's great line come true, and +that for a thing to be natural, is to be divine. For +my own part, I do not see how we can get intelligence +out of matter unless we postulate intelligence in +matter. Any system of philosophy that sees in the +organic world only a fortuitous concourse of chemical +atoms, repels me, though the contradiction here +implied is not easily cleared up. The theory of life as +a chemical reaction and nothing more does not interest +me, but I am attracted by that conception of +life which, while binding it to the material order, +sees in the organic more than the physics and chemistry +of the inorganic—call it whatever name you +will—vitalism, idealism, or dualism.</p> + +<p>In our religious moods, we may speak, as Theodore +Parker did, of the universe as a "handful of +dust which God enchants," or we may speak of it, +as Goethe did, as "the living garment of God";<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +but as men of science we can see it only as a vast +complex of forces, out of which man has arisen, and +of which he forms a part. We are not to forget that +we are a part of it, and that the more we magnify +ourselves, the more we magnify it; that its glory is +our glory, and our glory its glory, because we are +its children. In some way utterly beyond the reach +of science to explain, or of philosophy to confirm, +we have come out of it, and all we are or can be, is, +or has been, potential in it.</p> + + +<h3>IX</h3> + +<p>The evolution of life is, of course, bound up with +the evolution of the world. As the globe has ripened +and matured, life has matured; higher and +higher forms—forms with larger and larger brains +and more and more complex nerve mechanisms—have +appeared.</p> + +<p>Physicists teach us that the evolution of the primary +elements—hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, +calcium, and the like—takes place in a solar +body as the body cools. As temperature decreases, +one after another of the chemical elements makes its +appearance, the simpler elements appearing first, +and the more complex compounds appearing last, +all apparently having their origin in some simple +parent element. It appears as if the evolution of life +upon the globe had followed the same law and had +waited upon the secular cooling of the earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p> + +<p>Does not a man imply a cooler planet and a greater +depth and refinement of soil than a dinosaur? Only +after a certain housecleaning and purification of the +elements do higher forms appear; the vast accumulation +of Silurian limestone must have hastened +the age of fishes. The age of reptiles waited for the +clearing of the air of the burden of carbon dioxide. +The age of mammals awaited the deepening and the +enrichment of the soil and the stability of the earth's +crust. Who knows upon what physical conditions +of the earth's elements the brain of man was dependent? +Its highest development has certainly +taken place in a temperate climate. There can be +little doubt that beyond a certain point the running-down +of the earth-temperature will result in a +running-down of life till it finally goes out. Life is +confined to a very narrow range of temperature. +If we were to translate degrees into miles and represent +the temperature of the hottest stars, which is +put at 30,000 degrees, by a line 30,000 miles long, +then the part of the line marking the limits of life +would be approximately three hundred miles.</p> + +<p>Life does not appear in a hard, immobile, utterly +inert world, but in a world thrilling with energy and +activity, a world of ceaseless transformations of +energy, of radio-activity, of electro-magnetic currents, +of perpetual motion in its ultimate particles, a +world whose heavens are at times hung with rainbows, +curtained with tremulous shifting auroras,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +and veined and illumined with forked lightnings, +a world of rolling rivers and heaving seas, activity, +physical and chemical, everywhere. On such a +world life appeared, bringing no new element or +force, but setting up a new activity in matter, an +activity that tends to check and control the natural +tendency to the dissipation and degradation of +energy. The question is, Did it arise through some +transformation of the existing energy, or out of the +preëxisting conditions, or was it supplementary to +them, an addition from some unknown source? +Was it a miraculous or a natural event? We shall +answer according to our temperaments.</p> + +<p>One sees with his mind's eye this stream of energy, +which we name the material universe, flowing +down the endless cycles of time; at a certain point in +its course, a change comes over its surface; what +we call life appears, and assumes many forms; at a +point farther along in its course, life disappears, and +the eternal river flows on regardless, till, at some +other point, the same changes take place again. +Life is inseparable from this river of energy, but it +is not coextensive with it, either in time or in space.</p> + +<p>In midsummer what river-men call "the blossoming +of the water" takes place in the Hudson River; +the water is full of minute vegetable organisms; +they are seasonal and temporary; they are born of +the midsummer heats. By and by the water is clear +again. Life in the universe seems as seasonal and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +fugitive as this blossoming of the water. More and +more does science hold us to the view of the unity +of nature—that the universe of life and matter +and force is all natural or all supernatural, it matters +little which you call it, but it is not both. One +need not go away from his own doorstep to find +mysteries enough to last him a lifetime, but he will +find them in his own body, in the ground upon +which he stands, not less than in his mind, and in +the invisible forces that play around him. We may +marvel how the delicate color and perfume of the +flower could come by way of the root and stalk of +the plant, or how the crude mussel could give birth +to the rainbow-tinted pearl, or how the precious +metals and stones arise from the flux of the baser +elements, or how the ugly worm wakes up and finds +itself a winged creature of the air; yet we do not +invoke the supernatural to account for these things.</p> + +<p>It is certain that in the human scale of values the +spirituality of man far transcends anything in the +animal or physical world, but that even that came +by the road of evolution, is, indeed, the flowering of +ruder and cruder powers and attributes of the life +below us, I cannot for a moment doubt. Call it a +transmutation or a metamorphosis, if you will; it +is still within the domain of the natural. The spiritual +always has its root and genesis in the physical. +We do not degrade the spiritual in such a conception; +we open our eyes to the spirituality of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +physical. And this is what science has always been +doing and is doing more and more—making us +familiar with marvelous and transcendent powers +that hedge us about and enter into every act of our +lives. The more we know matter, the more we know +mind; the more we know nature, the more we know +God; the more familiar we are with the earth forces, +the more intimate will be our acquaintance with +the celestial forces.</p> + + +<h3>X</h3> + +<p>When we speak of the gulf that separates the living +from the non-living, are we not thinking of the +higher forms of life only? Are we not thinking of +the far cry it is from man to inorganic nature? +When we get down to the lowest organism, is the +gulf so impressive? Under the scrutiny of biologic +science the gulf that separates the animal from the +vegetable all but vanishes, and the two seem to run +together. The chasm between the lowest vegetable +forms and unorganized matter is evidently a slight +affair. The state of unorganized protoplasm which +Haeckel named the Monera, that precedes the development +of that architect of life, the cell, can hardly +be more than one remove from inert matter. By +insensible molecular changes and transformations +of energy, the miracle of living matter takes place. +We can conceive of life arising only through these +minute avenues, or in the invisible, molecular constitution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +of matter itself. What part the atoms and +electrons, and the energy they bear, play in it we +shall never know. Even if we ever succeed in bringing +the elements together in our laboratories so that +there living matter appears, shall we then know the +secret of life?</p> + +<p>After we have got the spark of life kindled, how +are we going to get all the myriad forms of life that +swarm upon the earth? How are we going to get +man with physics and chemistry alone? How are +we going to get this tremendous drama of evolution +out of mere protoplasm from the bottom of the old +geologic seas? Of course, only by making protoplasm +creative, only by conceiving as potential in +it all that we behold coming out of it. We imagine +it equal to the task we set before it; the task is accomplished; +therefore protoplasm was all-sufficient. +I am not postulating any extra-mundane power or +influence; I am only stating the difficulties which +the idealist experiences when he tries to see life in +its nature and origin as the scientific mind sees it. +Animal life and vegetable life have a common physical +basis in protoplasm, and all their different forms +are mere aggregations of cells which are constituted +alike and behave alike in each, and yet in the one +case they give rise to trees, and in the other they +give rise to man. Science is powerless to penetrate +this mystery, and philosophy can only give its own +elastic interpretation. Why consciousness should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +be born of cell structure in one form of life and not +in another, who shall tell us? Why matter in the +brain should think, and in the cabbage only grow, +is a question.</p> + +<p>The naturalist has not the slightest doubt that +the mind of man was evolved from some order of +animals below him that had less mind, and that the +mind of this order was evolved from that of a still +lower order, and so on down the scale till we reach a +point where the animal and vegetable meet and +blend, and the vegetable mind, if we may call it +such, passed into the animal, and still downward till +the vegetable is evolved from the mineral. If to believe +this is to be a monist, then science is monistic; +it accepts the transformation or metamorphosis of +the lower into the higher from the bottom of creation +to the top, and without any break of the causal +sequence. There has been no miracle, except in the +sense that all life is a miracle. Of how the organic rose +out of the inorganic, we can form no mental image; +the intellect cannot bridge the chasm; but that such +is the fact, there can be no doubt. There is no solution +except that life is latent or potential in matter, +but these again are only words that cover a mystery.</p> + +<p>I do not see why there may not be some force latent +in matter that we may call the vital force, physical +force transformed and heightened, as justifiably +as we can postulate a chemical force latent in matter. +The chemical force underlies and is the basis of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +the vital force. There is no life without chemism, +but there is chemism without life.</p> + +<p>We have to have a name for the action and reaction +of the primary elements upon one another and +we call it chemical affinity; we have to have a name +for their behavior in building up organic bodies, and +we call it vitality or vitalism.</p> + +<p>The rigidly scientific man sees no need of the conception +of a new form or kind of force; the physico-chemical +forces as we see them in action all about us +are adequate to do the work, so that it seems like a +dispute about names. But my mind has to form a +new conception of these forces to bridge the chasm +between the organic and the inorganic; not a quantitative +but a qualitative change is demanded, like +the change in the animal mind to make it the human +mind, an unfolding into a higher plane.</p> + +<p>Whether the evolution of the human mind from +the animal was by insensible gradations, or by a few +sudden leaps, who knows? The animal brain began +to increase in size in Tertiary times, and seems to +have done so suddenly, but the geologic ages were so +long that a change in one hundred thousand years +would seem sudden. "The brains of some species +increase one hundred per cent." The mammal brain +greatly outstripped the reptile brain. Was Nature +getting ready for man?</p> + +<p>The air begins at once to act chemically upon the +blood in the lungs of the newly born, and the gastric<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +juices to act chemically upon the food as soon as +there is any in the stomach of the newly born, and +breathing and swallowing are both mechanical acts; +but what is it that breathes and swallows, and profits +by it? a machine?</p> + +<p>Maybe the development of life, and its upward +tendency toward higher and higher forms, is in some +way the result of the ripening of the earth, its long +steeping in the sea of sidereal influences. The earth +is not alone, it is not like a single apple on a tree; +there are many apples on the tree, and there are +many trees in the orchard.</p> + + +<p>THE END +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + + + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Adaptation, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> + +<li>Alpha rays, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + +<li>Aquosity, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristotle, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + +<li>Asphalt lake, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + +<li>Atoms, different groupings of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>; +<ul> +<li> weighed and counted, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> +<li> indivisibility, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> +<li> the hydrogen atom, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li> +<li> chemical affinity, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li> +<li> photography of, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</li> +<li> form, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> +<li> atomic energy, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> +<li> qualities and properties of bodies in their keeping, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> +<li> unchanging character, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li> rarity of free atoms, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li> +<li> mystery of combination, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Autolysis, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Balfour, Arthur James, on Bergson's "Evolution Créatrice," <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li>Bees, the spirit of the hive, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li>Benton, Joel, quoted, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + +<li>Bergson, Henri, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>; +<ul> +<li> on light and the eye, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li> +<li> his view of life, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li> on the need of philosophy, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li> on life on other planets, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> +<li> his method, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li> +<li> the key to his "Creative Evolution," <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li> +<li> on life as a psychic principle, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> +<li> his book as literature, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Beta rays, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> + +<li>Biogenesis, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>. <i>See also</i> Life.</li> + +<li>Biophores, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li>Body, the, elements of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; +<ul> +<li> the chemist in, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li> +<li> intelligence of, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li> +<li> a community of cells, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> +<li> viewed as a machine, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Brain, evolution of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> + +<li>Breathing, mechanics and chemistry of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + +<li>Brooks, William Keith, quoted, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li> + +<li>Brown, Robert, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; +<ul> +<li> the Brunonian movement, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Brunonian movement, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Butler, Bishop, imaginary debate with Lucretius, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Carbon, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; +<ul> +<li> importance, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Carbonic-acid gas, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li>Carrel, Dr. Alexis, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> + +<li>Catalysers, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Cell, the, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; +<ul> +<li> Wilson on, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li> +<li> living after the death of the body, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> +<li> Prof. Benjamin Moore on, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li> +<li> nature of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> +<li> aimless multiplication, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> +<li> the unit of life, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> +<li> communistic activity, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> +<li> a world in little, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> +<li> mystery of, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> +<li> different degrees of irritability, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Changes in matter, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li>Chemist, in the body, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li> + +<li>Chemistry, the silent world of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-<a href="#Page_54">54</a>; +<ul> +<li> wonders worked by varying arrangement of atoms, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li> +<li> leads up to life, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> +<li> a new world for the imagination, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-<a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li> +<li> chemical affinity, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li> +<li> various combinations of elements, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li> +<li> organic compounds, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li> +<li> mystery of chemical combinations, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> +<li> chemical changes, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li> +<li> powerless to trace relationships between different forms + of life, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</li> +<li> cannot account for differences in organisms, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Chlorophyll, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li> + +<li>Colloids, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Conn, H. W., on mechanism, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>-<a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> + +<li>Consciousness, Huxley on, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li>Corpuscles, speed in the ether, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li>Creative energy, immanent in matter, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>; +<ul> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> its methods, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Crystallization, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + +<li>Czapek, Frederick, on vital forces, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>; +<ul> +<li> on life, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> +<li> on enzymes in living bodies, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> + +<li>Darwin, Charles, quoted, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; +<ul> +<li> on force of growing radicles, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li> +<li> a contradiction in his philosophy, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Electricity, in the constitution of matter, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-<a href="#Page_49">49</a>; +<ul> +<li> a state of the ether, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> +<li> power from, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> +<li> the most mysterious thing in inorganic nature, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Electrons, knots in the ether, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; +<ul> +<li> size and weight, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li> +<li> speed, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li> +<li> matter dematerialized, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li> +<li> bombardment from, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> +<li> revolving in the atom, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> +<li> surface, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> +<li> compared with atoms, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> +<li> properties of matter supplied by, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Elements, of living bodies, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; +<ul> +<li> analogy with the alphabet, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-<a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li> undergoing spontaneous change, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> +<li> various combinations, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li> +<li> eagerness to combine, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Atoms.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Eliot, George, on the development theory, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> + +<li>Elliot, Hugh S. R., on mechanism, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Emerson, Ralph Waldo, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>; +<ul> +<li> on physics and chemistry, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> +<li> quoted, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Energy, relation of life to, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>; +<ul> +<li> atomic, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Creative energy <i>and</i> Force.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Energy, biotic, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li>England, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li>Entities, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> + +<li>Environment, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> + +<li>Enzymes, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + +<li>Ether, the, omnipresent and all-powerful, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; +<ul> +<li> its nature, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> +<li> its finite character, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> +<li> paradoxes of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Ethics, and the mechanistic conception, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li>Evolution, creative impulse in, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>; +<ul> +<li> progression in, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> +<li> and the arrival of the fit, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-<a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li> +<li> creative, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li> +<li> evolution of life bound up with the evolution of the world, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li> +<li> creative protoplasm in, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> +<li> a cosmic view of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Explosives, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Fire, chemistry of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li> + +<li>Fiske, John, on the soul and immortality, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>; +<ul> +<li> on the physical and the psychical, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Fittest, arrival and survival of the, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-<a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li> + +<li>Force, physical and mental, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li> and life, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> +<li> dissymmetric force, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li> +<li> the origin of matter, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Energy.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Galls, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-<a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li>Ganong, William Francis, on life, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + +<li>Germany, in the War of 1914, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +<li>Glaser, Otto C., quoted, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> + +<li>Goethe, quoted, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>; +<ul> +<li> as a scientific man, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Gotch, Prof., quoted, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + +<li>Grafting, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + +<li>Grand Cañon of the Colorado, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li>Grape sugar, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Growth, of a germ, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Haeckel, Ernst, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>; +<ul> +<li> on physical activity in the atom, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li> +<li> his "living inorganics," <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> +<li> on the origin of life, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> +<li> on inheritance and adaptation, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> +<li> his "plastidules," <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> +<li> a contradiction in his philosophy, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Hartog, Marcus, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> + +<li>Heat, changes wrought by, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; +<ul> +<li> detection of, at a distance, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Helmholtz, Hermann von, on life, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> + +<li>Henderson, Lawrence J., his "Fitness of the Environment," <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; +<ul> +<li> his concession to the vitalists, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> +<li> on the environment, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-<a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li> +<li> a thorough mechanist, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Horse-power, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> + +<li>Hudson River, "blossoming of the water," <a href="#Page_283">283</a>. +<ul> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>Huxley, Thomas Henry, on the</li> +<li> properties of protoplasm, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</li> +<li> on consciousness, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> +<li> on the vital principle, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li> +<li> his three realities, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li> +<li> a contradiction in his philosophy, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Hydrogen, the atom of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Idealist, view of life, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>-<a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li>Inorganic world, beauty in decay in, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li>Intelligence, characteristic of living matter, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>; +<ul> +<li> pervading organic nature, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Irritability, degrees of, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>James, William, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Kant, Immanuel, quoted, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li>Kelvin, Lord, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>King, Starr, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray, quoted, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>; +<ul> +<li> his "plasmogen," <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Le Dantec, Félix Alexandre, his "Nature and Origin of Life," <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; +<ul> +<li> on consciousness, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> +<li> on the artificial production of the cell, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li> +<li> on the mechanism of the body, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Leduc, Stephane, his "osmotic growths," <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + +<li>Liebig, Baron Justus von, quoted, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Life, may be a mode of motion, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li> evolution of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> +<li> its action on matter, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> +<li> its physico-chemical origin, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> +<li> its appearance viewed as accidental, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> +<li> Bergson's view, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> +<li> Sir Oliver Lodge's view, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</li> +<li> and energy, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> +<li> theories as to its origin, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-<a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> +<li> Tyndall's view, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> +<li> Verworn's view, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li> +<li> the vitalistic view, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> +<li> matter as affected by, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li> +<li> not to be treated mathematically, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li> +<li> a slow explosion, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li> +<li> an insoluble mystery, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li> +<li> relations with the psychic and the inorganic, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> +<li> compared with fire, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> +<li> the final mystery of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li> +<li> vitalistic and mechanistic views, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>-<a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> +<li> Benjamin Moore's view, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li> +<li> the theory of derivation from other spheres, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> +<li> spontaneous generation, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> +<li> plays a small part in the cosmic scheme, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li> +<li> mystery of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> +<li> nature merciless towards, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li> +<li> as an entity, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-<a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li> +<li> evanescent character, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li> +<li> Prof. Schäfer's view, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li> +<li> intelligence the characteristic of, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li> +<li> power of adaptation, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</li> +<li> versatility, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> +<li> the fields of science and philosophy in dealing with, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>-<a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> +<li> simulation of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li> +<li> and protoplasm, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> +<li> and the cell, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> +<li> variability, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li> +<li> the biogenetic law, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li> +<li> relation to energy, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li> +<li> an <i>x</i>-entity, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li> +<li> struggle with environment, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> +<li> as a chemical phenomenon, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> +<li> inadequacy of the mechanistic view, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-<a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> +<li> degrees of, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> +<li> arises, not comes, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li> +<li> a metaphysical problem, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li> +<li> as a wave, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li> +<li> its adaptability, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li> +<li> a vitalistic view, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li> +<li> naturalness of, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>-<a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> +<li> advent and disappearance, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li> +<li> the unscientific view, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> +<li> analogy with the question of perpetual motion, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li> +<li> no great gulf between animate and inanimate, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> +<li> a cosmic view, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Living thing, Vital force, Vitalism, Vitality.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Light, measuring its speed, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + +<li>Liquids, molecular behavior, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + +<li>Living thing, not a machine, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>; +<ul> +<li> viewed as a machine, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>-<a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> +<li> a unit, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> +<li> adaptation, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> +<li> contrasted and compared with a machine, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Lodge, Sir Oliver, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>; +<ul> +<li> his view of life, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li> +<li> his vein of mysticism, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li> +<li> on the ether, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> +<li> on molecular spaces, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li> +<li> on radium, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li> +<li> on the atom, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> on electrons, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Loeb, Jacques, on mechanism, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; +<ul> +<li> his experiments, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> +<li> on variations, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Machines, Nature's and man's, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>-<a href="#Page_226">226</a>; +<ul> +<li> contrasted and compared with living bodies, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Maeterlinck, Maurice, on the Spirit of the Hive, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> + +<li>Man, evolution of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>; +<ul> +<li> as the result of chance, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li> +<li> as a part of the natural order, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li> +<li> his little day, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Matter, as acted upon by life, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; +<ul> +<li> creative energy immanent in, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> +<li> change upon entry of life, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li> +<li> constitution of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-<a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li> +<li> a state of the ether, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> +<li> changes in, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> +<li> Emerson on, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> +<li> discrete, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li> +<li> emanations detected by smell and taste, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> +<li> a hole in the ether, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li> +<li> origin of its properties, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li> a higher conception of, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>-<a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li> +<li> common view of grossness of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Maxwell, James Clerk, on the ether, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; +<ul> +<li> on atoms, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Mechanism, the scientific explanation of mind, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li> and ethics, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> +<li> reaction against, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> +<li> definition, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> +<li> Prof. Henderson's view, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> +<li> <i>vs.</i> vitalism, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-<a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Life.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Metaphysics, necessity of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> + +<li>Micellar strings, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li>Microbalance, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + +<li>Mind, evolution of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>. +<ul> +<li> <i>See also</i> Intelligence.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Molecules, spaces between, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; +<ul> +<li> speed, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li> +<li> unchanging character, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Monera, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> + +<li>Moore, Benjamin, a scientific vitalist, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; +<ul> +<li> his "biotic energy," <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Morgan, Thomas Hunt, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> + +<li>Motion, perpetual, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>; +<ul> +<li> mass and molecular, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Naegeli, Karl Wilhelm von, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li>Nitrogen, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> + +<li>Nonentities, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Odors, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> + +<li>Osmotic growths, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + +<li>Oxygen, activities of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; +<ul> +<li> in the crust of the earth, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li> +<li> chemical affinities, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li> +<li> different forms of atoms, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Parker, Theodore, on the universe, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li> + +<li>Parthenogenesis, artificial, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> + +<li>Pasteur, Louis, his "dissymmetric force," <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + +<li>Philosophy, supplements science, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>; +<ul> +<li> deals with fundamental problems, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> +<li> contradictions in, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Phosphorus, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> + +<li>Physics, staggering figures in, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + +<li>Pitch lake, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + +<li>Plants, force exerted by growing, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> + +<li>Plasmogen, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li>Plastidules, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li>Protobion, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> + +<li>Protoplasm, vitality of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>; +<ul> +<li> creative, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Radio-activity, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>-<a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li>Radium, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>. +<ul> +<li> <i>See also</i> Beta rays.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Rainbow, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + +<li>Ramsay, Sir William, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + +<li>Rand, Herbert W., on the mechanistic view of life, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> + +<li>Russia, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Salt, crystallization, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + +<li>Schäfer, Sir Edward Albert, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; +<ul> +<li> his mechanistic view of life, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Science, delicacy of its methods and implements, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>; +<ul> +<li> limitations of its field, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> +<li> cannot deal with life except as a physical phenomenon, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> +<li> does not embrace the whole of human life, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li> +<li> inadequacy, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> +<li> cannot grasp the mystery of life, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>-<a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li> +<li> cannot deal with fundamental problems, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> +<li> concerns itself with matter only, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> +<li> inevitably mechanistic, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li> +<li> views the universe as one, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>-<a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> the redeemer of the physical world, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>-<a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li> +<li> spiritual insight gained through, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Sea-urchins, Loeb's experiments, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li> + +<li>Seed, growth of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + +<li>Soddy, Frederick, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; +<ul> +<li> on vital force, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> +<li> on rainbows and rabbits, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li> +<li> on the relation of life to energy, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li> +<li> on the atom, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> +<li> on atomic energy, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Spencer, Herbert, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>; +<ul> +<li> quoted, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> +<li> on the origin of life, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li> +<li> on vital capital, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Spirit, common view of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + +<li>Spirituality, evolution of, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> + +<li>Sugar, grape, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Sunflower, wild, force exerted by, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Thomson, J. Arthur, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + +<li>Thomson, Sir J. J., on electrons, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>; +<ul> +<li> photographing atoms, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Tropisms, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> + +<li>Tyndall, John, his view of life, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>; +<ul> +<li> his "molecular force," <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> +<li> his Belfast Address, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</li> +<li> and the "miracle of vitality," <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li> +<li> on energy, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li> +<li> on growth from the germ, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li> +<li> an idealist, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li> +<li> on Goethe, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li> +<li> on matter, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li> +<li> on crystallisation of salt, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li> +<li> on incipient life in inorganic nature, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Universe, the, oneness of, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>; +<ul> +<li> a view of, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Uranium, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Verworn, Max, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>; +<ul> +<li> his view of life, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li> +<li> his term for vital force, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Vital force, constructive, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; +<ul> +<li> inventive and creative, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li> +<li> resisting repose, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li> +<li> as a postulate, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li> +<li> its existence denied by science, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li> +<li> convenience of the term, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li> +<li> other names, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Life.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Vitalism, making headway, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; +<ul> +<li> reason for, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> +<li> Moore's scientific vitalism, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> +<li> type of mind believing in, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>-<a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Life.</li> +</ul></li> + +<li>Vitality, the question of its reality, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_143">143</a>; +<ul> +<li> degrees of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li> +<li> <i>See also</i> Life.</li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>War of 1914, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>-<a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +<li>Water-power, and electricity, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> + +<li>Weismann, August, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> + +<li>Whitman, Walt, quoted, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> + +<li>Wilson, Edmund Beecher, on the cell, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<p>[Transcriber's Notes:</p> + +<p>1. The phrase 'To resolve the pyschic and the vital' was changed to +'To resolve the psychic and the vital'.]</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Breath of Life, by John Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BREATH OF LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 18335-h.htm or 18335-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/3/18335/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Jamie Atiga, Leonard Johnson and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/18335-h/images/image001.png b/18335-h/images/image001.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da3314e --- /dev/null +++ b/18335-h/images/image001.png diff --git a/18335-h/images/image002.png b/18335-h/images/image002.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f826018 --- /dev/null +++ b/18335-h/images/image002.png diff --git a/18335.txt b/18335.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43b1c77 --- /dev/null +++ b/18335.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7762 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Breath of Life, by John Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Breath of Life + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: May 7, 2006 [EBook #18335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BREATH OF LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Jamie Atiga, Leonard Johnson and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE + +BREATH OF LIFE + + +BY + +JOHN BURROUGHS + +[Illustration] + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +The Riverside Press Cambridge + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY JOHN BURROUGHS + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +_Published May 1915_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more +upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope +that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other +world. In these studies I fancy I am about as far from mastering the +mystery as the ant which I saw this morning industriously exploring a +small section of the garden walk is from getting a clear idea of the +geography of the North American Continent. But the ant was occupied and +was apparently happy, and she must have learned something about a small +fraction of that part of the earth's surface. + +I have passed many pleasant summer days in my hay-barn study, or under +the apple trees, exploring these questions, and though I have not solved +them, I am satisfied with the clearer view I have given myself of the +mystery that envelops them. I have set down in these pages all the +thoughts that have come to me on this subject. I have not aimed so much +at consistency as at clearness and definiteness of statement, letting my +mind drift as upon a shoreless sea. Indeed, what are such questions, and +all other ultimate questions, but shoreless seas whereon the chief +reward of the navigator is the joy of the adventure? + +Sir Thomas Browne said, over two hundred years ago, that in philosophy +truth seemed double-faced, by which I fancy he meant that there was +always more than one point of view of all great problems, often +contradictory points of view, from which truth is revealed. In the +following pages I am aware that two ideas, or principles, struggle in my +mind for mastery. One is the idea of the super-mechanical and the +super-chemical character of living things; the other is the idea of the +supremacy and universality of what we call natural law. The first +probably springs from my inborn idealism and literary habit of mind; the +second from my love of nature and my scientific bent. It is hard for me +to reduce the life impulse to a level with common material forces that +shape and control the world of inert matter, and it is equally hard for +me to reconcile my reason to the introduction of a new principle, or to +see anything in natural processes that savors of the _ab-extra_. It is +the working of these two different ideas in my mind that seems to give +rise to the obvious contradictions that crop out here and there +throughout this volume. An explanation of life phenomena that savors of +the laboratory and chemism repels me, and an explanation that savors of +the theological point of view is equally distasteful to me. I crave and +seek a natural explanation of all phenomena upon this earth, but the +word "natural" to me implies more than mere chemistry and physics. The +birth of a baby, and the blooming of a flower, are natural events, but +the laboratory methods forever fail to give us the key to the secret of +either. + +I am forced to conclude that my passion for nature and for all open-air +life, though tinged and stimulated by science, is not a passion for pure +science, but for literature and philosophy. My imagination and ingrained +humanism are appealed to by the facts and methods of natural history. I +find something akin to poetry and religion (using the latter word in its +non-mythological sense, as indicating the sum of mystery and reverence +we feel in the presence of the great facts of life and death) in the +shows of day and night, and in my excursions to fields and woods. The +love of nature is a different thing from the love of science, though the +two may go together. The Wordsworthian sense in nature, of "something +far more deeply interfused" than the principles of exact science, is +probably the source of nearly if not quite all that this volume holds. +To the rigid man of science this is frank mysticism; but without a sense +of the unknown and unknowable, life is flat and barren. Without the +emotion of the beautiful, the sublime, the mysterious, there is no art, +no religion, no literature. How to get from the clod underfoot to the +brain and consciousness of man without invoking something outside of, +and superior to, natural laws, is the question. For my own part I +content myself with the thought of some unknown and doubtless unknowable +tendency or power in the elements themselves--a kind of universal mind +pervading living matter and the reason of its living, through which the +whole drama of evolution is brought about. + +This is getting very near to the old teleological conception, as it is +also near to that of Henri Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge. Our minds +easily slide into the groove of supernaturalism and spiritualism because +they have long moved therein. We have the words and they mould our +thoughts. But science is fast teaching us that the universe is complete +in itself; that whatever takes place in matter is by virtue of the force +of matter; that it does not defer to or borrow from some other universe; +that there is deep beneath deep in it; that gross matter has its +interior in the molecule, and the molecule has its interior in the atom, +and the atom has its interior in the electron, and that the electron is +matter in its fourth or non-material state--the point where it touches +the super-material. The transformation of physical energy into vital, +and of vital into mental, doubtless takes place in this invisible inner +world of atoms and electrons. The electric constitution of matter is a +deduction of physics. It seems in some degree to bridge over the chasm +between what we call the material and the spiritual. If we are not +within hailing distance of life and mind, we seem assuredly on the road +thither. The mystery of the transformation of the ethereal, imponderable +forces into the vital and the mental seems quite beyond the power of the +mind to solve. The explanation of it in the bald terms of chemistry and +physics can never satisfy a mind with a trace of idealism in it. + +The greater number of the chapters of this volume are variations upon a +single theme,--what Tyndall called "the mystery and the miracle of +vitality,"--and I can only hope that the variations are of sufficient +interest to justify the inevitable repetitions which occur. I am no more +inclined than Tyndall was to believe in miracles unless we name +everything a miracle, while at the same time I am deeply impressed with +the inadequacy of all known material forces to account for the phenomena +of living things. + +That word of evil repute, materialism, is no longer the black sheep in +the flock that it was before the advent of modern transcendental +physics. The spiritualized materialism of men like Huxley and Tyndall +need not trouble us. It springs from the new conception of matter. It +stands on the threshold of idealism or mysticism with the door ajar. +After Tyndall had cast out the term "vital force," and reduced all +visible phenomena of life to mechanical attraction and repulsion, after +he had exhausted physics, and reached its very rim, a mighty mystery +still hovered beyond him. He recognized that he had made no step toward +its solution, and was forced to confess with the philosophers of all +ages that + + "We are such stuff + As dreams are made on, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep." + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE BREATH OF LIFE 1 + +II. THE LIVING WAVE 24 + +III. A WONDERFUL WORLD 46 + +IV. THE BAFFLING PROBLEM 71 + +V. SCIENTIFIC VITALISM 104 + +VI. A BIRD OF PASSAGE 115 + +VII. LIFE AND MIND 131 + +VIII. LIFE AND SCIENCE 159 + +IX. THE JOURNEYING ATOMS 188 + +X. THE VITAL ORDER 212 + +XI. THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIT 244 + +XII. THE NATURALIST'S VIEW OF LIFE 254 + + INDEX 291 + +The reproduction of the bust of Mr. Burroughs which appears as the +frontispiece to this volume is used by courtesy of the sculptor, C. S. +Pietro. + + + + +I + +THE BREATH OF LIFE + + +I + +When for the third or fourth time during the spring or summer I take my +hoe and go out and cut off the heads of the lusty burdocks that send out +their broad leaves along the edge of my garden or lawn, I often ask +myself, "What is this thing that is so hard to scotch here in the +grass?" I decapitate it time after time and yet it forthwith gets itself +another head. We call it burdock, but what is burdock, and why does it +not change into yellow dock, or into a cabbage? What is it that is so +constant and so irrepressible, and before the summer is ended will be +lying in wait here with its ten thousand little hooks to attach itself +to every skirt or bushy tail or furry or woolly coat that comes along, +in order to get free transportation to other lawns and gardens, to green +fields and pastures new? + +It is some living thing; but what is a living thing, and how does it +differ from a mechanical and non-living thing? If I smash or overturn +the sundial with my hoe, or break the hoe itself, these things stay +smashed and broken, but the burdock mends itself, renews itself, and, if +I am not on my guard, will surreptitiously mature some of the burs +before the season is passed. + +Evidently a living thing is radically different from a mechanical thing; +yet modern physical science tells me that the burdock is only another +kind of machine, and manifests nothing but the activity of the +mechanical and chemical principles that we see in operation all about us +in dead matter; and that a little different mechanical arrangement of +its ultimate atoms would turn it into a yellow dock or into a cabbage, +into an oak or into a pine, into an ox or into a man. + +I see that it is a machine in this respect, that it is set going by a +force exterior to itself--the warmth of the sun acting upon it, and upon +the moisture in the soil; but it is unmechanical in that it repairs +itself and grows and reproduces itself, and after it has ceased running +can never be made to run again. After I have reduced all its activities +to mechanical and chemical principles, my mind seems to see something +that chemistry and mechanics do not explain--something that avails +itself of these forces, but is not of them. This may be only my +anthropomorphic way of looking at things, but are not all our ways of +looking at things anthropomorphic? How can they be any other? They +cannot be deific since we are not gods. They may be scientific. But what +is science but a kind of anthropomorphism? Kant wisely said, "It sounds +at first singular, but is none the less certain, that the understanding +does not derive its laws from nature, but prescribes them to nature." +This is the anthropomorphism of science. + +If I attribute the phenomenon of life to a vital force or principle, am +I any more unscientific than I am when I give a local habitation and a +name to any other causal force, as gravity, chemical affinity, cohesion, +osmosis, electricity, and so forth? These terms stand for certain +special activities in nature and are as much the inventions of our own +minds as are any of the rest of our ideas. + +We can help ourselves out, as Haeckel does, by calling the physical +forces--such as the magnet that attracts the iron filings, the powder +that explodes, the steam that drives the locomotive, and the +like--"living inorganics," and looking upon them as acting by "living +force as much as the sensitive mimosa does when it contracts its leaves +at touch." But living force is what we are trying to differentiate from +mechanical force, and what do we gain by confounding the two? We can +only look upon a living body as a machine by forming new conceptions of +a machine--a machine utterly unmechanical, which is a contradiction of +terms. + +A man may expend the same kind of force in thinking that he expends in +chopping his wood, but that fact does not put the two kinds of activity +on the same level. There is no question but that the food consumed is +the source of the energy in both cases, but in the one the energy is +muscular, and in the other it is nervous. When we speak of mental or +spiritual force, we have as distinct a conception as when we speak of +physical force. It requires physical force to produce the effect that we +call mental force, though how the one can result in the other is past +understanding. The law of the correlation and conservation of energy +requires that what goes into the body as physical force must come out in +some form of physical force--heat, light, electricity, and so forth. + +Science cannot trace force into the mental realm and connect it with our +states of consciousness. It loses track of it so completely that men +like Tyndall and Huxley and Spencer pause before it as an inscrutable +mystery, while John Fiske helps himself out with the conception of the +soul as quite independent of the body, standing related to it as the +musician is related to his instrument. This idea is the key to Fiske's +proof of the immortality of the soul. Finding himself face to face with +an insoluble mystery, he cuts the knot, or rather, clears the chasm, by +this extra-scientific leap. Since the soul, as we know it, is +inseparably bound up with physical conditions, it seems to me that a +more rational explanation of the phenomenon of mentality is the +conception that the physical force and substance that we use up in a +mental effort or emotional experience gives rise, through some unknown +kind of molecular activity, to something which is analogous to the +electric current in a live wire, and which traverses the nerves and +results in our changing states of consciousness. This is the mechanistic +explanation of mind, consciousness, etc., but it is the only one, or +kind of one, that lends itself to scientific interpretation. Life, +spirit, consciousness, may be a mode of motion as distinct from all +other modes of motion, such as heat, light, electricity, as these are +distinct from each other. + +When we speak of force of mind, force of character, we of course speak +in parables, since the force here alluded to is an experience of our own +minds entirely and would not suffice to move the finest dust-particle in +the air. + +There could be no vegetable or animal life without the sunbeam, yet when +we have explained or accounted for the growth of a tree in terms of the +chemistry and physics of the sunbeam, do we not have to figure to +ourselves something in the tree that avails itself of this chemistry, +that uses it and profits by it? After this mysterious something has +ceased to operate, or play its part, the chemistry of the sunbeam is no +longer effective, and the tree is dead. + +Without the vibrations that we call light, there would have been no eye. +But, as Bergson happily says, it is not light passively received that +makes the eye; it is light meeting an indwelling need in the organism, +which amounts to an active creative principle, that begets the eye. With +fish in underground waters this need does not arise; hence they have no +sight. Fins and wings and legs are developed to meet some end of the +organism, but if the organism were not charged with an expansive or +developing force or impulse, would those needs arise? + +Why should the vertebrate series have risen through the fish, the +reptile, the mammal, to man, unless the manward impulse was inherent in +the first vertebrate; something that struggled, that pushed on and up +from the more simple to the more complex forms? Why did not unicellular +life always remain unicellular? Could not the environment have acted +upon it endlessly without causing it to change toward higher and more +complex forms, had there not been some indwelling aboriginal tendency +toward these forms? How could natural selection, or any other process of +selection, work upon species to modify them, if there were not something +in species pushing out and on, seeking new ways, new forms, in fact some +active principle that is modifiable? + +Life has risen by stepping-stones of its dead self to higher things. Why +has it risen? Why did it not keep on the same level, and go through the +cycle of change, as the inorganic does, without attaining to higher +forms? Because, it may be replied, it was life, and not mere matter and +motion--something that lifts matter and motion to a new plane. + +Under the influence of the life impulse, the old routine of matter--from +compound to compound, from solid to fluid, from fluid to gaseous, from +rock to soil, the cycle always ending where it began--is broken into, +and cycles of a new order are instituted. From the stable equilibrium +which dead matter is always seeking, the same matter in the vital +circuit is always seeking the state of unstable equilibrium, or rather +is forever passing between the two, and evolving the myriad forms of +life in the passage. It is hard to think of the process as the work of +the physical and chemical forces of inorganic nature, without +supplementing them with a new and different force. + +The forces of life are constructive forces, and they are operative in a +world of destructive or disintegrating forces which oppose them and +which they overcome. The physical and chemical forces of dead matter are +at war with the forces of life, till life overcomes and uses them. + +The mechanical forces go on repeating or dividing through the same +cycles forever and ever, seeking a stable condition, but the vital force +is inventive and creative and constantly breaks the repose that organic +nature seeks to impose upon it. + +External forces may modify a body, but they cannot develop it unless +there is something in the body waiting to be developed, craving +development, as it were. The warmth and moisture in the soil act alike +upon the grains of sand and upon the seed-germs; the germ changes into +something else, the sand does not. These agents liberate a force in the +germ that is not in the grain of sand. The warmth of the brooding fowl +does not spend itself upon mere passive, inert matter (unless there is a +china egg in the nest), but upon matter straining upon its leash, and in +a state of expectancy. We do not know how the activity of the molecules +of the egg differs from the activity of the molecules of the pebble, +under the influence of warmth, but we know there must be a difference +between the interior movements of organized and unorganized matter. + +Life lifts inert matter up into a thousand varied and beautiful forms +and holds it there for a season,--holds it against gravity and chemical +affinity, though you may say, if you please, not without their aid,--and +then in due course lets go of it, or abandons it, and lets it fall back +into the great sea of the inorganic. Its constant tendency is to fall +back; indeed, in animal life it does fall back every moment; it rises on +the one hand, serves its purpose of life, and falls back on the other. +In going through the cycle of life the mineral elements experience some +change that chemical analysis does not disclose--they are the more +readily absorbed again by life. It is as if the elements had profited +in some way under the tutelage of life. Their experience has been a +unique and exceptional one. Only a small fraction of the sum total of +the inert matter of the globe can have this experience. It must first go +through the vegetable cycle before it can be taken up by the animal. The +only things we can take directly from the inorganic world are water and +air; and the function of water is largely a mechanical one, and the +function of air a chemical one. + +I think of the vital as flowing out of the physical, just as the +psychical flows out of the vital, and just as the higher forms of animal +life flow out of the lower. It is a far cry from man to the dumb brutes, +and from the brutes to the vegetable world, and from the vegetable to +inert matter; but the germ and start of each is in the series below it. +The living came out of the not-living. If life is of physico-chemical +origin, it is so by transformations and translations that physics cannot +explain. The butterfly comes out of the grub, man came out of the brute, +but, as Darwin says, "not by his own efforts," any more than the child +becomes the man by its own efforts. + +The push of life, of the evolutionary process, is back of all and in +all. We can account for it all by saying the Creative Energy is immanent +in matter, and this gives the mind something to take hold of. + + +II + +According to the latest scientific views held on the question by such +men as Professor Loeb, the appearance of life on the globe was a purely +accidental circumstance. The proper elements just happened to come +together at the right time in the right proportions and under the right +conditions, and life was the result. It was an accident in the thermal +history of the globe. Professor Loeb has lately published a volume of +essays and addresses called "The Mechanistic Conception of Life," +enforcing and illustrating this view. He makes war on what he terms the +metaphysical conception of a "life-principle" as the key to the problem, +and urges the scientific conception of the adequacy of +mechanico-chemical forces. In his view, we are only chemical mechanisms; +and all our activities, mental and physical alike, are only automatic +responses to the play of the blind, material forces of external nature. +All forms of life, with all their wonderful adaptations, are only the +chance happenings of the blind gropings and clashings of dead matter: +"We eat, drink, and reproduce [and, of course, think and speculate and +write books on the problems of life], not because mankind has reached an +agreement that this is desirable, but because, machine-like, we are +compelled to do so!" + +He reaches the conclusion that all our inner subjective life is +amenable to physico-chemical analysis, because many cases of simple +animal instinct and will can be explained on this basis--the basis of +animal tropism. Certain animals creep or fly to the light, others to the +dark, because they cannot help it. This is tropism. He believes that the +origin of life can be traced to the same physico-chemical activities, +because, in his laboratory experiments, he has been able to dispense +with the male principle, and to fertilize the eggs of certain low forms +of marine life by chemical compounds alone. "The problem of the +beginning and end of individual life is physico-chemically clear"--much +clearer than the first beginnings of life. All individual life begins +with the egg, but where did we get the egg? When chemical synthesis will +give us this, the problem is solved. We can analyze the material +elements of an organism, but we cannot synthesize them and produce the +least spark of living matter. That all forms of life have a mechanical +and chemical basis is beyond question, but when we apply our analysis to +them, life evaporates, vanishes, the vital processes cease. But apply +the same analysis to inert matter, and only the form is changed. + +Professor Loeb's artificially fathered embryo and starfish and +sea-urchins soon die. If his chemism could only give him the +mother-principle also! But it will not. The mother-principle is at the +very foundations of the organic world, and defies all attempts of +chemical synthesis to reproduce it. + +It would be presumptive in the extreme for me to question Professor +Loeb's scientific conclusions; he is one of the most eminent of living +experimental biologists. I would only dissent from some of his +philosophical conclusions. I dissent from his statement that only the +mechanistic conception of life can throw light on the source of ethics. +Is there any room for the moral law in a world of mechanical +determinism? There is no ethics in the physical order, and if humanity +is entirely in the grip of that order, where do moral obligations come +in? A gun, a steam-engine, knows no ethics, and to the extent that we +are compelled to do things, are we in the same category. Freedom of +choice alone gives any validity to ethical consideration. I dissent from +the idea to which he apparently holds, that biology is only applied +physics and chemistry. Is not geology also applied physics and +chemistry? Is it any more or any less? Yet what a world of difference +between the two--between a rock and a tree, between a man and the soil +he cultivates. Grant that the physical and the chemical forces are the +same in both, yet they work to such different ends in each. In one case +they are tending always to a deadlock, to the slumber of a static +equilibrium; in the other they are ceaselessly striving to reach a state +of dynamic activity--to build up a body that hangs forever between a +state of integration and disintegration. What is it that determines this +new mode and end of their activities? + +In all his biological experimentation, Professor Loeb starts with living +matter and, finding its processes capable of physico-chemical analysis, +he hastens to the conclusion that its genesis is to be accounted for by +the action and interaction of these principles alone. + +In the inorganic world, everything is in its place through the operation +of blind physical forces; because the place of a dead thing, its +relation to the whole, is a matter of indifference. The rocks, the +hills, the streams are in their place, but any other place would do as +well. But in the organic world we strike another order--an order where +the relation and subordination of parts is everything, and to speak of +human existence as a "matter of chance" in the sense, let us say, that +the forms and positions of inanimate bodies are matters of chance, is to +confuse terms. + +Organic evolution upon the earth shows steady and regular progression; +as much so as the growth and development of a tree. If the evolutionary +impulse fails on one line, it picks itself up and tries on another, it +experiments endlessly like an inventor, but always improves on its last +attempts. Chance would have kept things at a standstill; the principle +of chance, give it time enough, must end where it began. Chance is a +man lost in the woods; he never arrives; he wanders aimlessly. If +evolution pursued a course equally fortuitous, would it not still be +wandering in the wilderness of the chaotic nebulae? + + +III + +A vastly different and much more stimulating view of life is given by +Henri Bergson in his "Creative Evolution." Though based upon biological +science, it is a philosophical rather than a scientific view, and +appeals to our intuitional and imaginative nature more than to our +constructive reason. M. Bergson interprets the phenomena of life in +terms of spirit, rather than in terms of matter as does Professor Loeb. +The word "creative" is the key-word to his view. Life is a creative +impulse or current which arose in matter at a certain time and place, +and flows through it from form to form, from generation to generation, +augmenting in force as it advances. It is one with spirit, and is +incessant creation; the whole organic world is filled, from bottom to +top, with one tremendous effort. It was long ago felicitously stated by +Whitman in his "Leaves of Grass," "Urge and urge, always the procreant +urge of the world." + +This conception of the nature and genesis of life is bound to be +challenged by modern physical science, which, for the most part, sees in +biology only a phase of physics; but the philosophic mind and the +trained literary mind will find in "Creative Evolution" a treasure-house +of inspiring ideas, and engaging forms of original artistic expression. +As Mr. Balfour says, "M. Bergson's 'Evolution Creatrice' is not merely a +philosophical treatise, it has all the charm and all the audacities of a +work of art, and as such defies adequate reproduction." + +It delivers us from the hard mechanical conception of determinism, or of +a closed universe which, like a huge manufacturing plant, grinds out +vegetables and animals, minds and spirits, as it grinds out rocks and +soils, gases and fluids, and the inorganic compounds. + +With M. Bergson, life is the flowing metamorphosis of the poets,--an +unceasing becoming,--and evolution is a wave of creative energy +overflowing through matter "upon which each visible organism rides +during the short interval of time given it to live." In his view, matter +is held in the iron grip of necessity, but life is freedom itself. +"Before the evolution of life ... the portals of the future remain wide +open. It is a creation that goes on forever in virtue of an initial +movement. This movement constitutes the unity of the organized world--a +prolific unity, of an infinite richness, superior to any that the +intellect could dream of, for the intellect is only one of its aspects +or products." + +What a contrast to Herbert Spencer's view of life and evolution! +"Life," says Spencer, "consists of inner action so adjusted as to +balance outer action." True enough, no doubt, but not interesting. If +the philosopher could tell us what it is that brings about the +adjustment, and that profits by it, we should at once prick up our ears. +Of course, it is life. But what is life? It is inner action so adjusted +as to balance outer action! + +A recent contemptuous critic of M. Bergson's book, Hugh S. R. Elliot, +points out, as if he were triumphantly vindicating the physico-chemical +theory of the nature and origin of life, what a complete machine a +cabbage is for converting solar energy into chemical and vital +energy--how it takes up the raw material from the soil by a chemical and +mechanical process, how these are brought into contact with the light +and air through the leaves, and thus the cabbage is built up. In like +manner, a man is a machine for converting chemical energy derived from +the food he eats into motion, and the like. As if M. Bergson, or any one +else, would dispute these things! In the same way, a steam-engine is a +machine for converting the energy latent in coal into motion and power; +but what force lies back of the engine, and was active in the +construction? + +The final question of the cabbage and the man still remains--Where did +you get them? + +You assume vitality to start with--how did you get it? Did it arise +spontaneously out of dead matter? Mechanical and chemical forces do all +the work of the living body, but who or what controls and directs them, +so that one compounding of the elements begets a cabbage, and another +compounding of the same elements begets an oak--one mixture of them and +we have a frog, another and we have a man? Is there not room here for +something besides blind, indifferent forces? If we make the molecules +themselves creative, then we are begging the question. The creative +energy by any other name remains the same. + + +IV + +If life itself is not a force or a form of energy, yet behold what +energy it is capable of exerting! It seems to me that Sir Oliver Lodge +is a little confusing when he says in a recent essay that "life does not +exert force--not even the most microscopical force--and certainly does +not supply energy." Sir Oliver is thinking of life as a distinct +entity--something apart from the matter which it animates. But even in +this case can we not say that the mainspring of the energy of living +bodies is the life that is in them? + +Apart from the force exerted by living animal bodies, see the force +exerted by living plant bodies. I thought of the remark of Sir Oliver +one day not long after reading it, while I was walking in a beech wood +and noted how the sprouting beechnuts had sent their pale radicles down +through the dry leaves upon which they were lying, often piercing two +or three of them, and forcing their way down into the mingled soil and +leaf-mould a couple of inches. Force was certainly expended in doing +this, and if the life in the sprouting nut did not exert it or expend +it, what did? + +When I drive a peg into the ground with my axe or mallet, is the life in +my arm any more strictly the source (the secondary source) of the energy +expended than is the nut in this case? Of course, the sun is the primal +source of the energy in both cases, and in all cases, but does not life +exert the force, use it, bring it to bear, which it receives from the +universal fount of energy? + +Life cannot supply energy _de novo_, cannot create it out of nothing, +but it can and must draw upon the store of energy in which the earth +floats as in a sea. When this energy or force is manifest through a +living body, we call it vital force; when it is manifest through a +mechanical contrivance, we call it mechanical force; when it is +developed by the action and reaction of chemical compounds, we call it +chemical force; the same force in each case, but behaving so differently +in the one case from what it does in the other that we come to think of +it as a new and distinct entity. Now if Sir Oliver or any one else could +tell us what force is, this difference between the vitalists and the +mechanists might be reconciled. + +Darwin measured the force of the downward growth of the radicle, such as +I have alluded to, as one quarter of a pound, and its lateral pressure +as much greater. We know that the roots of trees insert themselves into +seams in the rocks, and force the parts asunder. This force is +measurable and is often very great. Its seat seems to be in the soft, +milky substance called the cambium layer under the bark. These minute +cells when their force is combined may become regular rock-splitters. + +One of the most remarkable exhibitions of plant force I ever saw was in +a Western city where I observed a species of wild sunflower forcing its +way up through the asphalt pavement; the folded and compressed leaves of +the plant, like a man's fist, had pushed against the hard but flexible +concrete till it had bulged up and then split, and let the irrepressible +plant through. The force exerted must have been many pounds. I think it +doubtful if the strongest man could have pushed his fist through such a +resisting medium. If it was not life which exerted this force, what was +it? Life activities are a kind of explosion, and the slow continued +explosions of this growing plant rent the pavement as surely as powder +would have done. It is doubtful if any cultivated plant could have +overcome such odds. It required the force of the untamed hairy plant of +the plains to accomplish this feat. + +That life does not supply energy, that is, is not an independent source +of energy, seems to me obvious enough, but that it does not manifest +energy, use energy, or "exert force," is far from obvious. If a growing +plant or tree does not exert force by reason of its growing, or by +virtue of a specific kind of activity among its particles, which we name +life, and which does not take place in a stone or in a bar of iron or in +dead timber, then how can we say that any mechanical device or explosive +compound exerts force? The steam-engine does not create force, neither +does the exploding dynamite, but these things exert force. We have to +think of the sum total of the force of the universe, as of matter +itself, as a constant factor, that can neither be increased nor +diminished. All activity, organic and inorganic, draws upon this force: +the plant and tree, as well as the engine and the explosive--the winds, +the tides, the animal, the vegetable alike. I can think of but one +force, but of any number of manifestations of force, and of two distinct +kinds of manifestations, the organic and the inorganic, or the vital and +the physical,--the latter divisible into the chemical and the +mechanical, the former made up of these two working in infinite +complexity because drawn into new relations, and lifted to higher ends +by this something we call life. + +We think of something in the organic that lifts and moves and +redistributes dead matter, and builds it up into the ten thousand new +forms which it would never assume without this something; it lifts lime +and iron and silica and potash and carbon, against gravity, up into +trees and animal forms, not by a new force, but by an old force in the +hands of a new agent. + +The cattle move about the field, the drift boulders slowly creep down +the slopes; there is no doubt that the final source of the force is in +both cases the same; what we call gravity, a name for a mystery, is the +form it takes in the case of the rocks, and what we call vitality, +another name for a mystery, is the form it takes in the case of the +cattle; without the solar and stellar energy, could there be any motion +of either rock or beast? + +Force is universal, it pervades all nature, one manifestation of it we +call heat, another light, another electricity, another cohesion, +chemical affinity, and so on. May not another manifestation of it be +called life, differing from all the rest more radically than they differ +from one another; bound up with all the rest and inseparable from them +and identical with them only in its ultimate source in the Creative +Energy that is immanent in the universe? I have to think of the Creative +Energy as immanent in all matter, and the final source of all the +transformations and transmutations we see in the organic and the +inorganic worlds. The very nature of our minds compels us to postulate +some power, or some principle, not as lying back of, but as active in, +all the changing forms of life and nature, and their final source and +cause. + +The mind is satisfied when it finds a word that gives it a hold of a +thing or a process, or when it can picture to itself just how the thing +occurs. Thus, for instance, to account for the power generated by the +rushing together of hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, we have to +conceive of space between the atoms of these elements, and that the +force generated comes from the immense velocity with which the +infinitesimal atoms rush together across this infinitesimal space. It is +quite possible that this is not the true explanation at all, but it +satisfies the mind because it is an explanation in terms of mechanical +forces that we know. + +The solar energy goes into the atoms or corpuscles one thing, and it +comes out another; it goes in as inorganic force, and it comes out as +organic and psychic. The change or transformation takes place in those +invisible laboratories of the infinitesimal atoms. It helps my mental +processes to give that change a name--vitality--and to recognize it as a +supra-mechanical force. Pasteur wanted a name for it and called it +"dissymmetric force." + +We are all made of one stuff undoubtedly, vegetable and animal, man and +woman, dog and donkey, and the secret of the difference between us, and +of the passing along of the difference from generation to generation +with but slight variations, may be, so to speak, in the way the +molecules and atoms of our bodies take hold of hands and perform their +mystic dances in the inner temple of life. But one would like to know +who or what pipes the tune and directs the figures of the dance. + +In the case of the beechnuts, what is it that lies dormant in the +substance of the nuts and becomes alive, under the influence of the +warmth and moisture of spring, and puts out a radicle that pierces the +dry leaves like an awl? The pebbles, though they contain the same +chemical elements, do not become active and put out a radicle. + +The chemico-physical explanation of the universe goes but a little way. +These are the tools of the creative process, but they are not that +process, nor its prime cause. Start the flame of life going, and the +rest may be explained in terms of chemistry; start the human body +developing, and physiological processes explain its growth; but why it +becomes a man and not a monkey--what explains that? + + + + +II + +THE LIVING WAVE + + +I + +If one attempts to reach any rational conclusion on the question of the +nature and origin of life on this planet, he soon finds himself in close +quarters with two difficulties. He must either admit of a break in the +course of nature and the introduction of a new principle, the vital +principle, which, if he is a man of science, he finds it hard to do; or +he must accept the theory of the physico-chemical origin of life, which, +as a being with a soul, he finds it equally hard to do. In other words, +he must either draw an arbitrary line between the inorganic and the +organic when he knows that drawing arbitrary lines in nature, and +fencing off one part from another, is an unscientific procedure, and one +that often leads to bewildering contradictions; or he must look upon +himself with all his high thoughts and aspirations, and upon all other +manifestations of life, as merely a chance product of the blind +mechanical and chemical action and interaction of the inorganic forces. + +Either conclusion is distasteful. One does not like to think of himself +as a chance hit of the irrational physical elements; neither does he +feel at ease with the thought that he is the result of any break or +discontinuity in natural law. He likes to see himself as vitally and +inevitably related to the physical order as is the fruit to the tree +that bore it, or the child to the mother that carried it in her womb, +and yet, if only mechanical and chemical forces entered into his +genesis, he does not feel himself well fathered and mothered. + +One may evade the difficulty, as Helmholtz did, by regarding life as +eternal--that it had no beginning in time; or, as some other German +biologists have done, that the entire cosmos is alive and the earth a +living organism. + +If biogenesis is true, and always has been true,--no life without +antecedent life,--then the question of a beginning is unthinkable. It is +just as easy to think of a stick with only one end. + +Such stanch materialists and mechanists as Haeckel and Verworn seem to +have felt compelled, as a last resort, to postulate a psychic principle +in nature, though of a low order. Haeckel says that most chemists and +physicists will not hear a word about a "soul" in the atom. "In my +opinion, however," he says, "in order to explain the simplest physical +and chemical processes, we must necessarily assume a low order of +psychical activity among the homogeneous particles of plasm, rising a +very little above that of the crystal." In crystallization he sees a +low degree of sensation and a little higher degree in the plasm. + +Have we not in this rudimentary psychic principle which Haeckel ascribes +to the atom a germ to start with that will ultimately give us the mind +of man? With this spark, it seems to me, we can kindle a flame that will +consume Haeckel's whole mechanical theory of creation. Physical science +is clear that the non-living or inorganic world was before the living or +organic world, but that the latter in some mysterious way lay folded in +the former. Science has for many years been making desperate efforts to +awaken this slumbering life in its laboratories, but has not yet +succeeded, and probably never will succeed. Life without antecedent life +seems a biological impossibility. The theory of spontaneous generation +is rejected by the philosophical mind, because our experience tells us +that everything has its antecedent, and that there is and can be no end +to the causal sequences. + +Spencer believes that the organic and inorganic fade into each other by +insensible gradations--that no line can be drawn between them so that +one can say, on this side is the organic, on that the inorganic. In +other words, he says it is not necessary for us to think of an absolute +commencement of organic life, or of a first organism--organic matter was +not produced all at once, but was reached through steps or gradations. +Yet it puzzles one to see how there can be any gradations or degrees +between being and not being. Can there be any halfway house between +something and nothing? + + +II + +There is another way out of the difficulty that besets our rational +faculties in their efforts to solve this question, and that is the +audacious way of Henri Bergson in his "Creative Evolution." It is to +deny any validity to the conclusion of our logical faculties upon this +subject. Our intellect, Bergson says, cannot grasp the true nature of +life, nor the meaning of the evolutionary movement. With the emphasis of +italics he repeats that "_the intellect is characterized by a natural +inability to comprehend life_." He says this in a good many pages and in +a good many different ways; the idea is one of the main conclusions of +his book. Our intuitions, our spiritual nature, according to this +philosopher, are more _en rapport_ with the secrets of the creative +energy than are our intellectual faculties; the key to the problem is to +be found here, rather than in the mechanics and chemistry of the latter. +Our intellectual faculties can grasp the physical order because they are +formed by a world of solids and fluids and give us the power to deal +with them and act upon them. But they cannot grasp the nature and the +meaning of the vital order. + +"We treat the living like the lifeless, and think all reality, however +fluid, under the form of the sharply defined solid. We are at ease only +in the discontinuous, in the immobile, in the dead. Perceiving in an +organism only parts external to parts, the understanding has the choice +between two systems of explanation only: either to regard the infinitely +complex (and thereby infinitely well contrived) organization as a +fortuitous concatenation of atoms, or to relate it to the +incomprehensible influence of an external force that has grouped its +elements together." + +"Everything is obscure in the idea of creation, if we think of things +which are created and a thing which creates." If we follow the lead of +our logical, scientific faculties, then, we shall all be mechanists and +materialists. Science can make no other solution of the problem because +it sees from the outside. But if we look from the inside, with the +spirit or "with that faculty of seeing which is immanent in the faculty +of acting," we shall escape from the bondage of the mechanistic view +into the freedom of the larger truth of the ceaseless creative view; we +shall see the unity of the creative impulse which is immanent in life +and which, "passing through generations, links individuals with +individuals, species with species, and makes of the whole series of the +living one single immense wave flowing over matter." + +I recall that Tyndall, who was as much poet as scientist, speaks of +life as a wave "which at no two consecutive moments of its existence is +composed of the same particles." In his more sober scientific mood +Tyndall would doubtless have rejected M. Bergson's view of life, yet his +image of the wave is very Bergsonian. But what different meanings the +two writers aim to convey: Tyndall is thinking of the fact that a living +body is constantly taking up new material on the one side and dropping +dead or outworn material on the other. M. Bergson's mind is occupied +with the thought of the primal push or impulsion of matter which travels +through it as the force in the wave traverses the water. The wave +embodies a force which lifts the water up in opposition to its tendency +to seek and keep a level, and travels on, leaving the water behind. So +does this something we call life break the deadlock of inert matter and +lift it into a thousand curious and beautiful forms, and then, passing +on, lets it fall back again into a state of dead equilibrium. + +Tyndall was one of the most eloquent exponents of the materialistic +theory of the origin of life, and were he living now would probably feel +little or no sympathy with the Bergsonian view of a primordial life +impulse. He found the key to all life phenomena in the hidden world of +molecular attraction and repulsion. He says: "Molecular forces determine +the form which the solar energy will assume. [What a world of mystery +lies in that determinism of the hidden molecular forces!] In the +separation of the carbon and oxygen this energy may be so conditioned as +to result in one case in the formation of a cabbage and in another case +in the formation of an oak. So also as regards the reunion of the carbon +and the oxygen [in the animal organism] the molecular machinery through +which the combining energy acts may in one case weave the texture of a +frog, while in another it may weave the texture of a man." + +But is not this molecular force itself a form of solar energy, and can +it differ in kind from any other form of physical force? If molecular +forces determine whether the solar energy shall weave a head of a +cabbage or a head of a Plato or a Shakespeare, does it not meet all the +requirements of our conception of creative will? + +Tyndall thinks that a living man--Socrates, Aristotle, Goethe, Darwin, I +suppose--could be produced directly from inorganic nature in the +laboratory if (and note what a momentous "if" this is) we could put +together the elements of such a man in the same relative positions as +those which they occupy in his body, "with the selfsame forces and +distribution of forces, the selfsame motions and distribution of +motions." Do this and you have a St. Paul or a Luther or a Lincoln. Dr. +Verworn said essentially the same thing in a lecture before one of our +colleges while in this country a few years ago--easy enough to +manufacture a living being of any order of intellect if you can +reproduce in the laboratory his "internal and external _vital +conditions_." (The italics are mine.) To produce those vital conditions +is where the rub comes. Those vital conditions, as regards the minutest +bit of protoplasm, science, with all her tremendous resources, has not +yet been able to produce. The raising of Lazarus from the dead seems no +more a miracle than evoking vital conditions in dead matter. External +and internal vital conditions are no doubt inseparably correlated, and +when we can produce them we shall have life. Life, says Verworn, is like +fire, and "is a phenomenon of nature which appears as soon as the +complex of its conditions is fulfilled." We can easily produce fire by +mechanical and chemical means, but not life. Fire is a chemical process, +it is rapid oxidation, and oxidation is a disintegrating process, while +life is an integrating process, or a balance maintained between the two +by what we call the vital force. Life is evidently a much higher form of +molecular activity than combustion. The old Greek Heraclitus saw, and +the modern scientist sees, very superficially in comparing the two. + +I have no doubt that Huxley was right in his inference "that if the +properties of matter result from the nature and disposition of its +component molecules, then there is no intelligible ground for refusing +to say that the properties of protoplasm result from the nature and +disposition of its molecules." It is undoubtedly in that nature and +disposition of the biological molecules that Tyndall's whole "mystery +and miracle of vitality" is wrapped up. If we could only grasp what it +is that transforms the molecule of dead matter into the living molecule! +Pasteur called it "dissymmetric force," which is only a new name for the +mystery. He believed there was an "irrefragable physical barrier between +organic and inorganic nature"--that the molecules of an organism +differed from those of a mineral, and for this difference he found a +name. + + +III + +There seems to have been of late years a marked reaction, even among men +of science, from the mechanistic conception of life as held by the band +of scientists to which I have referred. Something like a new vitalism is +making headway both on the Continent and in Great Britain. Its exponents +urge that biological problems "defy any attempt at a mechanical +explanation." These men stand for the idea "of the creative +individuality of organisms" and that the main factors in organic +evolution cannot be accounted for by the forces already operative in the +inorganic world. + +There is, of course, a mathematical chance that in the endless changes +and permutations of inert matter the four principal elements that make +up a living body may fall or run together in just that order and number +that the kindling of the flame of life requires, but it is a disquieting +proposition. One atom too much or too little of any of them,--three of +oxygen where two were required, or two of nitrogen where only one was +wanted,--and the face of the world might have been vastly different. Not +only did much depend on their coming together, but upon the order of +their coming; they must unite in just such an order. Insinuate an atom +or corpuscle of hydrogen or carbon at the wrong point in the ranks, and +the trick is a failure. Is there any chance that they will hit upon a +combination of things and forces that will make a machine--a watch, a +gun, or even a row of pins? + +When we regard all the phenomena of life and the spell it seems to put +upon inert matter, so that it behaves so differently from the same +matter before it is drawn into the life circuit, when we see how it +lifts up a world of dead particles out of the soil against gravity into +trees and animals; how it changes the face of the earth; how it comes +and goes while matter stays; how it defies chemistry and physics to +evoke it from the non-living; how its departure, or cessation, lets the +matter fall back to the inorganic--when we consider these and others +like them, we seem compelled to think of life as something, some force +or principle in itself, as M. Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge do, existing +apart from the matter it animates. + +Sir Oliver Lodge, famous physicist that he is, yet has a vein of +mysticism and idealism in him which sometimes makes him recoil from the +hard-and-fast interpretations of natural phenomena by physical science. +Like M. Bergson, he sees in life some tendency or impetus which arose in +matter at a definite time and place, "and which has continued to +interact with and incarnate itself in matter ever since." + +If a living body is a machine, then we behold a new kind of machine with +new kinds of mechanical principles--a machine that repairs itself, that +reproduces itself, a clock that winds itself up, an engine that stokes +itself, a gun that aims itself, a machine that divides and makes two, +two unite and make four, a million or more unite and make a man or a +tree--a machine that is nine tenths water, a machine that feeds on other +machines, a machine that grows stronger with use; in fact, a machine +that does all sorts of unmechanical things and that no known combination +of mechanical and chemical principles can reproduce--a vital machine. +The idea of the vital as something different from and opposed to the +mechanical must come in. Something had to be added to the mechanical and +chemical to make the vital. + +Spencer explains in terms of physics why an ox is larger than the sheep, +but he throws no light upon the subject of the individuality of these +animals--what it is that makes an ox an ox or a sheep a sheep. These +animals are built up out of the same elements by the same processes, and +they may both have had the same stem form in remote biologic time. If +so, what made them diverge and develop into such totally different +forms? After the living body is once launched many, if not all, of its +operations and economies can be explained on principles of mechanics and +chemistry, but the something that avails itself of these principles and +develops an ox in the one case and a sheep in the other--what of that? + +Spencer is forced into using the terms "amount of vital capital." How +much more of it some men, some animals, some plants have than others! +What is it? What did Spencer mean by it? This capital augments from +youth to manhood, and then after a short or long state of equilibrium +slowly declines to the vanishing-point. + +Again, what a man does depends upon what he is, and what he is depends +upon what he does. Structure determines function, and function reacts +upon structure. This interaction goes on throughout life; cause and +effect interchange or play into each other's hands. The more power we +spend within limits the more power we have. This is another respect in +which life is utterly unmechanical. A machine does not grow stronger by +use as our muscles do; it does not store up or conserve the energy it +expends. The gun is weaker by every ball it hurls; not so the baseball +pitcher; he is made stronger up to the limit of his capacity for +strength. + +It is plain enough that all living beings are machines in this +respect--they are kept going by the reactions between their interior and +their exterior; these reactions are either mechanical, as in flying, +swimming, walking, and involve gravitation, or they are chemical and +assimilative, as in breathing and eating. To that extent all living +things are machines--some force exterior to themselves must aid in +keeping them going; there is no spontaneous or uncaused movement in +them; and yet what a difference between a machine and a living thing! + +True it is that a man cannot live and function without heat and oxygen, +nor long without food, and yet his relation to his medium and +environment is as radically different from that of the steam-engine as +it is possible to express. His driving-wheel, the heart, acts in +response to some stimulus as truly as does the piston of the engine, and +the principles involved in circulation are all mechanical; and yet the +main thing is not mechanical, but vital. Analyze the vital activities +into principles of mechanics and of chemistry, if you will, yet there is +something involved that is neither mechanical nor chemical, though it +may be that only the imagination can grasp it. + +The type that prints the book is set up and again distributed by a +purely mechanical process, but that which the printed page signifies +involves something not mechanical. The mechanical and chemical +principles operative in men's bodies are all the same; the cell +structure is the same, and yet behold the difference between men in +size, in strength, in appearance, in temperament, in disposition, in +capacities! All the processes of respiration, circulation, and nutrition +in our bodies involve well-known mechanical principles, and the body is +accurately described as a machine; and yet if there were not something +in it that transcends mechanics and chemistry would you and I be here? A +machine is the same whether it is in action or repose, but when a body +ceases to function, it is not the same. It cannot be set going like a +machine; the motor power has ceased to be. But if the life of the body +were no more than the sum of the reactions existing between the body and +the medium in which it lives, this were not so. A body lives as long as +there is a proper renewal of the interior medium through exchanges with +its environment. + +Mechanical principles are operative in every part of the body--in the +heart, in the arteries, in the limbs, in the joints, in the bowels, in +the muscles; and chemical principles are operative in the lungs, in the +stomach, in the liver, in the kidneys; but to all these things do we not +have to add something that is not mechanical or chemical to make the +man, to make the plant? A higher mechanics, a higher chemistry, if you +prefer, a force, but a force differing in kind from the physical forces. + +The forces of life are constructive forces, and work in a world of +disintegrating or destructive forces which oppose them and which they +overcome. The mechanical and the chemical forces of dead matter are the +enemies of the forces of life till life overcomes and uses them; as much +so as gravity, fire, frost, water are man's enemies till he has learned +how to subdue and use them. + + +IV + +It is a significant fact that the four chief elements which in various +combinations make up living bodies are by their extreme mobility well +suited to their purpose. Three of these are gaseous; only the carbon is +a solid. This renders them facile and adaptive in the ever-changing +conditions of organic evolution. The solid carbon forms the vessel in +which the precious essence of life is carried. Without carbon we should +evaporate or flow away and escape. Much of the oxygen and hydrogen +enters into living bodies as water; nine tenths of the human body is +water; a little nitrogen and a few mineral salts make up the rest. So +that our life in its final elements is little more than a stream of +water holding in solution carbonaceous and other matter and flowing, +forever flowing, a stream of fluid and solid matter plus something else +that scientific analysis cannot reach--some force or principle that +combines and organizes these elements into the living body. + +If a man could be reduced instantly into his constituent elements we +should see a pail or two of turbid fluid that would flow down the bank +and soon be lost in the soil. That which gives us our form and stability +and prevents us from slowly spilling down the slope at all times is the +mysterious vital principle or force which knits and marries these +unstable elements together and raises up a mobile but more or less +stable form out of the world of fluids. Venus rising from the sea is a +symbol of the genesis of every living thing. + +Inorganic matter seeks only rest. "Let me alone," it says; "do not break +my slumbers." But as soon as life awakens in it, it says: "Give me room, +get out of my way. Ceaseless activity, ceaseless change, a thousand new +forms are what I crave." As soon as life enters matter, matter meets +with a change of heart. It is lifted to another plane, the +supermechanical plane; it behaves in a new way; its movements from being +calculable become incalculable. A straight line has direction, that is +mechanics; what direction has the circle? That is life, a change of +direction every instant. An aeroplane is built entirely on mechanical +principles, but something not so built has to sit in it and guide it; in +fact, had to build it and adjust it to its end. + +Mechanical forces seek an equilibrium or a state of rest. The whole +inorganic world under the influence of gravity would flow as water +flows, if it could, till it reached a state of absolute repose. But +vital forces struggle against a state of repose, which to them means +death. They are vital by virtue of their tendency to resist the repose +of inert matter; chemical activity disintegrates a stone or other metal, +but the decay of organized matter is different in kind; living organisms +decompose it and resolve it into its original compounds. + +Vital connections and mechanical connections differ in kind. You can +treat mechanical principles mathematically, but can you treat life +mathematically? Will your formulas and equations apply here? You can +figure out the eclipses of the sun and moon for centuries to come, but +who can figure out the eclipses of nations or the overthrow of parties +or the failures of great men? And it is not simply because the problem +is so vastly more complex; it is because you are in a world where +mathematical principles do not apply. Mechanical forces will determine +the place and shape of every particle of inert matter any number of +years or centuries hence, but they will not determine the place and +condition of matter imbued with the principle of life. + +We can graft living matter, we can even graft a part of one animal's +body into another animal's body, but the mechanical union which we +bring about must be changed into vital union to be a success, the +spirit of the body has to second our efforts. The same in grafting a +tree or anything else: the mechanical union which we effect must become +a vital union; and this will not take place without some degree of +consanguinity, the live scion must be recognized and adapted by the +stock in which we introduce it. + +Living matter may be symbolized by a stream; it is ever and never the +same; life is a constant becoming; our minds and our bodies are never +the same at any two moments of time; life is ceaseless change. + +No doubt it is between the stable and the unstable condition of the +molecules of matter that life is born. The static condition to which all +things tend is death. Matter in an unstable condition tends either to +explode or to grow or to disintegrate. So that an explosion bears some +analogy to life, only it is quickly over and the static state of the +elements is restored. Life is an infinitely slower explosion, or a +prolonged explosion, during which some matter of the organism is being +constantly burned up, and thus returned to a state of inorganic repose, +while new matter is taken in and kindled and consumed by the fires of +life. One can visualize all this and make it tangible to the intellect. +Get your fire of life started and all is easy, but how to start it is +the rub. Get your explosive compound, and something must break the +deadlock of the elements before it will explode. So in life, what is it +that sets up this slow gentle explosion that makes the machinery of our +vital economies go--that draws new matter into the vortex and casts the +used-up material out--in short, that creates and keeps up the unstable +condition, the seesaw upon which life depends? To enable the mind to +grasp it we have to invent or posit some principle, call it the vital +force, as so many have done and still do, or call it molecular force, as +Tyndall does, or the power of God, as our orthodox brethren do, it +matters not. We are on the border-land between the knowable and the +unknowable, where the mind can take no further step. There is no life +without carbon and oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, but there is a world +of these elements without life. What must be added to them to set up the +reaction we call life? Nothing that chemistry can disclose. + +New tendencies and activities are set up among these elements, but the +elements themselves are not changed; oxygen is still oxygen and carbon +still carbon, yet behold the wonder of their new workmanship under the +tutelage of life! + +Life only appears when the stable passes into the unstable, yet this +change takes place all about us in our laboratories, and no life +appears. We can send an electric spark through a room full of oxygen and +hydrogen gas, and with a tremendous explosion we have water--an element +of life, but not life. + +Some of the elements seem nearer life than others. Water is near life; +heat, light, the colloid state are near life; osmosis, oxidation, +chemical reactions are near life; the ashes of inorganic bodies are +nearer life than the same minerals in the rocks and soil; but none of +these things is life. + +The chemical mixture of some of the elements gives us our high +explosives--gunpowder, guncotton, and the like; their organic mixture +gives a slower kind of explosive--bread, meat, milk, fruit, which, when +acted upon by the vital forces of the body, yield the force that is the +equivalent of the work the body does. But to combine them in the +laboratory so as to produce the compounds out of which the body can +extract force is impossible. We can make an unstable compound that will +hurl a ton of iron ten miles, but not one that when exploded in the +digestive tract of the human body will lift a hair. + +We may follow life down to the ground, yes, under the ground, into the +very roots of matter and motion, yea, beyond the roots, into the +imaginary world of molecules and atoms, and their attractions and +repulsions and not find its secret. Indeed, science--the new +science--pursues matter to the vanishing-point, where it ceases to +become matter and becomes pure force or spirit. What takes place in that +imaginary world where ponderable matter ends and becomes disembodied +force, and where the hypothetical atoms are no longer divisible, we may +conjecture but may never know. We may fancy the infinitely little going +through a cycle of evolution like that of the infinitely great, and +solar systems developing and revolving inside of the ultimate atoms, but +the Copernicus or the Laplace of the atomic astronomy has not yet +appeared. The atom itself is an invention of science. To get the mystery +of vitality reduced to the atom is getting it in very close quarters, +but it is a very big mystery still. Just how the dead becomes alive, +even in the atom, is mystery enough to stagger any scientific mind. It +is not the volume of the change; it is the quality or kind. Chemistry +and mechanics we have always known, and they always remain chemistry and +mechanics. They go into our laboratories and through our devices +chemistry and mechanics, and they come out chemistry and mechanics. They +will never come out life, conjure with them as we will, and we can get +no other result. We cannot inaugurate the mystic dance among the atoms +that will give us the least throb of life. + +The psychic arises out of the organic and the organic arises out of the +inorganic, and the inorganic arises out of--what? The relation of each +to the other is as intimate as that of the soul to the body; we cannot +get between them even in thought, but the difference is one of kind and +not of degree. The vital transcends the mechanical, and the psychic +transcends the vital--is on another plane, and yet without the sun's +energy there could be neither. Thus are things knit together; thus does +one thing flow out of or bloom out of another. We date from the rocks, +and the rocks date from the fiery nebulae, and the loom in which the +texture of our lives was woven is the great loom of vital energy about +us and in us; but what hand guided the shuttle and invented the +pattern--who knows? + + + + +III + +A WONDERFUL WORLD + + +I + +Science recognizes a more fundamental world than that of matter. This is +the electro-magnetic world which underlies the material world and which, +as Professor Soddy says, probably completely embraces it, and has no +mechanical analogy. To those accustomed only to the grosser ideas of +matter and its motions, says the British scientist, this +electro-magnetic world is as difficult to conceive of as it would be for +us to walk upon air. Yet many times in our lives is this world in +overwhelming evidence before us. During a thunderstorm we get an inkling +of how fearfully and wonderfully the universe in which we live is made, +and what energy and activity its apparent passivity and opacity mark. A +flash of lightning out of a storm-cloud seems instantly to transform the +whole passive universe into a terrible living power. This slow, opaque, +indifferent matter about us and above us, going its silent or noisy +round of mechanical and chemical change, ponderable, insensate, +obstructive, slumbering in the rocks, quietly active in the soil, gently +rustling in the trees, sweetly purling in the brooks, slowly, invisibly +building and shaping our bodies--how could we ever dream that it held in +leash such a terrible, ubiquitous, spectacular thing as this of the +forked lightning? If we were to see and hear it for the first time, +should we not think that the Judgment Day had really come? that the +great seals of the Book of Fate were being broken? + +What an awakening it is! what a revelation! what a fearfully dramatic +actor suddenly leaps upon the stage! Had we been permitted to look +behind the scenes, we could not have found him; he was not there, except +potentially; he was born and equipped in a twinkling. One stride, and +one word which shakes the house, and he is gone; gone as quickly as he +came. Look behind the curtain and he is not there. He has vanished more +completely than any stage ghost ever vanished--he has withdrawn into the +innermost recesses of the atomic structure of matter, and is diffused +through the clouds, to be called back again, as the elemental drama +proceeds, as suddenly as before. + +All matter is charged with electricity, either actual or potential; the +sun is hot with it, and doubtless our own heart-beats, our own thinking +brains, are intimately related to it; yet it is palpable and visible +only in this sudden and extraordinary way. It defies our analysis, it +defies our definitions; it is inscrutable and incomprehensible, yet it +will do our errands, light our houses, cook our dinners, and pull our +loads. + +How humdrum and constant and prosaic the other forces--gravity, +cohesion, chemical affinity, and capillary attraction--seem when +compared with this force of forces, electricity! How deep and prolonged +it slumbers at one time, how terribly active and threatening at another, +bellowing through the heavens like an infuriated god seeking whom he may +destroy! + +The warring of the elements at such times is no figure of speech. What +has so disturbed the peace in the electric equilibrium, as to make +possible this sudden outburst, this steep incline in the stream of +energy, this ethereal Niagara pouring from heaven to earth? Is a +thunderstorm a display of the atomic energy of which the physicists +speak, and which, were it available for our use, would do all the work +of the world many times over? + +How marvelous that the softest summer breeze, or the impalpable currents +of the calmest day, can be torn asunder with such suddenness and +violence, by the accumulated energy that slumbers in the imaginary +atoms, as to give forth a sound like the rending of mountains or the +detonations of earthquakes! + +Electricity is the soul of matter. If Whitman's paradox is true, that +the soul and body are one, in the same sense the scientific paradox is +true: that matter and electricity are one, and both are doubtless a +phase of the universal ether--a reality which can be described only in +terms of the negation of matter. In a flash of lightning we see pure +disembodied energy--probably that which is the main-spring of the +universe. Modern science is more and more inclined to find the +explanation of all vital phenomena in electrical stress and change. We +know that an electric current will bring about chemical changes +otherwise impracticable. Nerve force, if not a form of electricity, is +probably inseparable from it. Chemical changes equivalent to the +combustion of fuel and the corresponding amount of available energy +released have not yet been achieved outside of the living body without +great loss. The living body makes a short cut from fuel to energy, and +this avoids the wasteful process of the engine. What part electricity +plays in this process is, of course, only conjectural. + + +II + +Our daily lives go on for the most part in two worlds, the world of +mechanical transposition and the world of chemical transformations, but +we are usually conscious only of the former. This is the visible, +palpable world of motion and change that rushes and roars around us in +the winds, the storms, the floods, the moving and falling bodies, and +the whole panorama of our material civilization; the latter is the +world of silent, invisible, unsleeping, and all-potent chemical +reactions that take place all about us and is confined to the atoms and +molecules of matter, as the former is confined to its visible +aggregates. + +Mechanical forces and chemical affinities rule our physical lives, and +indirectly our psychic lives as well. When we come into the world and +draw our first breath, mechanics and chemistry start us on our career. +Breathing is a mechanical, or a mechanico-vital, act; the mechanical +principle involved is the same as that involved in the working of a +bellows, but the oxidation of the blood when the air enters the lungs is +a chemical act, or a chemico-vital act. The air gives up a part of its +oxygen, which goes into the arterial circulation, and its place is taken +by carbonic-acid gas and watery vapor. The oxygen feeds and keeps going +the flame of life, as literally as it feeds and keeps going the fires in +our stoves and furnaces. + +Hence our most constant and vital relation to the world without is a +chemical one. We can go without food for some days, but we can exist +without breathing only a few moments. Through these spongy lungs of ours +we lay hold upon the outward world in the most intimate and constant +way. Through them we are rooted to the air. The air is a mechanical +mixture of two very unlike gases--nitrogen and oxygen; one very inert, +the other very active. Nitrogen is like a cold-blooded, lethargic +person--it combines with other substances very reluctantly and with but +little energy. Oxygen is just its opposite in this respect: it gives +itself freely; it is "Hail, fellow; well met!" with most substances, and +it enters into co-partnership with them on such a large scale that it +forms nearly one half of the material of the earth's crust. This +invisible gas, this breath of air, through the magic of chemical +combination, forms nearly half the substance of the solid rocks. Deprive +it of its affinity for carbon, or substitute nitrogen or hydrogen in its +place, and the air would quickly suffocate us. That changing of the dark +venous blood in our lungs into the bright, red, arterial blood would +instantly cease. Fancy the sensation of inhaling an odorless, +non-poisonous atmosphere that would make one gasp for breath! We should +be quickly poisoned by the waste of our own bodies. All things that live +must have oxygen, and all things that burn must have oxygen. Oxygen does +not burn, but it supports combustion. + +And herein is one of the mysteries of chemistry again. This support +which the oxygen gives is utterly unlike any support we are acquainted +with in the world of mechanical forces. Oxygen supports combustion by +combining chemically with carbon, and the evolution of heat and light is +the result. And this is another mystery--this chemical union which takes +place in the ultimate particles of matter and which is so radically +different from a mechanical mixture. In a chemical union the atoms are +not simply in juxtaposition; they are, so to speak, inside of one +another--each has swallowed another and lost its identity, an impossible +feat, surely, viewed in the light of our experiences with tangible +bodies. In the visible, mechanical world no two bodies can occupy the +same place at the same time, but apparently in chemistry they can and +do. An atom of oxygen and one of carbon, or of hydrogen, unite and are +lost in each other; it is a marriage wherein the two or three become +one. In dealing with the molecules and atoms of matter we are in a world +wherein the laws of solid bodies do not apply; friction is abolished, +elasticity is perfect, and place and form play no part. We have escaped +from matter as we know it, the solid, fluid, or gaseous forms, and are +dealing with it in its fourth or ethereal estate. In breathing, the +oxygen goes into the blood, not to stay there, but to unite with and +bring away the waste of the system in the shape of carbon, and re-enter +the air again as one of the elements of carbonic-acid gas, CO_{2}. Then +the reverse process takes place in the vegetable world, the leaves +breathe this poisonous gas, release the oxygen under the chemistry of +the sun's rays, and appropriate and store up the carbon. Thus do the +animal and vegetable worlds play into each other's hands. The animal is +dependent upon the vegetable for its carbon, which it releases again, +through the life processes, as carbonic-acid gas, to be again drawn into +the cycle of vegetable life. + +The act of breathing well illustrates our mysterious relations to +Nature--the cunning way in which she plays the principal part in our +lives without our knowledge. How certain we are that we draw the air +into our lungs--that we seize hold of it in some way as if it were a +continuous substance, and pull it into our bodies! Are we not also +certain that the pump sucks the water up through the pipe, and that we +suck our iced drinks through a straw? We are quite unconscious of the +fact that the weight of the superincumbent air does it all, that +breathing is only to a very limited extent a voluntary act. It is +controlled by muscular machinery, but that machinery would not act in a +vacuum. We contract the diaphragm, or the diaphragm contracts under +stimuli received through the medulla oblongata from those parts of the +body which constantly demand oxygen, and a vacuum tends to form in the +chest, which is constantly prevented by the air rushing in to fill it. +The expansive force of the air under its own weight causes the lungs to +fill, just as it causes the bellows of the blacksmith to fill when he +works the lever, and the water to rise in the pump when we force out the +air by working the handle. Another unconscious muscular effort under the +influence of nerve stimulus, and the air is forced out of the lungs, +charged with the bodily waste which it is the function to relieve. But +the wonder of it all is how slight a part our wills play in the process, +and how our lives are kept going by a mechanical force from without, +seconded or supplemented by chemical and vital forces from within. + +The one chemical process with which we are familiar all our lives, but +which we never think of as such, is fire. Here on our own hearthstones +goes on this wonderful spectacular and beneficent transformation of +matter and energy, and yet we are grown so familiar with it that it +moves us not. We can describe combustion in terms of chemistry, just as +we can describe the life-processes in similar terms, yet the mystery is +no more cleared up in the one case than in the other. Indeed, it seems +to me that next to the mystery of life is the mystery of fire. The +oxidizing processes are identical, only one is a building up or +integrating process, and the other is a pulling down or disintegrating +process. More than that, we can evoke fire any time, by both mechanical +and chemical means, from the combustible matter about us; but we cannot +evoke life. The equivalents of life do not slumber in our tools as do +the equivalents of fire. Hence life is the deeper mystery. The ancients +thought of a spirit of fire as they did of a spirit of health and of +disease, and of good and bad spirits all about them, and as we think of +a spirit of life, or of a creative life principle. Are we as wide of +the mark as they were? So think many earnest students of living things. +When we do not have to pass the torch of life along, but can kindle it +in our laboratories, then this charge will assume a different aspect. + + +III + +Nature works with such simple means! A little more or a little less of +this or that, and behold the difference! A little more or a little less +heat, and the face of the world is changed. + + "And the little more, and how much it is, + And the little less, and what worlds away!" + +At one temperature water is solid, at another it is fluid, at another it +is a visible vapor, at a still higher it is an invisible vapor that +burns like a flame. All possible shades of color lurk in a colorless ray +of light. A little more or a little less heat makes all the difference +between a nebula and a sun, and between a sun and a planet. At one +degree of heat the elements are dissociated; at a lower degree they are +united. At one point in the scale of temperatures life appears; at +another it disappears. With heat enough the earth would melt like a +snowball in a furnace, with still more it would become a vapor and float +away like a cloud. More or less heat only makes the difference between +the fluidity of water and the solidity of the rocks that it beats +against, or of the banks that hold it. + +The physical history of the universe is written in terms of heat and +motion. Astronomy is the story of cooling suns and worlds. At a low +enough temperature all chemical activity ceases. In our own experience +we find that frost will blister like flame. In the one case heat passes +into the tissues so quickly and in such quantity that a blister ensues; +in the other, heat is abstracted so quickly and in such quantity that a +like effect is produced. In one sense, life is a thermal phenomenon; so +are all conditions of fluids and solids thermal phenomena. + +Great wonders Nature seems to achieve by varying the arrangement of the +same particles. Arrange or unite the atoms of carbon in one way and you +have charcoal; assemble the same atoms in another order, and you have +the diamond. The difference between the pearl and the oyster-shell that +holds it is one of structure or arrangement of the same particles of +matter. Arrange the atoms of silica in one way and you have a quartz +pebble, in another way and you have a precious stone. The chemical +constituents of alcohol and ether are the same; the difference in their +qualities and properties arises from the way the elements are +compounded--the way they take hold of hands, so to speak, in that +marriage ceremony which constitutes a chemical compound. Compounds +identical in composition and in molecular formulae may yet differ widely +in physical properties; the elements are probably grouped in different +ways, the atoms of carbon or of hydrogen probably carry different +amounts of potential energy, so that the order in which they stand +related to one another accounts for the different properties of the same +chemical compounds. Different groupings of the same atoms of any of the +elements result in a like difference of physical properties. + +The physicists tell us that what we call the qualities of things, and +their structure and composition, are but the expressions of internal +atomic movements. A complex substance simply means a whirl, an intricate +dance, of which chemical composition, histological structure, and gross +configuration are the figures. How the atoms take hold of hands, as it +were, the way they face, the poses they assume, the speed of their +gyrations, the partners they exchange, determine the kinds of phenomena +we are dealing with. + +There is a striking analogy between the letters of our alphabet and +their relation to the language of the vast volume of printed books, and +the eighty or more primary elements and their relation to the vast +universe of material things. The analogy may not be in all respects a +strictly true one, but it is an illuminating one. Our twenty-six letters +combined and repeated in different orders give us the many thousand +words our language possesses, and these words combined and repeated in +different orders give us the vast body of printed books in our +libraries. The ultimate parts--the atoms and molecules of all +literature, so to speak--are the letters of the alphabet. How often by +changing a letter in a word, by reversing their order, or by +substituting one letter for another, we get a word of an entirely +different meaning, as in umpire and empire, petrifaction and +putrefaction, malt and salt, tool and fool. And by changing the order of +the words in a sentence we express all the infinite variety of ideas and +meanings that the books of the world hold. + +The eighty or more primordial elements are Nature's alphabet with which +she writes her "infinite book of secrecy." Science shows pretty +conclusively that the character of the different substances, their +diverse qualities and properties, depend upon the order in which the +atoms and molecules are combined. Change the order in which the +molecules of the carbon and oxygen are combined in alcohol, and we get +ether--the chemical formula remaining the same. Or take ordinary spirits +of wine and add four more atoms of carbon to the carbon molecules, and +we have the poison, carbolic acid. Pure alcohol is turned into a deadly +poison by taking from it one atom of carbon and two of hydrogen. With +the atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, by combining them in +different proportions and in different orders, Nature produces such +diverse bodies as acetic acid, alcohol, sugar, starch, animal fats, +vegetable oils, glycerine, and the like. So with the long list of +hydrocarbons--gaseous, liquid, and solid--called paraffins, that are +obtained from petroleum and that are all composed of hydrogen and +carbon, but with a different number of atoms of each, like a different +number of a's or b's or c's in a word. + +What an enormous number of bodies Nature forms out of oxygen by uniting +it chemically with other primary elements! Thus by uniting it with the +element silica she forms half of the solid crust of the globe; by +uniting it with hydrogen in the proportion of two to one she forms all +the water of the globe. With one atom of nitrogen united chemically with +three atoms of hydrogen she forms ammonia. With one atom of carbon +united with four atoms of hydrogen she spells marsh gas; and so on. +Carbon occurs in inorganic nature in two crystalline forms,--the diamond +and black lead, or graphite,--their physical differences evidently being +the result of their different molecular structure. Graphite is a good +conductor of heat and electricity, and the diamond is not. Carbon in the +organic world, where it plays such an important part, is +non-crystalline. Under the influence of life its molecules are +differently put together, as in sugar, starch, wood, charcoal, etc. +There are also two forms of phosphorus, but not two kinds; the same +atoms are probably united differently in each. The yellow waxy variety +has such an affinity for oxygen that it will burn in water, and it is +poisonous. Bring this variety to a high temperature away from the air, +and its molecular structure seems to change, and we have the red +variety, which is tasteless, odorless, and non-poisonous, and is not +affected by contact with the air. Such is the mystery of chemical +change. + + +IV + +Science has developed methods and implements of incredible delicacy. Its +"microbalance" can estimate "the difference of weight of the order of +the millionth of a milligram." Light travels at the speed of 186,000 +miles a second, yet science can follow it with its methods, and finds +that it travels faster with the current of running water than against +it. Science has perfected a thermal instrument by which it can detect +the heat of a lighted candle six miles away, and the warmth of the human +face several miles distant. It has devised a method by which it can +count the particles in the alpha rays of radium that move at a velocity +of twenty thousand kilometers a second, and a method by which, through +the use of a screen of zinc-sulphide, it can see the flashes produced by +the alpha atoms when they strike this screen. It weighs and counts and +calculates the motions of particles of matter so infinitely small that +only the imagination can grasp them. Its theories require it to treat +the ultimate particles into which it resolves matter, and which are so +small that they are no longer divisible, as if they were solid bodies +with weight and form, with centre and circumference, colliding with one +another like billiard-balls, or like cosmic bodies in the depths of +space, striking one another squarely, and, for aught I know, each going +through another, or else grazing one another and glancing off. To +particles of matter so small that they can no longer be divided or made +smaller, the impossible feat of each going through the centre of +another, or of each enveloping the other, might be affirmed of them +without adding to their unthinkableness. The theory is that if we divide +a molecule of water the parts are no longer water, but atoms of hydrogen +and oxygen--real bodies with weight and form, and storehouses of energy, +but no longer divisible. + +Indeed, the atomic theory of matter leads us into a non-material world, +or a world the inverse of the solid, three-dimensioned world that our +senses reveal to us, or to matter in a fourth estate. We know solids and +fluids and gases; but emanations which are neither we know only as we +know spirits and ghosts--by dreams or hearsay. Yet this fourth or +ethereal estate of matter seems to be the final, real, and fundamental +condition. + +How it differs from spirit is not easy to define. The beta ray of radium +will penetrate solid iron a foot thick, a feat that would give a spirit +pause. The ether of space, which science is coming more and more to look +upon as the mother-stuff of all things, has many of the attributes of +Deity. It is omnipresent and all-powerful. Neither time nor space has +dominion over it. It is the one immutable and immeasurable thing in the +universe. From it all things arise and to it they return. It is +everywhere and nowhere. It has none of the finite properties of +matter--neither parts, form, nor dimension; neither density nor tenuity; +it cannot be compressed nor expanded nor moved; it has no inertia nor +mass, and offers no resistance; it is subject to no mechanical laws, and +no instrument or experiment that science has yet devised can detect its +presence; it has neither centre nor circumference, neither extension nor +boundary. And yet science is as convinced of its existence as of the +solid ground beneath our feet. It is the one final reality in the +universe, if we may not say that it is the universe. Tremors or +vibrations in it reach the eye and make an impression that we call +light; electrical oscillations in it are the source of other phenomena. +It is the fountain-head of all potential energy. The ether is an +invention of the scientific imagination. We had to have it to account +for light, gravity, and the action of one body upon another at a +distance, as well as to account for other phenomena. The ether is not a +body, it is a medium. All bodies are in motion; matter moves; the ether +is in a state of absolute rest. Says Sir Oliver Lodge, "The ether is +strained, and has the property of exerting strain and recoil." An +electron is like a knot in the ether. The ether is the fluid of fluids, +yet its tension or strain is so great that it is immeasurably more dense +than anything else--a phenomenon that may be paralleled by a jet of +water at such speed that it cannot be cut with a sword or severed by a +hammer. It is so subtle or imponderable that solid bodies are as vacuums +to it, and so pervasive that all conceivable space is filled with it; +"so full," says Clerk Maxwell, "that no human power can remove it from +the smallest portion of space, or produce the slightest flaw in its +infinite continuity." + +The scientific imagination, in its attempts to master the workings of +the material universe, has thus given us a creation which in many of its +attributes rivals Omnipotence. It is the sum of all contradictions, and +the source of all reality. The gross matter which we see and feel is one +state of it; electricity, which is without form and void, is another +state of it; and our minds and souls, Sir Oliver Lodge intimates, may be +still another state of it. But all these theories of physical science +are justified by their fruits. The atomic theory of matter, and the +kinetic theory of gases, are mathematically demonstrated. However unreal +and fantastic they may appear to our practical faculties, conversant +only with ponderable bodies, they bear the test of the most rigid and +exact experimentation. + + +V + +After we have marveled over all these hidden things, and been impressed +by the world within world of the material universe, do we get any nearer +to the mystery of life? Can we see where the tremendous change from the +non-living to the living takes place? Can we evoke life from the +omnipotent ether, or see it arise in the whirling stream of atoms and +electrons? Molecular science opens up to us a world where the infinitely +little matches the infinitely great, where matter is dematerialized and +answers to many of the conceptions of spirit; but does it bring us any +nearer the origin of life? Is radio-active matter any nearer living +matter than is the clod under foot? Are the darting electrons any more +vital than the shooting-stars? Can a flash of radium emanations on a +zinc-sulphide plate kindle the precious spark? It is probably just as +possible to evoke vitality out of the clash of billiard-balls as out of +the clash of atoms and electrons. This allusion to billiard-balls +recalls to my mind a striking passage from Tyndall's famous Belfast +Address which he puts in the mouth of Bishop Butler in his imaginary +argument with Lucretius, and which shows how thoroughly Tyndall +appreciated the difficulties of his own position in advocating the +theory of the physico-chemical origin of life. + +The atomic and electronic theory of matter admits one to a world that +does indeed seem unreal and fantastic. "If my bark sinks," says the +poet, "'t is to another sea." If the mind breaks through what we call +gross matter, and explores its interior, it finds itself indeed in a +vast under or hidden world--a world almost as much a creation of the +imagination as that visited by Alice in Wonderland, except that the +existence of this world is capable of demonstration. It is a world of +the infinitely little which science interprets in terms of the +infinitely large. Sir Oliver Lodge sees the molecular spaces that +separate the particles of any material body relatively like the +interstellar spaces that separate the heavenly bodies. Just as all the +so-called solid matter revealed by our astronomy is almost infinitesimal +compared with the space through which it is distributed, so the +electrons which compose the matter with which we deal are comparable to +the bodies of the solar system moving in vast spaces. It is indeed a +fantastic world where science conceives of bodies a thousand times +smaller than the hydrogen atom--the smallest body known to science; +where it conceives of vibrations in the ether millions of millions times +a second; where we are bombarded by a shower of corpuscles from a +burning candle, or a gas-jet, or a red-hot iron surface, moving at the +speed of one hundred thousand miles a second! But this almost omnipotent +ether has, after all, some of the limitations of the finite. It takes +time to transmit the waves of light from the sun and the stars. This +measurable speed, says Sir Oliver Lodge, gives the ether away, and shows +its finite character. + +It seems as if the theory of the ether must be true, because it fits in +so well with the enigmatic, contradictory, incomprehensible character of +the universe as revealed to our minds. We can affirm and deny almost +anything of the ether--that it is immaterial, and yet the source of all +material; that it is absolutely motionless, yet the cause of all motion; +that it is the densest body in nature, and yet the most rarified; that +it is everywhere, but defies detection; that it is as undiscoverable as +the Infinite itself; that our physics cannot prove it, though they +cannot get along without it. The ether inside a mass of iron or of lead +is just as dense as the ether outside of it--which means that it is not +dense at all, in our ordinary use of the term. + + +VI + +There are physical changes in matter, there are chemical changes, and +there is a third change, as unlike either of these as they are unlike +each other. I refer to atomic change, as in radio-activity, which gives +us lead from helium--a spontaneous change of the atoms. The energy that +keeps the earth going, says Soddy, is to be sought for in the individual +atoms; not in the great heaven-shaking voice of thunder, but in the +still small voice of the atoms. Radio-activity is the mainspring of the +universe. The only elements so far known that undergo spontaneous change +are uranium and thorium. One pound of uranium contains and slowly gives +out the same amount of energy that a hundred tons of coal evolves in its +combustion, but only one ten-billionth part of this amount is given out +every year. + +Man, of course, reaps where he has not sown. How could it be otherwise? +It takes energy to sow or plant energy. We are exhausting the coal, the +natural gas, the petroleum of the rocks, the fertility of the soil. But +we cannot exhaust the energy of the winds or the tides, or of falling +water, because this energy is ever renewed by gravity and the sun. There +can be no exhaustion of our natural mechanical and chemical resources, +as some seem to fear. + +I recently visited a noted waterfall in the South where electric power +is being developed on a large scale. A great column of water makes a +vertical fall of six hundred feet through a steel tube, and in the fall +develops two hundred and fifty thousand horse-power. The water comes out +of the tunnel at the bottom, precisely the same water that went in at +the top; no change whatever has occurred in it, yet a vast amount of +power has been taken out of it, or, rather, generated by its fall. +Another drop of six hundred feet would develop as much more; in fact, +the process may be repeated indefinitely, the same amount of power +resulting each time, without effecting any change in the character of +the water. The pull of gravity is the source of the power which is +distributed hundreds of miles across the country as electricity. Two +hundred and fifty thousand invisible, immaterial, noiseless horses are +streaming along these wires with incredible speed to do the work of men +and horses in widely separated parts of the country. A river of sand +falling down those tubes, if its particles moved among themselves with +the same freedom that those of the water do, would develop the same +power. The attraction of gravitation is not supposed to be electricity, +and yet here out of its pull upon the water comes this enormous voltage! +The fact that such a mysterious and ubiquitous power as electricity can +be developed from the action of matter without any alteration in its +particles, suggests the question whether or not this something that we +call life, or life-force, may not slumber in matter in the same way; but +the secret of its development we have not yet learned, as we have that +of electricity. + +Radio-activity is uninfluenced by external conditions; hence we are thus +far unable to control it. Nothing that is known will effect the +transmutation of one element into another. It is spontaneous and +uncontrollable. May not life be spontaneous in the same sense? + +The release of the energy associated with the structure of the atoms is +not available by any of our mechanical appliances. The process of +radio-activity involves the expulsion of atoms of helium with a velocity +three hundred times greater than that ever previously known for any +material mass or particle, and this power we are incompetent to use. The +atoms remain unchanged amid the heat and pressure of the laboratory of +nature. Iron and oxygen and so forth remain the same in the sun as here +on the earth. + +Science strips gross matter of its grossness. When it is done with it, +it is no longer the obstructive something we know and handle; it is +reduced to pure energy--the line between it and spirit does not exist. +We have found that bodies are opaque only to certain rays; the X-ray +sees through this too too solid flesh. Bodies are ponderable only to our +dull senses; to a finer hand than this the door or the wall might offer +no obstruction; a finer eye than this might see the emanations from the +living body; a finer ear might hear the clash of electrons in the air. +Who can doubt, in view of what we already know, that forces and +influences from out the heavens above, and from the earth beneath, that +are beyond our ken, play upon us constantly? + +The final mystery of life is no doubt involved in conditions and forces +that are quite outside of or beyond our conscious life activities, in +forces that play about us and upon and through us, that we know not of, +because a knowledge of them is not necessary to our well-being. "Our +eye takes in only an octave of the vibrations we call light," because no +more is necessary for our action or our dealing with things. The +invisible rays of the spectrum are potent, but they are beyond the ken +of our senses. There are sounds or sound vibrations that we do not hear; +our sense of touch cannot recognize a gossamer, or the gentler air +movements. + +I began with the contemplation of the beauty and terror of the +thunderbolt--"God's autograph," as one of our poets (Joel Benton) said, +"written upon the sky." Let me end with an allusion to another aspect of +the storm that has no terror in it--the bow in the clouds: a sudden +apparition, a cosmic phenomenon no less wonderful and startling than the +lightning's flash. The storm with terror and threatened destruction on +one side of it, and peace and promise on the other! The bow appears like +a miracle, but it is a commonplace of nature; unstable as life, and +beautiful as youth. The raindrops are not changed, the light is not +changed, the laws of the storms are not changed; and yet, behold this +wonder! + +But all these strange and beautiful phenomena springing up in a world of +inert matter are but faint symbols of the mystery and the miracle of the +change of matter from the non-living to the living, from the elements in +the clod to the same elements in the brain and heart of man. + + + + +IV + +THE BAFFLING PROBLEM + + +I + +Still the problem of living things haunts my mind and, let me warn my +reader, will continue to haunt it throughout the greater part of this +volume. The final truth about it refuses to be spoken. Every effort to +do so but gives one new evidence of how insoluble the problem is. + +In this world of change is there any other change to be compared with +that in matter, from the dead to the living?--a change so great that +most minds feel compelled to go outside of matter and invoke some +super-material force or agent to account for it. The least of living +things is so wonderful, the phenomena it exhibits are so fundamentally +unlike those of inert matter, that we invent a word for it, _vitality_; +and having got the word, we conceive of a vital force or principle to +explain vital phenomena. Hence vitalism--a philosophy of living things, +more or less current in the world from Aristotle's time down to our own. +It conceives of something in nature super-mechanical and super-chemical, +though inseparably bound up with these things. There is no life without +material and chemical forces, but material and chemical forces do not +hold the secret of life. This is vitalism as opposed to mechanism, or +scientific materialism, which is the doctrine of the all-sufficiency of +the physical forces operating in the inorganic world to give rise to all +the phenomena of the organic world--a doctrine coming more and more in +vogue with the progress of physical science. Without holding to any +belief in the supernatural or the teleological, and while adhering to +the idea that there has been, and can be, no break in the causal +sequence in this world, may one still hold to some form of vitalism, and +see in life something more than applied physics and chemistry? + +Is biology to be interpreted in the same physical and chemical terms as +geology? Are biophysics and geophysics one and the same? One may freely +admit that there cannot be two kinds of physics, nor two kinds of +chemistry--not one kind for a rock, and another kind for a tree, or a +man. There are not two species of oxygen, nor two of carbon, nor two of +hydrogen and nitrogen--one for living and one for dead matter. The water +in the human body is precisely the same as the water that flows by in +the creek or that comes down when it rains; and the sulphur and the lime +and the iron and the phosphorus and the magnesium are identical, so far +as chemical analysis can reveal, in the organic and the inorganic +worlds. But are we not compelled to think of a kind of difference +between a living and a non-living body that we cannot fit into any of +the mechanical or chemical concepts that we apply to the latter? +Professor Loeb, with his "Mechanistic Conception of Life"; Professor +Henderson, of Harvard, with his "Fitness of the Environment"; Professor +Le Dantec, of the Sorbonne in Paris, with his volume on "The Nature and +Origin of Life," published a few years since; Professor Schaefer, +President of the British Association, Professor Verworn of Bonn, and +many others find in the laws and properties of matter itself a +sufficient explanation of all the phenomena of life. They look upon the +living body as only the sum of its physical and chemical activities; +they do not seem to feel the need of accounting for life itself--for +that something which confers vitality upon the heretofore non-vital +elements. That there is new behavior, that there are new chemical +compounds called organic,--tens of thousands of them not found in +inorganic nature,--that there are new processes set up in aggregates of +matter,--growth, assimilation, metabolism, reproduction, thought, +emotion, science, civilization,--no one denies. + +How are we going to get these things out of the old physics and +chemistry without some new factor or agent or force? To help ourselves +out here with a "vital principle," or with spirit, or a creative +impulse, as Bergson does, seems to be the only course open to certain +types of mind. Positive science cannot follow us in this step, because +science is limited to the verifiable. The stream of forces with which it +deals is continuous; it must find the physical equivalents of all the +forces that go into the body in the output of the body, and it cannot +admit of a life force which it cannot trace to the physical forces. + +What has science done to clear up this mystery of vitality? Professor +Loeb, our most eminent experimental biologist, has succeeded in +fertilizing the eggs of some low forms of sea life by artificial means; +and in one instance, at least, it is reported that the fatherless form +grew to maturity. This is certainly an interesting fact, but takes us no +nearer the solution of the mystery of vitality than the fact that +certain chemical compounds may stimulate the organs of reproduction +helps to clear up the mystery of generation; or the fact that certain +other chemical compounds help the digestive and assimilative processes +and further the metabolism of the body assists in clearing up the +mystery that attaches to these things. In all such cases we have the +living body to begin with. The egg of the sea-urchin and the egg of the +jelly-fish are living beings that responded to certain chemical +substances, so that a process is set going in their cell life that is +equivalent to fertilization. It seems to me that the result of all +Professor Loeb's valuable inquiries is only to give us a more intimate +sense of how closely mechanical and chemical principles are associated +and identified with all the phenomena of life and with all animal +behavior. Given a living organism, mechanics and chemistry will then +explain much of its behavior--practically all the behavior of the lower +organisms, and much of that of the higher. Even when we reach man, our +reactions to the environment and to circumstances play a great part in +our lives; but dare we say that will, liberty of choice, ideation, do +not play a part also? How much reality there is in the so-called animal +will, is a problem; but that there is a foundation for our belief in the +reality of the human will, I, for one, do not for a moment doubt. The +discontinuity here is only apparent and not real. We meet with the same +break when we try to get our mental states, our power of thought--a +poem, a drama, a work of art, a great oration--out of the food we eat; +but life does it, though our science is none the wiser for it. Our +physical life forms a closed circle, science says, and what goes into +our bodies as physical force, must come out in physical force, or as +some of its equivalents. Well, one of the equivalents, transformed by +some unknown chemism within us, is our psychic force, or states of +consciousness. The two circles, the physical and the psychical, are not +concentric, as Fiske fancied, but are linked in some mysterious way. + +Professor Loeb is a master critic of the life processes; he and his +compeers analyze them as they have never been analyzed before; but the +solution of the great problem of life that we are awaiting does not +come. A critic may resolve all of Shakespeare's plays into their +historic and other elements, but that will not account for Shakespeare. +Nature's synthesis furnishes occasions for our analysis. Most assuredly +all psychic phenomena have a physical basis; we know the soul only +through the body; but that they are all of physico-chemical origin, is +another matter. + + +II + +Biological science has hunted the secret of vitality like a detective; +and it has done some famous work; but it has not yet unraveled the +mystery. It knows well the part played by carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen +in organic chemistry, that without water and carbon dioxide there could +be no life; it knows the part played by light, air, heat, gravity, +osmosis, chemical affinity, and all the hundreds or thousands of organic +compounds; it knows the part played by what are called the enzymes, or +ferments, in all living bodies, but it does not know the secret of these +ferments; it knows the part played by colloids, or jelly-like compounds, +that there is no living body without colloids, though there are colloid +bodies that are not living; it knows the part played by oxidation, that +without it a living body ceases to function, though everywhere all about +us is oxidation without life; it knows the part played by chlorophyll in +the vegetable kingdom, and yet how chlorophyll works such magic upon the +sun's rays, using the solar energy to fix the carbon of carbonic acid in +the air, and thereby storing this energy as it is stored in wood and +coal and in much of the food we consume, is a mystery. Chemistry cannot +repeat the process in its laboratories. The fungi do not possess this +wonderful chlorophyllian power, and hence cannot use the sunbeam to +snatch their carbon from the air; they must get it from decomposed +vegetable matter; they feed, as the animals do, upon elements that have +gone through the cycle of vegetable life. The secret of vegetable life, +then, is in the green substance of the leaf where science is powerless +to unlock it. Conjure with the elements as it may, it cannot produce the +least speck of living matter. It can by synthesis produce many of the +organic compounds, but only from matter that has already been through +the organic cycle. It has lately produced rubber, but from other +products of vegetable life. + +As soon as the four principal elements, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and +nitrogen, that make up the living body, have entered the world of living +matter, their activities and possible combinations enormously increase; +they enter into new relations with one another and form compounds of +great variety and complexity, characterized by the instability which +life requires. The organic compounds are vastly more sensitive to light +and heat and air than are the same elements in the inorganic world. What +has happened to them? Chemistry cannot tell us. Oxidation, which is only +slow combustion, is the main source of energy in the body, as it is in +the steam-engine. The storing of the solar energy, which occurs only in +the vegetable, is by a process of reduction, that is, the separation of +the carbon and oxygen in carbonic acid and water. The chemical reactions +which liberate energy in the body are slow; in dead matter they are +rapid and violent, or explosive and destructive. It is the chemistry in +the leaf of the plant that diverts or draws the solar energy into the +stream of life, and how it does it is a mystery. + +The scientific explanations of life phenomena are all after the fact; +they do not account for the fact; they start with the ready-made +organism and then reduce its activities and processes to their physical +equivalents. Vitality is given, and then the vital processes are fitted +into mechanical and chemical concepts, or into moulds derived from inert +matter--not a difficult thing to do, but no more an explanation of the +mystery of vitality than a painting or a marble bust of Tyndall would be +an explanation of that great scientist. + +All Professor Loeb's experiments and criticisms throw light upon the +life processes, or upon the factors that take part in them, but not upon +the secret of the genesis of the processes themselves. Amid all the +activities of his mechanical and chemical factors, there is ever present +a factor which he ignores, which his analytical method cannot seize; +namely, what Verworn calls "the specific energy of living substance." +Without this, chemism and mechanism would work together to quite other +ends. The water in the wave, and the laws that govern it, do not differ +at all from the water and its laws that surround it; but unless one +takes into account the force that makes the wave, an analysis of the +phenomena will leave one where he began. + +Professor Le Dantec leaves the subject where he took it up, with the +origin of life and the life processes unaccounted for. His work is a +description, and not an explanation. All our ideas about vitality, or an +unknown factor in the organic world, he calls "mystic" and unscientific. +A sharp line of demarcation between living and non-living bodies is not +permissible. This, he says, is the anthropomorphic error which puts some +mysterious quality or force in all bodies considered to be living. To Le +Dantec, the difference between the quick and the dead is of the same +order as the difference which exists between two chemical compounds--for +example, as that which exists between alcohol and an aldehyde, a liquid +that has two less atoms of hydrogen in its composition. Modify your +chemistry a little, add or subtract an atom or two, more or less, of +this or that gas, and dead matter thrills into life, or living matter +sinks to the inert. In other words, life is the gift of chemistry, its +particular essence is of the chemical order--a bold inference from the +fact that there is no life without chemical reactions, no life without +oxidation. Yet chemical reactions in the laboratory cannot produce life. +With Le Dantec, biology, like geology and astronomy, is only applied +mechanics and chemistry. + + +III + +Such is the result of the rigidly objective study of life--the only +method analytical science can pursue. The conception of vitality as a +factor in itself answers to nothing that the objective study of life can +disclose; such a study reveals a closed circle of physical forces, +chemical and mechanical, into which no immaterial force or principle can +find entrance. "The fact of being conscious," Le Dantec says with +emphasis, "does not intervene in the slightest degree in directing vital +movements." But common sense and everyday observation tell us that +states of consciousness do influence the bodily processes--influence the +circulation, the digestion, the secretions, the respiration. + +An objective scientific study of a living body yields results not +unlike those which we might get from an objective study of a book +considered as something fabricated--its materials, its construction, its +typography, its binding, the number of its chapters and pages, and so +on--without giving any heed to the meaning of the book--its ideas, the +human soul and personality that it embodies, the occasion that gave rise +to it, indeed all its subjective and immaterial aspects. All these +things, the whole significance of the volume, would elude scientific +analysis. It would seem to be a manufactured article, representing only +so much mechanics and chemistry. It is the same with the living body. +Unless we permit ourselves to go behind the mere facts, the mere +mechanics and chemistry of life phenomena, and interpret them in the +light of immaterial principles, in short, unless we apply some sort of +philosophy to them, the result of our analysis will be but dust in our +eyes, and ashes in our mouths. Unless there is something like mind or +intelligence pervading nature, some creative and transforming impulse +that cannot be defined by our mechanical concepts, then, to me, the +whole organic world is meaningless. If man is not more than an "accident +in the history of the thermic evolution of the globe," or the result of +the fortuitous juxtaposition and combination of carbonic acid gas and +water and a few other elements, what shall we say? It is at least a +bewildering proposition. + +Could one by analyzing a hive of bees find out the secret of its +organization--its unity as an aggregate of living insects? Behold its +wonderful economics, its division of labor, its complex social +structure,--the queen, the workers, the drones,--thousands of bees +without any head or code of laws or directing agent, all acting as one +individual, all living and working for the common good. There is no +confusion or cross-purpose in the hive. When the time of swarming comes, +they are all of one mind and the swarm comes forth. Who or what decides +who shall stay and who shall go? When the honey supply fails, or if it +fail prematurely, on account of a drought, the swarming instinct is +inhibited, and the unhatched queens are killed in their cells. Who or +what issues the regicide order? We can do no better than to call it the +Spirit of the Hive, as Maeterlinck has done. It is a community of mind. +What one bee knows and feels, they all know and feel at the same +instant. Something like that is true of a living body; the cells are +like the bees: they work together, they build up the tissues and organs, +some are for one thing and some for another, each community of cells +plays its own part, and they all pull together for the good of the +whole. We can introduce cells and even whole organs, for example a +kidney from another living body, and all goes well; and yet we cannot +find the seat of the organization. Can we do any better than to call it +the Spirit of the Body? + + +IV + +Our French biologist is of the opinion that the artificial production of +that marvel of marvels, the living cell, will yet take place in the +laboratory. But the enlightened mind, he says, does not need such proof +to be convinced that there is no essential difference between living and +non-living matter. + +Professor Henderson, though an expounder of the mechanistic theory of +the origin of life, admits that he does not know of a biological chemist +to whom the "mechanistic origin of a cell is scientifically imaginable." +Like Professor Loeb, he starts with the vital; how he came by it we get +no inkling; he confesses frankly that the biological chemist cannot even +face the problem of the origin of life. He quotes with approval a remark +of Liebig's, as reported by Lord Kelvin, that he (Liebig) could no more +believe that a leaf or a flower could be formed or could grow by +chemical forces "than a book on chemistry, or on botany, could grow out +of dead matter." Is not this conceding to the vitalists all that they +claim? The cell is the unit of life; all living bodies are but vast +confraternities of cells, some billions or trillions of them in the +human body; the cell builds up the tissues, the tissues build up the +organs, the organs build up the body. Now if it is not thinkable that +chemism could beget a cell, is it any more thinkable that it could build +a living tissue, and then an organ, and then the body as a whole? If +there is an inscrutable something at work at the start, which organizes +that wonderful piece of vital mechanism, the cell, is it any the less +operative ever after, in all life processes, in all living bodies and +their functions,--the vital as distinguished from the mechanical and +chemical? Given the cell, and you have only to multiply it, and organize +these products into industrial communities, and direct them to specific +ends,--certainly a task which we would not assign to chemistry or +physics any more than we would assign to them the production of a work +on chemistry or botany,--and you have all the myriad forms of +terrestrial life. + +The cell is the parent of every living thing on the globe; and if it is +unthinkable that the material and irrational forces of inert matter +could produce it, then mechanics and chemistry must play second fiddle +in all that whirl and dance of the atoms that make up life. And that is +all the vitalists claim. The physico-chemical forces do play second +fiddle; that inexplicable something that we call vitality dominates and +leads them. True it is that a living organism yields to scientific +analysis only mechanical and chemical forces--a fact which only limits +the range of scientific analysis, and which by no means exhausts the +possibilities of the living organism. The properties of matter and the +laws of matter are intimately related to life, yea, are inseparable +from it, but they are by no means the whole story. Professor Henderson +repudiates the idea of any extra-physical influence as being involved in +the processes of life, and yet concedes that the very foundation of all +living matter, yea, the whole living universe in embryo--the cell--is +beyond the possibilities of physics and chemistry alone. Mechanism and +chemism are adequate to account for astronomy and geology, and +therefore, he thinks, are sufficient to account for biology, without +calling in the aid of any Bergsonian life impulse. Still these forces +stand impotent before that microscopic world, the cell, the foundation +of all life. + +Our professor makes the provisional statement, not in obedience to his +science, but in obedience to his philosophy, that something more than +mechanics and chemistry may have had a hand in shaping the universe, +some primordial tendency impressed upon or working in matter "just +before mechanism begins to act"--"a necessary and preestablished +associate of mechanism." So that if we start with the universe, with +life, and with this tendency, mechanism will do all the rest. But this +is not science, of course, because it is not verifiable; it is +practically the philosophy of Bergson. + +The cast-iron conclusions of physical science do pinch the Harvard +professor a bit, and he pads them with a little of the Bergsonian +philosophy. Bergson himself is not pinched at all by the conclusions of +positive science. He sees that we, as human beings, cannot live in this +universe without supplementing our science with some sort of philosophy +that will help us to escape from the fatalism of matter and force into +the freedom of the spiritual life. If we are merely mechanical and +chemical accidents, all the glory of life, all the meaning of our moral +and spiritual natures, go by the board. + +Professor Henderson shows us how well this planet, with its oceans and +continents, and its mechanical and chemical forces and elements, is +suited to sustain life, but he brings us no nearer the solution of the +mystery than we were before. His title, to begin with, is rather +bewildering. Has the "fitness of the environment" ever been questioned? +The environment is fit, of course, else living bodies would not be here. +We are used to taking hold of the other end of the problem. In living +nature the foot is made to fit the shoe, and not the shoe the foot. The +environment is the mould in which the living organism is cast. Hence, it +seems to me, that seeking to prove the fitness of the environment is +very much like seeking to prove the fitness of water for fish to swim +in, or the fitness of the air for birds to fly in. The implication seems +to be made that the environment anticipates the organism, or meets it +half way. But the environment is rather uncompromising. Man alone +modifies his environment by the weapon of science; but not radically; in +the end he has to fit himself to it. Life has been able to adjust +itself to the universal forces and so go along with them; otherwise we +should not be here. We may say, humanly speaking, that the water is +friendly to the swimmer, if he knows how to use it; if not, it is his +deadly enemy. The same is true of all the elements and forces of nature. +Whether they be for or against us, depends upon ourselves. The wind is +never tempered to the shorn lamb, the shorn lamb must clothe itself +against the wind. Life is adaptive, and this faculty of adaptation to +the environment, of itself takes it out of the category of the +physico-chemical. The rivers and seas favor navigation, if we have +gumption enough to use and master their forces. The air is good to +breathe, and food to eat, for those creatures that are adapted to them. +Bergson thinks, not without reason, that life on other planets may be +quite different from what it is on our own, owing to a difference in +chemical and physical conditions. Change the chemical constituents of +sea water, and you radically change the lower organisms. With an +atmosphere entirely of oxygen, the processes of life would go on more +rapidly and perhaps reach a higher form of development. Life on this +planet is limited to a certain rather narrow range of temperature; the +span may be the same in other worlds, but farther up or farther down the +scale. Had the air been differently constituted, would not our lungs +have been different? The lungs of the fish are in his gills: he has to +filter his air from a much heavier medium. The nose of the pig is fitted +for rooting; shall we say, then, that the soil was made friable that +pigs might root in it? The webbed foot is fitted to the water; shall we +say, then, that water is liquid in order that geese and ducks may swim +in it? One more atom of oxygen united to the two atoms that go to make +the molecule of air, and we should have had ozone instead of the air we +now breathe. How unsuited this would have made the air for life as we +know it! Oxidation would have consumed us rapidly. Life would have met +this extra atom by some new device. + +One wishes Professor Henderson had told us more about how life fits +itself to the environment--how matter, moved and moulded only by +mechanical and chemical forces, yet has some power of choice that a +machine does not have, and can and does select the environment best +suited to its well-being. In fact, that it should have, or be capable +of, any condition of well-being, if it is only a complex of physical and +chemical forces, is a problem to wrestle with. The ground we walk on is +such a complex, but only the living bodies it supports have conditions +of well-being. + +Professor Henderson concedes very little to the vitalists or the +teleologists. He is a thorough mechanist. "Matter and energy," he says, +"have an original property, assuredly not by chance, which organizes +the universe in space and time." Where or how matter got this organizing +property, he offers no opinion. "Given the universe, life, and the +tendency [the tendency to organize], mechanism is inductively proved +sufficient to account for all phenomena." Biology, then, is only +mechanics and chemistry engaged in a new role without any change of +character; but what put them up to this new role? "The whole +evolutionary process, both cosmic and organic, is one, and the biologist +may now rightly regard the universe in its very essence as biocentric." + + +V + +Another Harvard voice is less pronounced in favor of the mechanistic +conception of life. Professor Rand thinks that in a mechanically +determined universe, "our conscious life becomes a meaningless replica +of an inexorable physical concatenation"--the soul the result of a +fortuitous concourse of atoms. Hence all the science and art and +literature and religion of the world are merely the result of a +molecular accident. + +Dr. Rand himself, in wrestling with the problem of organization in a +late number of "Science," seems to hesitate whether or not to regard man +as a molecular accident, an appearance presented to us by the results of +the curious accidents of molecules--which is essentially Professor +Loeb's view; or whether to look upon the living body as the result of a +"specific something" that organizes, that is, of "dominating organic +agencies," be they psychic or super-mundane, which dominate and +determine the organization of the different parts of the body into a +whole. Yet he is troubled with the idea that this specific something may +be "nothing more than accidental chemical peculiarities of cells." But +would these accidental peculiarities be constant? Do accidents happen +millions of times in the same way? The cell is without variableness or +shadow of turning. The cells are the minute people that build up all +living forms, and what prompts them to build a man in the one case, and +the man's dog in another, is the mystery that puzzles Professor Rand. +"Tissue cells," he says, "are not structures like stone blocks +laboriously carved and immovably cemented in place. They are rather like +the local eddies in an ever-flowing and ever-changing stream of fluids. +Substance which was at one moment a part of a cell, passes out and a new +substance enters. What is it that prevents the local whirl in this +unstable stream from changing its form? How is it that a million muscle +cells remain alike, collectively ready to respond to a nerve impulse?" +According to one view, expressed by Professor Rand, "Organization is +something that we read into natural phenomena. It is in itself nothing." +The alternative view holds that there is a specific organizing agent +that brings about the harmonious operation of all the organs and parts +of the system--a superior dynamic force controlling and guiding all the +individual parts. + +A most determined and thorough-going attempt to hunt down the secret of +vitality, and to determine how far its phenomena can be interpreted in +terms of mechanics and chemistry, is to be found in Professor H. W. +Conn's volume entitled "The Living Machine." Professor Conn justifies +his title by defining a machine as "a piece of apparatus so designed +that it can change one kind of energy into another for a definite +purpose." Of course the adjective "living" takes it out of the category +of all mere mechanical devices and makes it super-mechanical, just as +Haeckel's application of the word "living" to his inorganics ("living +inorganics"), takes them out of the category of the inorganic. In every +machine, properly so called, all the factors are known; but do we know +all the factors in a living body? Professor Conn applies his searching +analysis to most of the functions of the human body, to digestion, to +assimilation, to circulation, to respiration, to metabolism, and so on, +and he finds in every function something that does not fall within his +category--some force not mechanical nor chemical, which he names vital. + +In following the processes of digestion, all goes well with his +chemistry and his mechanics till he comes to the absorption of +food-particles, or their passage through the walls of the intestines +into the blood. Here, the ordinary physical forces fail him, and living +matter comes to his aid. The inner wall of the intestine is not a +lifeless membrane, and osmosis will not solve the mystery. There is +something there that seizes hold of the droplets of oil by means of +little extruded processes, and then passes them through its own body to +excrete them on an inner surface into the blood-vessels. "This fat +absorption thus appears to be a vital process and not one simply +controlled by physical forces like osmosis. Here our explanation runs +against what we call 'vital power' of the ultimate elements of the +body." Professor Conn next analyzes the processes of circulation, and +his ready-made mechanical concepts carry him along swimmingly, till he +tries to explain by them the beating of the heart, and the contraction +of the small blood-vessels which regulate the blood-supply. Here comes +in play the mysterious vital power again. He comes upon the same power +when he tries to determine what it is that enables the muscle-fibre to +take from the lymph the material needed for its use, and to discard the +rest. The fibre acts as if it knew what it wanted--a very unmechanical +attribute. + +Then Professor Conn applies his mechanics and chemistry to the +respiratory process and, of course, makes out a very clear case till he +comes to the removal of the waste, or ash. The steam-engine cannot +remove its own ash; the "living machine" can. Much of this ash takes +the form of urea, and "the seizing upon the urea by the kidney cells is +a vital phenomenon." Is not the peristaltic movement of the bowels, by +which the solid matter is removed, also a vital phenomenon? Is not the +conception of a pipe or a tube that forces semi-fluid matter along its +hollow interior, by the contraction of its walls, quite beyond the reach +of mechanics? The force is as mechanical as the squeezing of the bulb of +a syringe by the hand, but in the case of the intestines, what does the +squeezing? The vital force? + +When the mechanical and chemical concepts are applied to the phenomena +of the nervous system, they work very well till we come to mental +phenomena. When we try to correlate physical energy with thought or +consciousness, we are at the end of our tether. Here is a gulf we cannot +span. The theory of the machine breaks down. Some other force than +material force is demanded here, namely, psychical,--a force or +principle quite beyond the sphere of the analytic method. + +Hence Professor Conn concludes that there are vital factors and that +they are the primal factors in the organism. The mechanical and chemical +forces are the secondary factors. It is the primal factors that elude +scientific analysis. Why a muscle contracts, or why a gland secretes, or +"why the oxidation of starch in the living machine gives rise to motion, +growth, and reproduction, while if the oxidation occurs in the +chemist's laboratory ... it simply gives rise to heat," are questions he +cannot answer. In all his inquiries into the parts played by mechanical +and chemical laws in the organism, he is compelled to "assume as their +foundation the simple vital properties of living phenomena." + + +VI + +It should not surprise nor disturb us that the scientific interpretation +of life leads to materialism, or to the conviction of the +all-sufficiency of the mechanical and chemical forces of dead matter to +account for all living phenomena. It need not surprise us because +positive science, as such, can deal only with physical and chemical +forces. If there is anything in this universe besides physical and +chemical force, science does not know it. It does not know it because it +is absolutely beyond the reach of its analysis. When we go beyond the +sphere of the concrete, the experimental, the verifiable, only our +philosophy can help us. The world within us, the world of psychic +forces, is beyond the ken of science. It can analyze the living body, +trace all its vital processes, resolve them into their mechanical and +chemical equivalents, show us the parts played by the primary elements, +the part played by the enzymes, or ferments, and the like, and yet it +cannot tell us the secret of life--of that which makes organic chemistry +so vastly different from inorganic. It discloses to us the wonders of +the cell--a world of mystery by itself; it analyzes the animal body into +organs, and the organs into tissues, and the tissues into cells, but the +secret of organization utterly baffles it. After Professor Wilson had +concluded his masterly work on the cell, he was forced to admit that the +final mystery of the cell eluded him, and that his investigation "on the +whole seemed to widen rather than to narrow the enormous gap that +separates even the lowest forms of life from the inorganic world." + +All there is outside the sphere of physical science belongs to religion, +to philosophy, to art, to literature. Huxley spoke strictly and honestly +as a man of science, when he related consciousness to the body, as the +sound of a clock when it strikes is related to the machinery of the +clock. The scientific analysis of a living body reveals nothing but the +action of the mechanical and chemical principles. If you analyze it by +fire or by cremation, you get gases and vapors and mineral ash, that is +all; the main thing about the live body--its organization, its life--you +do not get. Of course science knows this; and to account for this +missing something, it philosophizes, and relegates it to the interior +world of molecular physics--it is all in the way the ultimate particles +of matter were joined or compounded, were held together in the bonds of +molecular matrimony. What factor or agent or intelligence is active or +directive in this molecular marriage of the atoms, science does not +inquire. Only philosophy can deal with that problem. + +What can science see or find in the brain of man that answers to the +soul? Only certain movements of matter in the brain cortex. What +difference does it find between inert matter and a living organism? Only +a vastly more complex mechanics and chemistry in the latter. A wide +difference, not of kind, but of degree. The something we call vitality, +that a child recognizes, science does not find; vitality is something +_sui generis_. Scientific analysis cannot show us the difference between +the germ cell of a starfish and the germ cell of a man; and yet think of +what a world of difference is hidden in those microscopic germs! What +force is there in inert matter that can build a machine by the +adjustment of parts to each other? We can explain the most complex +chemical compounds by the action of chemical forces and chemical +affinity, but they cannot explain that adjustment of parts to each +other, the cooerdination of their activities that makes a living machine. + +In organized matter there is something that organizes. "The cell itself +is an organization of smaller units," and to drive or follow the +organizing principle into the last hiding-place is past the power of +biological chemistry. What constitutes the guiding force or principle of +a living body, adjusting all its parts, making them pull together, +making of the circulation one system in which the heart, the veins, the +arteries, the lungs, all work to one common end, cooerdinating several +different organs into a digestive system, and other parts into the +nervous system, is a mystery that no objective analysis of the body can +disclose. + +To refer vitality to complexity alone, is to dodge the question. +Multiplying the complexity of a machine, say of a watch, any conceivable +number of times would not make it any the less a machine, or change it +from the automatic order to the vital order. A motor-car is a vastly +more complex mechanism than a wheelbarrow, and yet it is not the less a +machine. On the other hand, an amoeba is a far simpler animal than a +man, and yet it is just as truly living. To refer life to complexity +does not help us; we want to know what lies back of the complexity--what +makes it a new species of complexity. + +We cannot explain the origin of living matter by the properties which +living matter possesses. There are three things that mechanics and +chemistry cannot explain: the relation of the psychical to the physical +through the law of the conservation and correlation of forces; the agent +or principle that guides the blind chemical and physical forces so as to +produce the living body; and the kind of forces that have contributed to +the origin of that morphological unit--the cell. + +A Western university professor in a recent essay sounds quite a +different note on this subject from the one that comes to us from +Harvard. Says Professor Otto C. Glaser, of the University of Michigan, +in a recent issue of the "Popular Science Monthly": "Does not the +fitness of living things; the fact that they perform acts useful to +themselves in an environment which is constantly shifting, and often +very harsh; the fact that in general everything during development, +during digestion, during any of the complicated chains of processes +which we find, happens at the right time, in the right place, and to the +proper extent; does not all this force us to believe that there is +involved something more than mere chemistry and physics?--something, not +consciousness necessarily, yet its analogue--a vital _x_?" + +There is this suggestive fact about these recent biological experiments +of Dr. Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute: they seem to prove that the +life of a man is not merely the sum of the life of the myriad cells of +his body. Stab the man to death, and the cells of his body still live +and will continue to live if grafted upon another live man. Probably +every part of the body would continue to live and grow indefinitely, in +the proper medium. That the cell life should continue after the soul +life has ceased is very significant. It seems a legitimate inference +from this fact that the human body is the organ or instrument of some +agent that is not of the body. The functional or physiological life of +the body as a whole, also seems quite independent of our conscious +volitional or psychic life. That which repairs and renews the body, +heals its wounds, controls and coordinates its parts, adapts it to its +environment, carries on its processes during sleep, in fact in all our +involuntary life, seems quite independent of the man himself. Is the +spirit of a race or a nation, or of the times in which we live, another +illustration of the same mysterious entity? + +If the vital principle, or vital force, is a fiction, invented to give +the mind something to take hold of, we are in no worse case than we are +in some other matters. Science tells us that there is no such _thing_ as +heat, or light; these are only modes of activity in matter. + +In the same way we seem forced to think of life, vitality, as an +entity--a fact as real as electricity or light, though it may be only a +mode of motion. It may be of physico-chemical origin, as much so as +heat, or light; and yet it is something as distinctive as they are among +material things, and is involved in the same mystery. Is magnetism or +gravitation a real thing? or, in the moral world, is love, charity, or +consciousness itself? The world seems to be run by nonentities. Heat, +light, life, seem nonentities. That which organizes the different parts +or organs of the human body into a unit, and makes of the many organs +one organism, is a nonentity. That which makes an oak an oak, and a +pine a pine, is a nonentity. That which makes a sheep a sheep, and an ox +an ox, is to science a nonentity. To physical science the soul is a +nonentity. + +There is something in the cells of the muscles that makes them contract, +and in the cells of the heart that makes it beat; that something is not +active in the other cells of the body. But it is a nonentity. The body +is a machine and a laboratory combined, but that which cooerdinates them +and makes them work together--what is that? Another nonentity. That +which distinguishes a living machine from a dead machine, science has no +name for, except molecular attraction and repulsion, and these are names +merely; they are nonentities. Is there not molecular attraction and +repulsion in a steam-engine also? And yet it is not alive. What has to +supplement the mechanical and the chemical to make matter alive? We have +no name for it but the vital, be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no +name for a flash of lightning but electricity, be it an entity or a +nonentity. We have no name for that which distinguishes a man from a +brute, but mind, soul, be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no name +for that which distinguishes the organic from the inorganic but +vitality, be it an entity or a nonentity. + + +VII + +Without metaphysics we can do nothing; without mental concepts, where +are we? Natural selection is as much a metaphysical phrase as is +consciousness, or the subjective and the objective. Natural selection is +not an entity, it is a name for what we conceive of as a process. It is +natural rejection as well. The vital principle is a metaphysical +concept; so is instinct; so is reason; so is the soul; so is God. + +Many of our concepts have been wrong. The concept of witches, of disease +as the work of evil spirits, of famine and pestilence as the visitation +of the wrath of God, and the like, were unfounded. Science sets us right +about all such matters. It corrects our philosophy, but it cannot +dispense with the philosophical attitude of mind. The philosophical must +supplement the experimental. + +In fact, in considering this question of life, it is about as difficult +for the unscientific mind to get along without postulating a vital +principle or force--which, Huxley says, is analogous to the idea of a +principle of aquosity in water--as it is to walk upon the air, or to +hang one's coat upon a sunbeam. It seems as if something must breathe +upon the dead matter, as at the first, to make it live. Yet if there is +a distinct vital force it must be correlated with physical force, it +must be related causally to the rest. The idea of a vital force as +something new and distinct and injected into matter from without at a +given time and place in the earth's history, must undoubtedly be given +up. Instead of escaping from mechanism, this notion surrenders one into +the hands of mechanism, since to supplement or reinforce a principle +with some other principle from without, is strictly a mechanical +procedure. But the conception of vitality as potential in matter, or of +the whole universe as permeated with spirit, which to me is the same +thing, is a conception that takes life out of the categories of the +fortuitous and the automatic. + +No doubt but that all things in the material world are causally related, +no doubt of the constancy of matter and force, no doubt but that all +phenomena are the result of natural principles, no doubt that the living +arose from the non-living, no doubt that the evolution process was +inherent in the constitution of the world; and yet there is a mystery +about it all that is insoluble. The miracle of vitality takes place +behind a veil that we cannot penetrate, in the inmost sanctuary of the +molecules of matter, in that invisible, imaginary world on the +borderland between the material and the immaterial. We may fancy that it +is here that the psychical effects its entrance into the physical--that +spirit weds matter--that the creative energy kindles the spark we call +vitality. At any rate, vitality evidently begins in that inner world of +atoms and molecules; but whether as the result of their peculiar and +very complex compounding or as the cause of the compounding--how are we +ever to know? Is it not just as scientific to postulate a new principle, +the principle of vitality, as to postulate a new process, or a new +behavior of an old principle? In either case, we are in the world of the +unverifiable; we take a step in the dark. Most of us, I fancy, will +sympathize with George Eliot, who says in one of her letters: "To me the +Development Theory, and all other explanations of processes by which +things came to be, produce a feeble impression compared with the mystery +that lies under the processes." + + + + +V + +SCIENTIFIC VITALISM + +I + + +All living bodies, when life leaves them, go back to the earth from +whence they came. What was it in the first instance that gathered their +elements from the earth and built them up into such wonderful +mechanisms? If we say it was nature, do we mean by nature a physical +force or an immaterial principle? Did the earth itself bring forth a +man, or did something breathe upon the inert clay till it became a +living spirit? + +As life is a physical phenomenon, appearing in a concrete physical +world, it is, to that extent, within the domain of physical science, and +appeals to the scientific mind. Physical science is at home only in the +experimental, the verifiable. Its domain ends where that of philosophy +begins. + +The question of how life arose in a universe of dead matter is just as +baffling a question to the ordinary mind, as how the universe itself +arose. If we assume that the germs of life drifted to us from other +spheres, propelled by the rays of the sun, or some other celestial +agency, as certain modern scientific philosophers have assumed, we have +only removed the mystery farther away from us. If we assume that it +came by spontaneous generation, as Haeckel and others assume, then we +are only cutting a knot which we cannot untie. The god of spontaneous +generation is as miraculous as any other god. We cannot break the causal +sequence without a miracle. If something came from nothing, then there +is not only the end of the problem, but also the end of our boasted +science. + +Science is at home in discussing all the material manifestations of +life--the parts played by colloids and ferments, by fluids and gases, +and all the organic compounds, and by mechanical and chemical +principles; it may analyze and tabulate all life processes, and show the +living body as a most wonderful and complex piece of mechanism, but +before the question of the origin of life itself it stands dumb, and, +when speaking through such a man as Tyndall, it also stands humble and +reverent. After Tyndall had, to his own satisfaction, reduced all like +phenomena to mechanical attraction and repulsion, he stood with +uncovered head before what he called the "mystery and miracle of +vitality." The mystery and miracle lie in the fact that in the organic +world the same elements combine with results so different from those of +the inorganic world. Something seems to have inspired them with a new +purpose. In the inorganic world, the primary elements go their ceaseless +round from compound to compound, from solid to fluid or gaseous, and +back again, forming the world of inert matter as we know it, but in the +organic world the same elements form thousands of new combinations +unknown to them before, and thus give rise to the myriad forms of life +that inhabit the earth. + +The much-debated life question has lately found an interesting exponent +in Professor Benjamin Moore, of the University of Liverpool. His volume +on the subject in the "Home University Library" is very readable, and, +in many respects, convincing. At least, so far as it is the word of +exact science on the subject it is convincing; so far as it is +speculative, or philosophical, it is or is not convincing, according to +the type of mind of the reader. Professor Moore is not a bald mechanist +or materialist like Professor Loeb, or Ernst Haeckel, nor is he an +idealist or spiritualist, like Henri Bergson or Sir Oliver Lodge. He may +be called a scientific vitalist. He keeps close to lines of scientific +research as these lines lead him through the maze of the primordial +elements of matter, from electron to atom, from atom to molecule, from +molecule to colloid, and so up to the border of the living world. His +analysis of the processes of molecular physics as they appear in the +organism leads him to recognize and to name a new force, or a new +manifestation of force, which he hesitates to call vital, because of the +associations of this term with a prescientific age, but which he calls +"biotic energy." + +Biotic energy is peculiar to living bodies, and "there are precisely the +same criteria for its existence," says Professor Moore, "as for the +existence of any one of the inorganic energy types, viz., a set of +discrete phenomena; and its nature is as mysterious to us as the cause +of any one of these inorganic forms about which also we know so little. +It is biotic energy which guides the development of the ovum, which +regulates the exchanges of the cell, and causes such phenomena as nerve +impulse, muscular contraction, and gland secretion, and it is a form of +energy which arises in colloidal structures, just as magnetism appears +in iron, or radio-activity in uranium or radium, and in its +manifestations it undergoes exchanges with other forms of energy, in the +same manner as these do among one another." + +Like Professor Henderson, Professor Moore concedes to the vitalists +about all they claim--namely, that there is some form of force or +manifestation of energy peculiar to living bodies, and one that cannot +be adequately described in terms of physics and chemistry. Professor +Moore says this biotic energy "arises in colloidal structures," and so +far as biochemistry can make out, arises _spontaneously_ and gives rise +to that marvelous bit of mechanism, the cell. In the cell appears "a +form of energy unknown outside life processes which leads the mazy dance +of life from point to point, each new development furnishing a starting +point for the next one." It not only leads the dance along our own line +of descent from our remote ancestors--it leads the dance along the long +road of evolution from the first unicellular form in the dim palaeozoic +seas to the complex and highly specialized forms of our own day. + +The secret of this life force, or biotic energy, according to Professor +Moore, is in the keeping of matter itself. The steps or stages from the +depths of matter by which life arose, lead up from that imaginary +something, the electron, to the inorganic colloids, or to the +crystallo-colloids, which are the threshold of life, each stage showing +some new transformation of energy. There must be an all-potent energy +transformation before we can get chemical energy out of physical energy, +and then biotic energy out of chemical energy. This transformation of +inorganic energy into life energy cannot be traced or repeated in the +laboratory, yet science believes the secret will sometime be in its +hands. It is here that the materialistic philosophers, such as +Professors Moore and Loeb, differ from the spiritualistic philosophers, +such as Bergson, Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Thompson, and others. + +Professor Moore has no sympathy with those narrow mechanistic views that +see in the life processes "no problems save those of chemistry and +physics." "Each link in the living chain may be physico-chemical, but +the chain as a whole, and its purpose, is something else." He draws an +analogy from the production of music in which purely physical factors +are concerned; the laws of harmonics account for all; but back of all is +something that is not mechanical and chemical--there is the mind of the +composer, and the performers, and the auditors, and something that takes +cognizance of the whole effect. A complete human philosophy cannot be +built upon physical science alone. He thinks the evolution of life from +inert matter is of the same type as the evolution of one form of matter +from another, or the evolution of one form of energy from another--a +mystery, to be sure, but little more startling in the one case than in +the other. "The fundamental mystery lies in the existence of those +entities, or things, which we call matter and energy," out of the play +and interaction of which all life phenomena have arisen. Organic +evolution is a series of energy exchanges and transformations from lower +to higher, but science is powerless to go behind the phenomena presented +and name or verify the underlying mystery. Only philosophy can do this. +And Professor Moore turns philosopher when he says there is beauty and +design in it all, "and an eternal purpose which is ever progressing." + +Bergson sets forth his views of evolution in terms of literature and +philosophy. Professor Moore embodies similar views in his volume, set +forth in terms of molecular science. Both make evolution a creative and +a continuous process. Bergson lays the emphasis upon the cosmic spirit +interacting with matter. Professor Moore lays the emphasis upon the +indwelling potencies of matter itself (probably the same spirit +conceived of in different terms). Professor Moore philosophizes as truly +as does Bergson when he says "there must exist a whole world of living +creatures which the microscope has never shown us, leading up to the +bacteria and the protozoa. The brink of life lies not at the production +of protozoa and bacteria, which are highly developed inhabitants of our +world, but away down among the colloids; and the beginning of life was +not a fortuitous event occurring millions of years ago and never again +repeated, but one which in its primordial stages keeps on repeating +itself all the time in our generation. So that if all intelligent +creatures were by some holocaust destroyed, up out of the depths in +process of millions of years, intelligent beings would once more +emerge." This passage shows what a speculative leap or flight the +scientific mind is at times compelled to take when it ventures beyond +the bounds of positive methods. It is good philosophy, I hope, but we +cannot call it science. Thrilled with cosmic emotion, Walt Whitman made +a similar daring assertion:-- + + "There is no stoppage, and never can be stoppage, + If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, + were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would + not avail in the long run, + We should surely bring up again where we now stand, + And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther." + + +II + +Evolution is creative, whether it works in matter--as Bergson describes, +or whether its path lies up through electrons and atoms and molecules, +as Professor Moore describes. There is something that creates and makes +matter plastic to its will. Whether we call matter "the living garment +of God," as Goethe did, or a reservoir of creative energy, as Tyndall +and his school did, and as Professor Moore still does, we are paying +homage to a power that is super-material. Life came to our earth, says +Professor Moore, through a "well-regulated orderly development," and it +"comes to every mother earth of the universe in the maturity of her +creation when the conditions arrive within suitable limits." That no +intelligent beings appeared upon the earth for millions upon millions of +years, that for whole geologic ages there was no creature with more +brains than a snail possesses, shows the almost infinitely slow progress +of development, and that there has been no arbitrary or high-handed +exercise of creative power. The universe is not run on principles of +modern business efficiency, and man is at the head of living forms, not +by the fiat of some omnipotent power, some superman, but as the result +of the operation of forces that balk at no delay, or waste, or failure, +and that are dependent upon the infinitely slow ripening and +amelioration of both cosmic and terrestrial conditions. + +We do not get rid of God by any such dictum, but we get rid of the +anthropomorphic views which we have so long been wont to read into the +processes of nature. We dehumanize the universe, but we do not render it +the less grand and mysterious. Professor Moore points out to us how life +came to a cooling planet as soon as the temperature became low enough +for certain chemical combinations to appear. There must first be oxides +and saline compounds, there must be carbonates of calcium and magnesium, +and the like. As the temperature falls, more and more complex compounds, +such as life requires, appear; till, in due time, carbon dioxide and +water are at hand, and life can make a start. At the white heat of some +of the fixed stars, the primary chemical elements are not yet evolved; +but more and more elements appear, and more and more complex compounds +are formed as the cooling process progresses. + +"This note cannot be too strongly sounded, that as matter is allowed +capacity for assuming complex forms, those complex forms appear. As soon +as oxides can be there, oxides appear; when temperature admits of +carbonates, then carbonates are forthwith formed. These are experiments +which any chemist can to-day repeat in a crucible. And on a cooling +planet, as soon as temperature will admit the presence of life, then +life appears, as the evidence of geology shows us." When we speak of the +beginning of life, it is not clear just what we mean. The unit of all +organized bodies is the cell, but the cell is itself an organized body, +and must have organic matter to feed upon. Hence the cell is only a more +complex form of more primitive living matter. As we go down the scale +toward the inorganic, can we find the point where the living and the +non-living meet and become one? "Life had to surge a long way up from +the depths before a green plant cell came into being." When the green +plant cell was found, life was fairly launched. This plant cell, in the +form of chlorophyll, by the aid of water and the trace of carbon dioxide +in the air, began to store up the solar energy in fruit and grain and +woody tissue, and thus furnish power to run all forms of life machinery. + +The materialists or naturalists are right in urging that we live in a +much more wonderful universe than we have ever imagined, and that in +matter itself sleep potencies and possibilities not dreamt of in our +philosophy. The world of complex though invisible activities which +science reveals all about us, the solar and stellar energies raining +upon us from above, the terrestrial energies and influences playing +through us from below, the transformations and transmutations taking +place on every hand, the terrible alertness and potency of the world of +inert matter as revealed by a flash of lightning, the mysteries of +chemical affinity, of magnetism, of radio-activity, all point to deep +beneath deep in matter itself. It is little wonder that men who dwell +habitually upon these things and are saturated with the spirit and +traditions of laboratory investigation, should believe that in some way +matter itself holds the mystery of the origin of life. On the other +hand, a different type of mind, the more imaginative, artistic, and +religious type, recoils from the materialistic view. + +The sun is the source of all terrestrial energy, but the different forms +that energy takes--in the plant, in the animal, in the brain of +man--this type of mind is bound to ask questions about that. Gravity +pulls matter down; life lifts it up; chemical forces pull it to pieces; +vital forces draw it together and organize it; the winds and the waters +dissolve and scatter it; vegetation recaptures and integrates it and +gives it new qualities. At every turn, minds like that of Sir Oliver +Lodge are compelled to think of life as a principle or force doing +something with matter. The physico-chemical forces will not do in the +hands of man what they do in the hands of Nature. Such minds, therefore, +feel justified in thinking that something which we call "the hands of +Nature," plays a part--some principle or force which the hands of man do +not hold. + + + + +VI + +A BIRD OF PASSAGE + +I + + +There is one phase of the much-discussed question of the nature and +origin of life which, so far as I know, has not been considered either +by those who hold a brief for the physico-chemical view or by those who +stand for some form of vitalism or idealism. I refer to the small part +that life plays in the total scheme of things. The great cosmic machine +would go on just as well without it. Its relation to the whole appears +to be little different from that of a man to the train in which he +journeys. Life rides on the mechanical and chemical forces, but it does +not seem to be a part of them, nor identical with them, because they +were before it, and will continue after it is gone. + +The everlasting, all-inclusive thing in this universe seems to be inert +matter with the energy it holds; while the slight, flitting, casual +thing seems to be living matter. The inorganic is from all eternity to +all eternity; it is distributed throughout all space and endures through +all time, while the organic is, in comparison, only of the here and the +now; it was not here yesterday, and it may not be here to-morrow; it +comes and goes. Life is like a bird of passage which alights and tarries +for a time and is gone, and the places where it perched and nested and +led forth its brood know it no more. Apparently it flits from world to +world as the great cosmic spring comes to each, and departs as the +cosmic winter returns to each. It is a visitor, a migrant, a frail, +timid thing, which waits upon the seasons and flees from the coming +tempests and vicissitudes. + +How casual, uncertain, and inconsequential the vital order seems in our +own solar system--a mere incident or by-product in its cosmic evolution! +Astronomy sounds the depths of space, and sees only mechanical and +chemical forces at work there. It is almost certain that only a small +fraction of the planetary surfaces is the abode of life. On the earth +alone, of all the great family of planets and satellites, is the vital +order in full career. It may yet linger upon Mars, but it is evidently +waning. On the inferior planets it probably had its day long ago, while +it must be millions of years before it comes to the superior planets, if +it ever comes to them. What a vast, inconceivable outlay of time and +energy for such small returns! Evidently the vital order is only an +episode, a transient or secondary phase of matter in the process of +sidereal evolution. Astronomic space is strewn with dead worlds, as a +New England field is with drift boulders. That life has touched and +tarried here and there upon them can hardly be doubted, but if it is +anything more than a passing incident, an infant crying in the night, a +flush of color upon the cheek, a flower blooming by the wayside, +appearances are against it. + +We read our astronomy and geology in the light of our enormous egotism, +and appropriate all to ourselves; but science sees in our appearance +here a no more significant event than in the foam and bubbles that whirl +and dance for a moment upon the river's current. The bubbles have their +reason for being; all the mysteries of molecular attraction and +repulsion may be involved in their production; without the solar energy, +and the revolution of the earth upon its axis, they would not appear; +and yet they are only bubbles upon the river's current, as we are +bubbles upon the stream of energy that flows through the universe. +Apparently the cosmic game is played for us no more than for the +parasites that infest our bodies, or for the frost ferns that form upon +our window-panes in winter. The making of suns and systems goes on in +the depths of space, and doubtless will go on to all eternity, without +any more reference to the vital order than to the chemical compounds. + +The amount of living matter in the universe, so far as we can penetrate +it, compared with the non-living, is, in amount, like a flurry of snow +that whitens the fields and hills of a spring morning compared to the +miles of rock and soil beneath it; and with reference to geologic time +it is about as fleeting. In the vast welter of suns and systems in the +heavens above us, we see only dead matter, and most of it is in a +condition of glowing metallic vapor. There are doubtless living +organisms upon some of the invisible planetary bodies, but they are +probably as fugitive and temporary as upon our own world. Much of the +surface of the earth is clothed in a light vestment of life, which, back +in geologic time, seems to have more completely enveloped it than at +present, as both the arctic and the antarctic regions bear evidence in +their coal-beds and other fossil remains of luxuriant vegetable growths. + +Strip the earth of its thin pellicle of soil, thinner with reference to +the mass than is the peel to the apple, and you have stripped it of its +life. Or, rob it of its watery vapor and the carbon dioxide in the air, +both stages in its evolution, and you have a dead world. The huge globe +swings through space only as a mass of insensate rock. So limited and +evanescent is the world of living matter, so vast and enduring is the +world of the non-living. Looked at in this way, in the light of physical +science, life, I repeat, seems like a mere passing phase of the cosmic +evolution, a flitting and temporary stage of matter which it passes +through in the procession of changes on the surface of a cooling planet. +Between the fiery mist of the nebula, and the frigid and consolidated +globe, there is a brief span, ranging over about one hundred and twenty +degrees of temperature, where life appears and organic evolution takes +place. Compared with the whole scale of temperature, from absolute zero +to the white heat of the hottest stars, it is about a hand's-breadth +compared to a mile. + +Life processes cease, but chemical and mechanical processes go on +forever. Life is as fugitive and uncertain as the bow in the clouds, +and, like the bow in the clouds, is confined to a limited range of +conditions. Like the bow, also, it is a perpetual creation, a constant +becoming, and its source is not in the matter through which it is +manifested, though inseparable from it. The material substance of life, +like the rain-drops, is in perpetual flux and change; it hangs always on +the verge of dissolution and vanishes when the material conditions fail, +to be renewed again when they return. We know, do we not? that life is +as literally dependent upon the sun as is the rainbow, and equally +dependent upon the material elements; but whether the physical +conditions sum up the whole truth about it, as they do with the bow, is +the insoluble question. Science says "Yes," but our philosophy and our +religion say "No." The poets and the prophets say "No," and our hopes +and aspirations say "No." + + +II + +Where, then, shall we look for the key to this mysterious thing we call +life? Modern biochemistry will not listen to the old notion of a vital +force--that is only a metaphysical will-o'-the-wisp that leaves us +floundering in the quagmire. If I question the forces about me, what +answer do I get? Molecular attraction and repulsion seem to say, "It is +not in us; we are as active in the clod as in the flower." The four +principal elements--oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon--say, "It is +not in us, because we are from all eternity, and life is not; we form +only its physical basis." Warmth and moisture say, "It is not in us; we +are only its faithful nurses and handmaidens." The sun says: "It is not +in me; I shine on dead worlds as well. I but quicken life after it is +planted." The stars say, "It is not in us; we have seen life come and go +among myriads of worlds for untold ages." No questioning of the heavens +above nor of the earth below can reveal to us the secret we are in quest +of. + +I can fancy brute matter saying to life: "You tarry with me at your +peril. You will always be on the firing-line of my blind, contending +forces; they will respect you not; you must take your chances amid my +flying missiles. My forces go their eternal round without variableness +or shadow of turning, and woe to you if you cross their courses. You +may bring all your gods with you--gods of love, mercy, gentleness, +altruism; but I know them not. Your prayers will fall upon ears of +stone, your appealing gesture upon eyes of stone, your cries for mercy +upon hearts of stone. I shall be neither your enemy nor your friend. I +shall be utterly indifferent to you. My floods will drown you, my winds +wreck you, my fires burn you, my quicksands suck you down, and not know +what they are doing. My earth is a theatre of storms and cyclones, of +avalanches and earthquakes, of lightnings and cloudbursts; wrecks and +ruins strew my course. All my elements and forces are at your service; +all my fluids and gases and solids; my stars in their courses will fight +on your side, if you put and keep yourself in right relations to them. +My atoms and electrons will build your houses, my lightning do your +errands, my winds sail your ships, on the same terms. You cannot live +without my air and my water and my warmth; but each of them is a source +of power that will crush or engulf or devour you before it will turn one +hair's-breadth from its course. Your trees will be uprooted by my +tornadoes, your fair fields will be laid waste by floods or fires; my +mountains will fall on your delicate forms and utterly crush and bury +them; my glaciers will overspread vast areas and banish or destroy whole +tribes and races of your handiwork; the shrinking and wrinkling crust of +my earth will fold in its insensate bosom vast forests of your tropical +growths, and convert them into black rock, and I will make rock of the +myriad forms of minute life with which you plant the seas; through +immense geologic ages my relentless, unseeing, unfeeling forces will +drive on like the ploughshare that buries every flower and grass-blade +and tiny creature in its path. My winds are life-giving breezes to-day, +and the besom of destruction to-morrow; my rains will moisten and +nourish you one day, and wash you into the gulf the next; my earthquakes +will bury your cities as if they were ant-hills. So you must take your +chances, but the chances are on your side. I am not all tempest, or +flood, or fire, or earthquake. Your career will be a warfare, but you +will win more battles than you will lose. But remember, you are nothing +to me, while I am everything to you. I have nothing to lose or gain, +while you have everything to gain. Without my soils and moisture and +warmth, without my carbon and oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen, you can +do or be nothing; without my sunshine you perish; but you have these +things on condition of effort and struggle. You have evolution on +condition of pain and failure and the hazard of the warring geologic +ages. Fate and necessity rule in my realm. When you fail, or are crushed +or swallowed by my remorseless forces, do not blame my gods, or your +own; there is no blame, there is only the price to be paid: the hazards +of invading the closed circle of my unseeing forces." + +In California I saw an epitome of the merciless way inorganic Nature +deals with life. An old, dried, and hardened asphalt lake near Los +Angeles tells a horrible tale of animal suffering and failure. It had +been a pit of horrors for long ages; it was Nature concentrated--her +wild welter of struggling and devouring forms through the geologic ages +made visible and tangible in a small patch of mingled pitch and animal +bones. There was nearly as much bone as pitch. The fate of the unlucky +flies that alight upon tangle-foot fly-paper in our houses had been the +fate of the victims that had perished here. How many wild creatures had +turned appealing eyes to the great unheeding void as they felt +themselves helpless and sinking in this all-engulfing pitch! In like +manner how many human beings in storms and disasters at sea and in flood +and fire upon land have turned the same appealing look to the unpitying +heavens! There is no power in the world of physical forces, or apart +from our own kind, that heeds us or turns aside for us, or bestows one +pitying glance upon us. Life has run, and still runs, the gantlet of a +long line of hostile forces, and escapes by dint of fleetness of foot, +or agility in dodging, or else by toughness of fibre. + +Yet here we are; here is love and charity and mercy and intelligence; +the fair face of childhood, the beautiful face of youth, the clear, +strong face of manhood and womanhood, and the calm, benign face of old +age, seen, it is true, as against a background of their opposites, but +seeming to indicate something above chance and change at the heart of +Nature. Here is life in the midst of death; but death forever playing +into the hands of life; here is the organic in the midst of the +inorganic, at strife with it, hourly crushed by it, yet sustained and +kept going by its aid. + + +III + +Vitality is only a word, but it marks a class of phenomena in nature +that stands apart from all merely mechanical manifestations in the +universe. The cosmos is a vast machine, but in this machine--this +tremendous complex of physical forces--there appears, at least on this +earth, in the course of its evolution, this something, or this peculiar +manifestation of energy, that we call vital. Apparently it is a +transient phase of activity in matter, which, unlike other chemical and +physical activities, has its beginning and its ending, and out of which +have arisen all the myriad forms of terrestrial life. The merely +material forces, blind and haphazard from the first, did not arise in +matter; they are inseparable from it; they are as eternal as matter +itself; but the activities called vital arose in time and place, and +must eventually disappear as they arose, while the career of the +inorganic elements goes on as if life had never visited the sphere. Was +it, or is it, a visitation--something _ab extra_ that implies +super-mundane, or supernatural, powers? + +Added to this wonder is the fact that the vital order has gone on +unfolding through the geologic ages, mounting from form to form, or from +order to order, becoming more and more complex, passing from the +emphasis of size of body, to the emphasis of size of brain, and finally +from instinct and reflex activities to free volition, and the reason and +consciousness of man; while the purely physical and chemical forces +remain where they began. There has been endless change among them, +endless shifting of the balance of power, but always the tendency to a +dead equilibrium, while the genius of the organic forces has been in the +power to disturb the equilibrium and to ride into port on the crest of +the wave it has created, or to hang forever between the stable and the +unstable. + +So there we are, confronted by two apparently contrary truths. It is to +me unthinkable that the vital order is not as truly rooted in the +constitution of things as are the mechanical and chemical orders; and +yet, here we are face to face with its limited, fugitive, or +transitional character. It comes and goes like the dews of the morning; +it has all the features of an exceptional, unexpected, extraordinary +occurrence--of miracle, if you will; but if the light which physical +science turns on the universe is not a delusion, if the habit of mind +which it begets is not a false one, then life belongs to the same +category of things as do day and night, rain and sun, rest and motion. +Who shall reconcile these contradictions? + +Huxley spoke for physical science when he said that he did not know what +it was that constituted life--what it was that made the "wonderful +difference between the dead particles and the living particles of matter +appearing in other respects identical." He thought there might be some +bond between physico-chemical phenomena, on the one hand, and vital +phenomena, on the other, which philosophers will some day find out. +Living matter is characterized by "spontaneity of action," which is +entirely absent from inert matter. Huxley cannot or does not think of a +vital force distinct from all other forces, as the cause of life +phenomena, as so many philosophers have done, from Aristotle down to our +day. He finds protoplasm to be the physical basis of life; it is one in +both the vegetable and animal worlds; the animal takes it from the +vegetable, and the vegetable, by the aid of sunlight, takes or +manufactures it from the inorganic elements. But protoplasm is living +matter. Before there was any protoplasm, what brought about the +stupendous change of the dead into the living? Protoplasm makes more +protoplasm, as fire makes more fire, but what kindled the first spark of +this living flame? Here we corner the mystery, but it is still a +mystery that defies us. Cause and effect meet and are lost in each +other. Science cannot admit a miracle, or a break in the continuity of +life, yet here it reaches a point where no step can be taken. Huxley's +illustrations do not help his argument. "Protoplasm," he says, "is the +clay of the potter; which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains +clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick +or sun-dried clod." Clay is certainly the physical basis of the potter's +art, but would there be any pottery in the world if it contained only +clay? Do we not have to think of the potter? In the same way, do we not +have to think of something that fashions these myriad forms of life out +of protoplasm?--and back of that, of something that begat protoplasm out +of non-protoplasmic matter, and started the flame of life going? Life +accounts for protoplasm, but what accounts for life? We have to think of +the living clay as separated by Nature from the inert "sun-dried clod." +There is something in the one that is not in the other. There is really +no authentic analogy between the potter's art and Nature's art of life. + +The force of the analogy, if it has any, drives us to the conclusion +that life is an entity, or an agent, working upon matter and independent +of it. + +There is more wit than science in Huxley's question, "What better +philosophical status has vitality than aquosity?" There is at least this +difference: When vitality is gone, you cannot recall it, or reproduce +it by your chemistry; but you can recombine the two gases in which you +have decomposed water, any number of times, and get your aquosity back +again; it never fails; it is a power of chemistry. But vitality will not +come at your beck; it is not a chemical product, at least in the same +sense that water is; it is not in the same category as the wetness or +liquidity of water. It is a name for a phenomenon--the most remarkable +phenomenon in nature. It is one that the art of man is powerless to +reproduce, while water may be made to go through its cycle of +change--solid, fluid, vapor, gas--and always come back to water. Well +does the late Professor Brooks, of Johns Hopkins, say that "living +things do, in some way and in some degree, control or condition +inorganic nature; that they hold their own by setting the mechanical +properties of matter in opposition to each other, and that this is their +most notable and distinctive characteristic." Does not Ray Lankester, +the irate champion of the mechanistic view of life, say essentially the +same thing when he calls man the great Insurgent in Nature's +camp--"crossing her courses, reversing her processes, and defeating her +ends?" + +Life appears like the introduction of a new element or force or tendency +into the cosmos. Henceforth the elements go new ways, form new +compounds, build up new forms, and change the face of nature. Rivers +flow where they never would have flowed without it, mountains fall in a +space of time during which they never would have fallen; barriers arise, +rough ways are made smooth, a new world appears--the world of man's +physical and mental activities. + +If the gods of the inorganic elements are neither for nor against us, +but utterly indifferent to us, how came we here? Nature's method is +always from the inside, while ours is from the outside; hers is circular +while ours is direct. We think, as Bergson says, of things created, and +of a thing that creates, but things in nature are not created, they are +evolved; they grow, and the thing that grows is not separable from the +force that causes it to grow. The water turns the wheel, and can be shut +off or let on. This is the way of the mechanical world. But the wheels +in organic nature go around from something inside them, a kind of +perpetual motion, or self-supplying power. They are not turned, they +turn; they are not repaired, they repair. The nature of living things +cannot be interpreted by the laws of mechanical and chemical things, +though mechanics and chemistry play the visible, tangible part in them. +If we must discard the notion of a vital force, we may, as Professor +Hartog suggests, make use of the term "vital behavior." + +Of course man tries everything by himself and his own standards. He +knows no intelligence but his own, no prudence, no love, no mercy, no +justice, no economy, but his own, no god but such a one as fits his +conception. + +In view of all these things, how man got here is a problem. Why the +slender thread of his line of descent was not broken in the warrings and +upheavals of the terrible geologic ages, what power or agent took a hand +in furthering his development, is beyond the reach of our biologic +science. + +Man's is the only intelligence, as we understand the word, in the +universe, and his intelligence demands something akin to intelligence in +the nature from which he sprang. + + + + +VII + +LIFE AND MIND + +I + + +There are three kinds of change in the world in which we live--physical +and mechanical change which goes on in time and place among the tangible +bodies about us, chemical change which goes on in the world of hidden +molecules and atoms of which bodies are composed, and vital change which +involves the two former, but which also involves the mysterious +principle or activity which we call life. Life comes and goes, but the +physical and chemical orders remain. The vegetable and animal kingdoms +wax and wane, or disappear entirely, but the physico-chemical forces are +as indestructible as matter itself. This fugitive and evanescent +character of life, the way it uses and triumphs over the material +forces, setting up new chemical activities in matter, sweeping over the +land-areas of the earth like a conflagration, lifting the inorganic +elements up into myriads of changing and beautiful forms, instituting a +vast number of new chemical processes and compounds, defying the +laboratory to reproduce it or kindle its least spark--a flame that +cannot exist without carbon and oxygen, but of which carbon and oxygen +do not hold the secret, a fire reversed, building up instead of pulling +down, in the vegetable with power to absorb and transmute the inorganic +elements into leaves and fruit and tissue; in the animal with power to +change the vegetable products into bone and muscle and nerve and brain, +and finally into thought and consciousness; run by the solar energy and +dependent upon it, yet involving something which the sunlight cannot +give us; in short, an activity in matter, or in a limited part of +matter, as real as the physico-chemical activity, but, unlike it, +defying all analysis and explanation and all our attempts at synthesis. +It is this character of life, I say, that so easily leads us to look +upon it as something _ab extra_, or super-added to matter, and not an +evolution from it. It has led Sir Oliver Lodge to conceive of life as a +distinct entity, existing independent of matter, and it is this +conception that gives the key to Henri Bergson's wonderful book, +"Creative Evolution." + +There is possibly or probably a fourth change in matter, physical in its +nature, but much more subtle and mysterious than any of the physical +changes which our senses reveal to us. I refer to radioactive change, or +to the atomic transformation of one element into another, such as the +change of radium into helium, and the change of helium into lead--a +subject that takes us to the borderland between physics and chemistry +where is still debatable ground. + +I began by saying that there were three kinds of changes in matter--the +physical, the chemical, and the vital. But if we follow up this idea and +declare that there are three kinds of force also, claiming this +distinction for the third term of our proposition, we shall be running +counter to the main current of recent biological science. "The idea that +a peculiar 'vital force' acts in the chemistry of life," says Professor +Soddy, "is extinct." + +"Only chemical and physical agents influence the vital processes," says +Professor Czapek, of the University of Prague, "and we need no longer +take refuge in mysterious 'vital forces' when we want to explain these." + +Tyndall was obliged to think of a force that guided the molecules of +matter into the special forms of a tree. This force was in the ultimate +particles of matter. But when he came to the brain and to consciousness, +he said a new product appeared that defies mechanical treatment. + +The attempt of the biological science of our time to wipe out all +distinctions between the living and the non-living, solely because +scientific analysis reveals no difference, is a curious and interesting +phenomenon. + +Professor Schaefer, in his presidential address before the British +Association in 1912, argued that all the main characteristics of living +matter, such as assimilation and disassimilation, growth and +reproduction, spontaneous and amoeboid movement, osmotic pressure, +karyokinesis, etc., were equally apparent in the non-living; therefore +he concluded that life is only one of the many chemical reactions, and +that it is not improbable that it will yet be produced by chemical +synthesis in the laboratory. The logic of the position taken by +Professor Schaefer and of the school to which he belongs, demands this +artificial production of life--an achievement that seems no nearer than +it did a half-century ago. When it has been attained, the problem will +be simplified, but the mystery of life will by no means have been +cleared up. One follows these later biochemists in working out their +problem of the genesis of life with keen interest, but always with a +feeling that there is more in their conclusions than is justified by +their premises. For my own part, I am convinced that whatever is, is +natural, but to obtain life I feel the need of something of a different +order from the force that evokes the spark from the flint and the steel, +or brings about the reaction of chemical compounds. If asked to explain +what this something is that is characteristic of living matter, I should +say intelligence. + +The new school of biologists start with matter that possesses +extraordinary properties--with matter that seems inspired with the +desire for life, and behaving in a way that it never will behave in the +laboratory. They begin with the earth's surface warm and moist, the +atmosphere saturated with watery vapor and carbon dioxide and many other +complex unstable compounds; then they summon all the material elements +of life--carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with a little sodium, +chlorine, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, and others--and make these run +together to form a jelly-like body called a colloid; then they endow +this jelly mass with the power of growth, and of subdivision when it +gets too large; they make it able to absorb various unstable compounds +from the air, giving it internal stores of energy, "the setting free of +which would cause automatic movements in the lump of jelly." Thus they +lay the foundations of life. This carbonaceous material with properties +of movement and subdivision due to mechanical and physical forces is the +immediate ancestor of the first imaginary living being, the _protobion_. +To get this _protobion_ the chemists summon a reagent known as a +catalyser. The catalyser works its magic on the jelly mass. It sets up a +wonderful reaction by its mere presence, without parting with any of its +substance. Thus, if a bit of platinum which has this catalytic power is +dropped into a vessel containing a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, the +two gases instantly unite and form water. A catalyser introduced in the +primordial jelly liberates energy and gives the substance power to break +up the various complex unstable compounds into food, and promote growth +and subdivision. In fact, it awakens or imparts a vital force and leads +to "indefinite increase, subdivision, and movement." + +With Professor Schaefer there is first "the fortuitous production of life +upon this globe"--the chance meeting or jostling of the elements that +resulted in a bit of living protoplasm, "or a mass of colloid slime" in +the old seas, or on their shores, "possessing the property of +assimilation and therefore of growth." Here the whole mystery is +swallowed at one gulp. "Reproduction would follow as a matter of +course," because all material of this physical nature--fluid or +semi-fluid in character--"has a tendency to undergo subdivision when its +bulk exceeds a certain size." + +"A mass of colloidal slime" that has the power of assimilation and of +growth and reproduction, is certainly a new thing in the world, and no +chemical analysis of it can clear up the mystery. It is easy enough to +produce colloidal slime, but to endow it with these wonderful powers so +that "the promise and the potency of all terrestrial life" slumbers in +it is a staggering proposition. + +Whatever the character of this subdivision, whether into equal parts or +in the form of buds, "every separate part would resemble the parent in +chemical and physical properties, and would equally possess the property +of taking in and assimilating suitable material from its liquid +environment, growing in bulk and reproducing its like by subdivision. +In this way from any beginning of living material a primitive form of +life would spread and would gradually people the globe. The +establishment of life being once effected, all forms of organization +follow under the inevitable laws of evolution." Why all forms of +organization--why the body and brain of man--must inevitably follow from +the primitive bit of living matter, is just the question upon which we +want light. The proposition begs the question. Certainly when you have +got the evolutionary process once started in matter which has these +wonderful powers, all is easy. The professor simply describes what has +taken place and seems to think that the mystery is thereby cleared up, +as if by naming all the parts of a machine and their relation to one +another, the machine is accounted for. What caused the iron and steel +and wood of the machine to take this special form, while in other cases +the iron and steel and wood took other radically different forms, and +vast quantities of these substances took no form at all? + +In working out the evolution of living forms by the aid of the blind +physical and chemical agents alone, Professor Schaefer unconsciously +ascribes the power of choice and purpose to the individual cells, as +when he says that the cells of the external layer sink below the surface +for better protection and better nutrition. It seems to have been a +matter of choice or will that the cells developed a nervous system in +the animal and not in the vegetable. Man came because a few cells in +some early form of life acquired a slightly greater tendency to react to +an external stimulus. In this way they were brought into closer touch +with the outer world and thereby gained the lead of their duller +neighbor cells, and became the real rulers of the body, and developed +the mind. + +It is bewildering to be told by so competent a person as Professor +Schaefer that at bottom there is no fundamental difference between the +living and non-living. We need not urge the existence of a peculiar +vital force, as distinct from all other forces, but all distinctions +between things are useless if we cannot say that a new behavior is set +up in matter which we describe by the word "vital," and that a new +principle is operative in organized matter which we must call +"intelligence." Of course all movements and processes of living beings +are in conformity with the general laws of matter, but does such a +statement necessarily rule out all idea of the operation of an +organizing and directing principle that is not operative in the world of +inanimate things? + +In Schaefer's philosophy evolution is purely a mechanical process--there +is no inborn tendency, no inherent push, no organizing effort, but all +results from the blind groping and chance jostling of the inorganic +elements; from the molecules of undifferentiated protoplasm to the +brain of a Christ or a Plato, is just one series of unintelligent +physical and chemical activities in matter. + +May we not say that all the marks or characteristics of a living body +which distinguish it in our experience from an inanimate body, are of a +non-scientific character, or outside the sphere of experimental science? +We recognize them as readily as we distinguish day from night, but we +cannot describe them in the fixed terms of science. When we say growth, +metabolism, osmosis, the colloidal state, science points out that all +this may be affirmed of inorganic bodies. When we say a life principle, +a vital force or soul or spirit or intelligence, science turns a deaf +ear. + +The difference between the living and the non-living is not so much a +physical difference as a metaphysical difference. Living matter is +actuated by intelligence. Its activities are spontaneous and +self-directing. The rock, and the tree that grows beside it, and the +insects and rodents that burrow under it, may all be made of one stuff, +but their difference to the beholder is fundamental; there is an +intelligent activity in the one that is not in the other. Now no +scientific analysis of a body will reveal the secret of this activity. +As well might your analysis of a phonographic record hope to disclose a +sonata of Beethoven latent in the waving lines. No power of chemistry +could reveal any difference between the gray matter of Plato's brain +and that of the humblest citizen of Athens. All the difference between +man, all that makes a man a man, and an ox an ox, is beyond the reach of +any of your physico-chemical tests. By the same token the gulf that +separates the organic from the inorganic is not within the power of +science to disclose. The biochemist is bound to put life in the category +of the material forces because his science can deal with no other. To +him the word "vital" is a word merely, it stands for no reality, and the +secret of life is merely a chemical reaction. A living body awakens a +train of ideas in our minds that a non-living fails to awaken--a train +of ideas that belong to another order from that awakened by scientific +demonstration. We cannot blame science for ruling out that which it +cannot touch with its analysis, or repeat with its synthesis. The +phenomena of life are as obvious to us as anything in the world; we know +their signs and ways, and witness their power, yet in the alembic of our +science they turn out to be only physico-chemical processes; hence that +is all there is of them. Vitality, says Huxley, has no more reality than +the horology of a clock. Yet Huxley sees three equal realities in the +universe--matter, energy, and consciousness. But consciousness is the +crown of a vital process. Hence it would seem as if there must be +something more real in vitality than Huxley is willing to admit. + + +II + +Nearly all the later biologists or biological philosophers are as shy of +the term "vital force," and even of the word "vitality," as they are of +the words "soul," "spirit," "intelligence," when discussing natural +phenomena. To experimental science such words have no meaning because +the supposed realities for which they stand are quite beyond the reach +of scientific analysis. Ray Lankester, in his "Science from an Easy +Chair," following Huxley, compares vitality with aquosity, and says that +to have recourse to a vital principle or force to explain a living body +is no better philosophy than to appeal to a principle of aquosity to +explain water. Of course words are words, and they have such weight with +us that when we have got a name for a thing it is very easy to persuade +ourselves that the thing exists. The terms "vitality," "vital force," +have long been in use, and it is not easy to convince one's self that +they stand for no reality. Certain it is that living and non-living +matter are sharply separated, though when reduced to their chemical +constituents in the laboratory they are found to be identical. The +carbon, the hydrogen, the nitrogen, the oxygen, and the lime, sulphur, +iron, etc., in a living body are in no way peculiar, but are the same as +these elements in the rocks and the soil. We are all made of one stuff; +a man and his dog are made of one stuff; an oak and a pine are made of +one stuff; Jew and Gentile are made of one stuff. Should we be +justified, then, in saying that there is no difference between them? +There is certainly a moral and an intellectual difference between a man +and his dog, if there is no chemical and mechanical difference. And +there is as certainly as wide or a wider difference between living and +non-living matter, though it be beyond the reach of science to detect. +For this difference we have to have a name, and we use the words +"vital," "vitality," which seem to me to stand for as undeniable +realities as the words heat, light, chemical affinity, gravitation. +There is not a principle of roundness, though "nature centres into +balls," nor of squareness, though crystallization is in right lines, nor +of aquosity, though two thirds of the surface of the earth is covered +with water. Can we on any better philosophical grounds say that there is +a principle of vitality, though the earth swarms with living beings? Yet +the word vitality stands for a reality, it stands for a peculiar +activity in matter--for certain movements and characteristics for which +we have no other term. I fail to see any analogy between aquosity and +that condition of matter we call vital or living. Aquosity is not an +activity, it is a property, the property of wetness; viscosity is a term +to describe other conditions of matter; solidity, to describe still +another condition; and opacity and transparency, to describe still +others--as they affect another of our senses. But the vital activity in +matter is a concrete reality. With it there goes the organizing tendency +or impulse, and upon it hinges the whole evolutionary movement of the +biological history of the globe. We can do all sorts of things with +water and still keep its aquosity. If we resolve it into its constituent +gases we destroy its aquosity, but by uniting these gases chemically we +have the wetness back again. But if a body loses its vitality, its life, +can we by the power of chemistry, or any other power within our reach, +bring the vitality back to it? Can we make the dead live? You may bray +your living body in a mortar, destroy every one of its myriad cells, and +yet you may not extinguish the last spark of life; the protoplasm is +still living. But boil it or bake it and the vitality is gone, and all +the art and science of mankind cannot bring it back again. The physical +and chemical activities remain after the vital activities have ceased. +Do we not then have to supply a non-chemical, a non-physical force or +factor to account for the living body? Is there no difference between +the growth of a plant or an animal, and the increase in size of a +sand-bank or a snow-bank, or a river delta? or between the wear and +repair of a working-man's body and the wear and repair of the machine he +drives? Excretion and secretion are not in the same categories. The +living and the non-living mark off the two grand divisions of matter in +the world in which we live, as no two terms merely descriptive of +chemical and physical phenomena ever can. Life is a motion in matter, +but of another order from that of the physico-chemical, though +inseparable from it. We may forego the convenient term "vital force." +Modern science shies at the term "force." We must have force or energy +or pressure of some kind to lift dead matter up into the myriad forms of +life, though in the last analysis of it it may all date from the sun. +When it builds a living body, we call it a vital force; when it builds a +gravel-bank, or moves a glacier, we call it a mechanical force; when it +writes a poem or composes a symphony, we call it a psychic force--all +distinctions which we cannot well dispense with, though of the ultimate +reality for which these terms stand we can know little. In the latest +science heat and light are not substances, though electricity is. They +are peculiar motions in matter which give rise to sensations in certain +living bodies that we name light and heat, as another peculiar motion in +matter gives rise to a sensation we call sound. Life is another kind of +motion in certain aggregates of matter--more mysterious or inexplicable +than all others because it cannot be described in terms of the others, +and because it defies the art and science of man to reproduce. + +Though the concepts "vital force" and "life principle" have no standing +in the court of modern biological science, it is interesting to observe +how often recourse is had by biological writers to terms that embody +the same idea. Thus the German physiologist Verworn, the determined +enemy of the old conception of life, in his great work on +"Irritability," has recourse to "the specific energy of living +substances." One is forced to believe that without this "specific +energy" his "living substances" would never have arisen out of the +non-living. + +Professor Moore, of Liverpool University, as I have already pointed out +while discussing the term "vital force," invents a new phrase, "biotic +energy," to explain the same phenomena. Surely a force by any other name +is no more and no less potent. Both Verworn and Moore feel the need, as +we all do, of some term, or terms, by which to explain that activity in +matter which we call vital. Other writers have referred to "a peculiar +power of synthesis" in plants and animals, which the inanimate forms do +not possess. + +Ray Lankester, to whom I have already referred in discussing this +subject, helps himself out by inventing, not a new force, but a new +substance in which he fancies "resides the peculiar property of living +matter." He calls this hypothetical substance "plasmogen," and thinks of +it as an ultimate chemical compound hidden in protoplasm. Has this +"ultimate molecule of life" any more scientific or philosophical +validity than the old conception of a vital force? It looks very much +like another name for the same thing--an attempt to give the mind +something to take hold of in dealing with the mystery of living things. +This imaginary "life-stuff" of the British scientist is entirely beyond +the reach of chemical analysis; no man has ever seen it or proved its +existence. In fact it is simply an invention of Ray Lankester to fill a +break in the sequence of observed phenomena. Something seems to possess +the power of starting or kindling that organizing activity in a living +body, and it seems to me it matters little whether we call it +"plasmogen," or a "life principle," or "biotic energy," or what not; it +surely leavens the loaf. Matter takes on new activities under its +influence. Ray Lankester thinks that plasmogen came into being in early +geologic ages, and that the conditions which led to its formation have +probably never recurred. Whether he thinks its formation was merely a +chance hit or not, he does not say. + +We see matter all about us, acted upon by the mechanico-chemical forces, +that never takes on any of the distinctive phenomena of living bodies. +Yet Verworn is convinced that if we could bring the elements of a living +body together as Nature does, in the same order and proportion, and +combine them in the selfsame way, or bring about the vital conditions, a +living being would result. Undoubtedly. It amounts to saying that if we +had Nature's power we could do what she does. _If_ we could marry the +elements as she does, and bless the banns as she seems to, we could +build a man out of a clay-bank. But clearly physics and chemistry alone, +as we know and practice them, are not equal to the task. + + +III + +One of the fundamental characteristics of life is power of adaptation; +it will adapt itself to almost any condition; it is willing and +accommodating. It is like a stream that can be turned into various +channels; the gall insects turn it into channels to suit their ends when +they sting the leaf of a tree or the stalk of a plant, and deposit an +egg in the wound. "Build me a home and a nursery for my young," says the +insect. "With all my heart," says the leaf, and forthwith forgets its +function as a leaf, and proceeds to build up a structure, often of great +delicacy and complexity, to house and cradle its enemy. The current of +life flows on blindly and takes any form imposed upon it. But in the +case of the vegetable galls it takes life to control life. Man cannot +produce these galls by artificial means. But we can take various +mechanical and chemical liberties with embryonic animal life in its +lower sea-forms. Professor Loeb has fertilized the eggs of sea-urchins +by artificial means. The eggs of certain forms may be made to produce +twins by altering the constitution of the sea-water, and the twins can +be made to grow together so as to produce monstrosities by another +chemical change in the sea-water. The eyes of certain fish embryos may +be fused into a single cyclopean eye by adding magnesium chloride to the +water in which they live. Loeb says, "It is _a priori_ obvious that an +unlimited number of pathological variations might be produced by a +variation in the concentration and constitution of the sea water, and +experience confirms this statement." It has been found that when frog's +eggs are turned upside down and compressed between two glass plates for +a number of hours, some of the eggs give rise to twins. Professor Morgan +found that if he destroyed half of a frog's egg after the first +segmentation, the remaining half gave rise to half an embryo, but that +if he put the half-egg upside down, and compressed it between two glass +plates, he got a perfect embryo frog of half the normal size. Such +things show how plastic and adaptive life is. Dr. Carrel's experiments +with living animal tissue immersed in a proper mother-liquid illustrate +how the vital process--cell-multiplication--may be induced to go on and +on, blindly, aimlessly, for an almost indefinite time. The cells +multiply, but they do not organize themselves into a constructive +community and build an organ or any purposeful part. They may be likened +to a lot of blind masons piling up brick and mortar without any +architect to direct their work or furnish them a plan. A living body of +the higher type is not merely an association of cells; it is an +association and cooeperation of communities of cells, each community +working to a definite end and building an harmonious whole. The +biochemist who would produce life in the laboratory has before him the +problem of compounding matter charged with this organizing tendency or +power, and doubtless if he ever should evoke this mysterious process +through his chemical reactions, it would possess this power, as this is +what distinguishes the organic from the inorganic. + +I do not see mind or intelligence in the inorganic world in the sense in +which I see it in the organic. In the heavens one sees power, vastness, +sublimity, unspeakable, but one sees only the physical laws working on a +grander scale than on the earth. Celestial mechanics do not differ from +terrestrial mechanics, however tremendous and imposing the result of +their activities. But in the humblest living thing--in a spear of grass +by the roadside, in a gnat, in a flea--there lurks a greater mystery. In +an animate body, however small, there abides something of which we get +no trace in the vast reaches of astronomy, a kind of activity that is +incalculable, indeterminate, and super-mechanical, not lawless, but +making its own laws, and escaping from the iron necessity that rules in +the inorganic world. + +Our mathematics and our science can break into the circle of the +celestial and the terrestrial forces, and weigh and measure and separate +them, and in a degree understand them; but the forces of life defy our +analysis as well as our synthesis. + +Knowing as we do all the elements that make up the body and brain of a +man, all the physiological processes, and all the relations and +interdependence of his various organs, if, in addition, we knew all his +inheritances, his whole ancestry back to the primordial cells from which +he sprang, and if we also knew that of every person with whom he comes +in contact and who influences his life, could we forecast his future, +predict the orbit in which his life would revolve, indicate its +eclipses, its perturbations, and the like, as we do that of an +astronomic body? or could we foresee his affinities and combinations as +we do that of a chemical body? Had we known any of the animal forms in +his line of ascent, could we have foretold man as we know him to-day? +Could we have foretold the future of any form of life from its remote +beginnings? Would our mathematics and our chemistry have been of any +avail in our dealing with such a problem? Biology is not in the same +category with geology and astronomy. In the inorganic world, chemical +affinity builds up and pulls down. It integrates the rocks and, under +changed conditions, it disintegrates them. In the organic world chemical +affinity is equally active, but it plays a subordinate part. It neither +builds up nor pulls down. Vital activities, if we must shun the term +"vital force," do both. Barring accidents, the life of all organisms is +terminated by other organisms. In the order of nature, life destroys +life, and compounds destroy compounds. When the air and soil and water +hold no invisible living germs, organic bodies never decay. It is not +the heat that begets putrefaction, but germs in the air. Sufficient heat +kills the germs, but what disintegrates the germs and reduces them to +dust? Other still smaller organisms? and so on _ad infinitum_? Does the +sequence of life have no end? The destruction of one chemical compound +means the formation of other chemical compounds; chemical affinity +cannot be annulled, but the activity we call vital is easily arrested. A +living body can be killed, but a chemical body can only be changed into +another chemical body. + +The least of living things, I repeat, holds a more profound mystery than +all our astronomy and our geology hold. It introduces us to activities +which our mathematics do not help us to deal with. Our science can +describe the processes of a living body, and name all the material +elements that enter into it, but it cannot tell us in what the peculiar +activity consists, or just what it is that differentiates living matter +from non-living. Its analysis reveals no difference. But this difference +consists in something beyond the reach of chemistry and of physics; it +is active intelligence, the power of self-direction, of self-adjustment, +of self-maintenance, of adapting means to an end. It is notorious that +the hand cannot always cover the flea; this atom has will, and knows +the road to safety. Behold what our bodies know over and above what we +know! Professor Czapek reveals to us a chemist at work in the body who +proceeds precisely like the chemist in his laboratory; they might both +have graduated at the same school. Thus the chemist in the laboratory is +accustomed to dissolve the substance which is to be used in an +experiment to react on other substances. The chemical course in living +cells is the same. All substances destined for reactions are first +dissolved. No compound is taken up in living cells before it is +dissolved. Digestion is essentially identical with dissolving or +bringing into a liquid state. On the other hand, when the chemist wishes +to preserve a living substance from chemical change, he transfers it +from a state of solution into a solid state. The chemist in the living +body does the same thing. Substances which are to be stored up, such as +starch, fat, or protein bodies, are deposited in insoluble form, ready +to be dissolved and used whenever wanted for the life processes. +Poisonous substances are eliminated from living bodies by the same +process of precipitation. Oxalic acid is a product of oxidation in +living cells, and has strong poisonous properties. To get rid of it, the +chemist inside the body, by the aid of calcium salts, forms insoluble +compounds of it, and thus casts it out. To separate substances from each +other by filtration, or by shaking with suitable liquids, is one of the +daily tasks of the chemist. Analogous processes occur regularly in +living cells. Again, when the chemist wishes to finish his filtration +quickly, he uses filters which have a large surface. "In living +protoplasms, this condition is very well fulfilled by the foam-like +structure which affords an immense surface in a very small space." In +the laboratory the chemist mixes his substances by stirring. The body +chemist achieves the same result by the streaming of protoplasm. The +cells know what they want, and how to attain it, as clearly as the +chemist does. The intelligence of the living body, or what we must call +such for want of a better term, is shown in scores of ways--by the means +it takes to protect itself against microbes, by the antitoxins that it +forms. Indeed, if we knew all that our bodies know, what mysteries would +be revealed to us! + + +IV + +Life goes up-stream--goes against the tendency to a static equilibrium +in matter; decay and death go down. What is it in the body that +struggles against poisons and seeks to neutralize their effects? What is +it that protects the body against a second attack of certain diseases, +making it immune? Chemical changes, undoubtedly, but what brings about +the chemical changes? The body is a _colony_ of living units called +cells, that behaves much like a colony of insects when it takes measures +to protect itself against its enemies. The body forms anti-toxins when +it has to. It knows how to do it as well as bees know how to ventilate +the hive, or how to seal up or entomb the grub of an invading moth. +Indeed, how much the act of the body, in encysting a bullet in its +tissues, is like the act of the bees in encasing with wax a worm in the +combs! + +What is that in the body which at great altitudes increases the number +of red corpuscles in the blood, those oxygen-bearers, so as to make up +for the lessened amount of oxygen breathed by reason of the rarity of +the air? Under such conditions, the amount of haemoglobin is almost +doubled. I do not call this thing a force; I call it an +intelligence--the intelligence that pervades the body and all animate +nature, and does the right thing at the right time. We, no doubt, speak +too loosely of it when we say that it prompts or causes the body to do +this, or to do that; it _is_ the body; the relation of the two has no +human analogy; the two are one. + +Man breaks into the circuit of the natural inorganic forces and arrests +them and controls them, and makes them do his work--turn his wheels, +drive his engines, run his errands, etc.; but he cannot do this in the +same sense with the organic forces; he cannot put a spell upon the pine +tree and cause it to build him a house or a nursery. Only the insects +can do a thing like that; only certain insects can break into the +circuit of vegetable life and divert its forces to serve their special +ends. One kind of an insect stings a bud or a leaf of the oak, and the +tree forthwith grows a solid nutlike protuberance the size of a +chestnut, in which the larvae of the insect live and feed and mature. +Another insect stings the same leaf and produces the common oak-apple--a +smooth, round, green, shell-like body filled with a network of radiating +filaments, with the egg and then the grub of the insect at the centre. +Still another kind of insect stings the oak bud and deposits its eggs +there, and the oak proceeds to grow a large white ball made up of a kind +of succulent vegetable wool with red spots evenly distributed over its +surface, as if it were some kind of spotted fruit or flower. In June, it +is about the size of a small apple. Cut it in half and you find scores +of small shell-like growths radiating from the bud-stem, like the seeds +of the dandelion, each with a kind of vegetable pappus rising from it, +and together making up the ball as the pappus of the dandelion seeds +makes up the seed-globe of this plant. It is one of the most singular +vegetable products, or vegetable perversions, that I know of. A sham +fruit filled with sham seeds; each seed-like growth contains a grub, +which later in the season pupates and eats its way out, a winged insect. +How foreign to anything we know as mechanical or chemical it all +is!--the surprising and incalculable tricks of life! + +Another kind of insect stings the oak leaf and there develops a pale, +smooth, solid, semi-transparent sphere, the size of a robin's egg, dense +and succulent like the flesh of an apple, with the larvae of the insect +subsisting in its interior. Each of these widely different forms is +evoked from the oak leaf by the magic of an insect's ovipositor. +Chemically, the constituents of all of them are undoubtedly the same. + +It is one of the most curious and suggestive things in living nature. It +shows how plastic and versatile life is, and how utterly unmechanical. +Life plays so many and such various tunes upon the same instruments; or +rather, the living organism is like many instruments in one; the tones +of all instruments slumber in it to be awakened when the right performer +appears. At least four different insects get four different tunes, so to +speak, out of the oak leaf. + +Certain insects avail themselves of the animal organism also and go +through their cycle of development and metamorphosis within its tissues +or organs in a similar manner. + + +V + +On the threshold of the world of living organisms stands that wonderful +minute body, the cell, the unit of life--a piece of self-regulating and +self-renewing mechanism that holds the key to all the myriads of living +forms that fill the world, from the amoeba up to man. For chemistry +to produce the cell is apparently as impossible as for it to produce a +bird's egg, or a living flower, or the heart and brain of man. The body +is a communal state made up of myriads of cells that all work together +to build up and keep going the human personality. There is the same +cooeperation and division of labor that takes place in the civic state, +and in certain insect communities. As in the social and political +organism, thousands of the citizen cells die every day and new cells of +the same kind take their place. Or, it is like an army in battle being +constantly recruited--as fast as a soldier falls another takes his +place, till the whole army is changed, and yet remains the same. The +waste is greatest at the surface of the body through the skin, and +through the stomach and lungs. The worker cells, namely, the tissue +cells, like the worker bees in the hive, pass away the most rapidly; +then, according to Haeckel, there are certain constants, certain cells +that remain throughout life. "There is always a solid groundwork of +conservative cells, the descendants of which secure the further +regeneration." The traditions of the state are kept up by the +citizen-cells that remain, so that, though all is changed in time, the +genius of the state remains; the individuality of the man is not lost. +"The sense of personal identity is maintained across the flight of +molecules," just as it is maintained in the state or nation, by the +units that remain, and by the established order. There is an unwritten +constitution, a spirit that governs, like Maeterlinck's "spirit of the +hive." The traditions of the body are handed down from mother cell to +daughter cell, though just what that means in terms of physiology or +metabolism I do not know. But this we know--that you are you and I am I, +and that human life and personality can never be fully explained or +accounted for in terms of the material forces. + + + + +VIII + +LIFE AND SCIENCE + +I + + +The limited and peculiar activity which arises in matter and which we +call vital; which comes and goes; which will not stay to be analyzed; +which we in vain try to reproduce in our laboratories; which is +inseparable from chemistry and physics, but which is not summed up by +them; which seems to use them and direct them to new ends,--an entity +which seems to have invaded the kingdom of inert matter at some definite +time in the earth's history, and to have set up an insurgent movement +there; cutting across the circuits of the mechanical and chemical +forces; turning them about, pitting one against the other; availing +itself of gravity, of chemical affinity, of fluids and gases, of osmosis +and exosmosis, of colloids, of oxidation and hydration, and yet +explicable by none of these things; clothing itself with garments of +warmth and color and perfume woven from the cold, insensate elements; +setting up new activities in matter; building up myriads of new unstable +compounds; struggling against the tendency of the physical forces to a +dead equilibrium; indeterminate, intermittent, fugitive; limited in +time, limited in space; present in some worlds, absent from others; +breaking up the old routine of the material forces, and instituting new +currents, new tendencies; departing from the linear activities of the +inorganic, and setting up the circular activities of living currents; +replacing change by metamorphosis, revolution by evolution, accretion by +secretion, crystallization by cell-formation, aggregation by growth; +and, finally, introducing a new power into the world--the mind and soul +of man--this wonderful, and apparently transcendental something which we +call life--how baffling and yet how fascinating is the inquiry into its +nature and origin! Are we to regard it as Tyndall did, and as others +before and since his time did and do, as potential in the constitution +of matter, and self-evolved, like the chemical compounds that are +involved in its processes? + +As mechanical energy is latent in coal, and in all combustible bodies, +is vital energy latent in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and so forth, +needing only the right conditions to bring it out? Mechanical energy is +convertible into electrical energy, and _vice versa_. Indeed, the circle +of the physical forces is easily traced, easily broken into, but when or +how these forces merge into the vital and psychic forces, or support +them, or become them--there is the puzzle. If we limit the natural to +the inorganic order, then are living bodies supernatural? +Super-mechanical and super-chemical certainly, and chemics and +mechanics and electro-statics include all the material forces. Is life +outside this circle? It is certain that this circle does not always +include life, but can life exist outside this circle? When it appears it +is always inside it. + +Science can only deal with life as a physical phenomenon; as a psychic +phenomenon it is beyond its scope, except so far as the psychic is +manifested through the physical. Not till it has produced living matter +from dead can it speak with authority upon the question of the origin of +life. Its province is limited to the description and analysis of life +processes, but when it essays to name what institutes the processes, or +to disclose the secret of organization, it becomes philosophy or +theology. When Haeckel says that life originated spontaneously, he does +not speak with the authority of science, because he cannot prove his +assertion; it is his opinion, and that is all. When Helmholtz says that +life had no beginning, he is in the same case. When our later +biophysicists say that life is of physico-chemical origin, they are in +the same case; when Tyndall says that there is no energy in the universe +but solar energy, he is in the same case; when Sir Oliver Lodge says +that life is an entity outside of and independent of matter, he is in +the same case. Philosophy and theology can take leaps in the dark, but +science must have solid ground to go upon. When it speculates or +theorizes, it must make its speculations good. Scientific prophecy is +amenable to the same tests as other prophecy. In the absence of proof by +experiment--scientific proof--to get the living out of the non-living we +have either got to conceive of matter itself as fundamentally creative, +as the new materialism assumes, or else we have got to have an external +Creator, as the old theology assumes. And the difference is more +apparent than real. Tyndall is "baffled and bewildered" by the fact that +out of its molecular vibrations and activities "things so utterly +incongruous with them as sensation, thought, and emotion can be +derived." His science is baffled and bewildered because it cannot, bound +as it is by the iron law of the conservation and correlation of energy, +trace the connection between them. But his philosophy or his theology +would experience little difficulty. Henri Bergson shows no hesitation in +declaring that the fate of consciousness is not involved in the fate of +the brain through which it is manifested, but it is his philosophy and +not his science that inspires this faith. Tyndall deifies matter to get +life out of it--makes the creative energy potential in it. Bergson +deifies or spiritualizes life as a psychic, creative principle, and +makes matter its instrument or vehicle. + +Science is supreme in its own sphere, the sphere, or hemisphere, of the +objective world, but it does not embrace the whole of human life, +because human life is made up of two spheres, or hemispheres, one of +which is the subjective world. There is a world within us also, the +world of our memories, thoughts, emotions, aspirations, imaginings, +which overarches the world of our practical lives and material +experience, as the sky overarches the earth. It is in the spirit of +science that we conquer and use the material world in which we live; it +is in the spirit of art and literature, philosophy and religion, that we +explore and draw upon the immaterial world of our own hearts and souls. +Of course the man of science is also a philosopher--may I not even say +he is also a prophet and poet? Not otherwise could he organize his +scientific facts and see their due relations, see their drift and the +sequence of forces that bind the universe into a whole. As a man of +science he traces out the causes of the tides and the seasons, the +nature and origin of disease, and a thousand and one other things; but +only as a philosopher can he see the body as a whole and speculate about +the mystery of its organization; only as a philosopher can he frame +theories and compare values and interpret the phenomena he sees about +him. + + +II + +We can only know, in the scientific sense, the physical and chemical +phenomena of life; its essence, its origin, we can only know as +philosophy and idealism know them. We have to turn philosophers when we +ask any ultimate question. The feeling we have that the scientific +conception of life is inadequate springs from the philosophical habit of +mind. Yet this habit is quite as legitimate as the scientific habit, and +is bound to supplement the latter all through life. + +The great men of science, like Darwin and Huxley, are philosophers in +their theories and conclusions, and men of science in their observations +and experiments. The limitations of science in dealing with such a +problem are seen in the fact that science can take no step till it has +life to begin with. When it has got the living body, it can analyze its +phenomena and reduce them to their chemical and physical equivalents, +and thus persuade itself that the secret of life may yet be hit upon in +the laboratory. Professor Czapek, of the University of Prague, in his +work on "The Chemical Phenomena of Life" speaks for science when he +says, "What we call life is nothing else but a complex of innumerable +chemical reactions in the living substance which we call protoplasm." +The "living substance" is assumed to begin with, and then we are told +that the secret of its living lies in its chemical and physical +processes. This is in one sense true. No doubt at all that if these +processes were arrested, life would speedily end, but do they alone +account for its origin? Is it not like accounting for a baby in terms of +its breathing and eating? It was a baby before it did either, and it +would seem as if life must in some way ante-date the physical and +chemical processes that attend it, or at least be bound up in them in a +way that no scientific analysis can reveal. + +If life is merely a mode of motion in matter, it is fundamentally unlike +any and all other modes of motion, because, while we can institute all +the others at will, we are powerless to institute this. The mode of +motion we call heat is going on in varying degrees of velocity all about +us at all times and seasons, but the vital motion of matter is limited +to a comparatively narrow circle. We can end it, but we cannot start it. + +The rigidly scientific type of mind sees no greater mystery in the +difference in contour of different animal bodies than a mere difference +in the density of the germ cells: "one density results in a sequence of +cell-densities to form a horse; another a dog; another a cat"; and avers +that if we "repeat the same complex conditions, the same results are as +inevitable as the sequences of forces that result in the formation of +hydrogen monoxide from hydrogen and oxygen." + +Different degrees of density may throw light on the different behavior +of gases and fluids and solids, but can it throw any light on the +question of why a horse is a horse, and a dog a dog? or why one is an +herbivorous feeder, and the other a carnivorous? + +The scientific explanation of life phenomena is analogous to reducing a +living body to its ashes and pointing to them--the lime, the iron, the +phosphorus, the hydrogen, the oxygen, the carbon, the nitrogen--as the +whole secret. + +Professor Czapek is not entirely consistent. He says that it is his +conviction that there is something in physiology that transcends the +chemistry and the physics of inorganic nature. At the same time he +affirms, "It becomes more and more improbable that Life develops forces +which are unknown in inanimate Nature." But psychic forces are a product +of life, and they certainly are not found in inanimate nature. But +without laying stress upon this fact, may we not say that if no new +force is developed by, or is characteristic of, life, certainly new +effects, new processes, new compounds of matter are produced by life? +Matter undergoes some change that chemical analysis does not reveal. The +mystery of isomeric substances appears, a vast number of new compounds +of carbon appear, the face of the earth changes. The appearance of life +in inert matter is a change analogous to the appearance of the mind of +man in animate nature. The old elements and forces are turned to new and +higher uses. Man does not add to the list of forces or elements in the +earth, but he develops them, and turns them to new purposes; they now +obey and serve him, just as the old chemistry and physics obey and +serve life. Czapek tells us of the vast number of what are called +enzymes, or ferments, that appear in living bodies--"never found in +inorganic Nature and not to be gained by chemical synthesis." Orders and +suborders of enzymes, they play a part in respiration, in digestion, in +assimilation. Some act on the fats, some on the carbohydrates, some +produce inversion, others dissolution and precipitation. These enzymes +are at once the products and the agents of life. They must exert force, +chemical force, or, shall we say, they transform chemical force into +life force, or, to use Professor Moore's term, into "biotic energy"? + + +III + +The inorganic seems dreaming of the organic. Behold its dreams in the +fern and tree forms upon the window pane and upon the stone flagging of +a winter morning! In the Brunonian movement of matter in solution, in +crystallization, in chemical affinity, in polarity, in osmosis, in the +growth of flint or chert nodules, in limestone formations--like seeking +like--in these and in other activities, inert matter seems dreaming of +life. + +The chemists have played upon this tendency in the inorganic to parody +or simulate some of the forms of living matter. A noted European +chemist, Dr. Leduc, has produced what he calls "osmotic growths," from +purely unorganized mineral matter--growths in form like seaweed and +polyps and corals and trees. His seeds are fragments of calcium +chloride, and his soil is a solution of the alkaline carbonates, +phosphates, or silicates. When his seeds are sown in these solutions, we +see inert matter germinating, "putting forth bud and stem and root and +branch and leaf and fruit," precisely as in the living vegetable +kingdom. It is not a growth by accretion, as in crystallization, but by +intussusception, as in life. These ghostly things exhibit the phenomena +of circulation and respiration and nutrition, and a crude sort of +reproduction by budding; they repair their injuries, and are able to +perform periodic movements, just as does an animal or a plant; they have +a period of vigorous youthful growth, of old age, of decay, and of +death. In form, in color, in texture, and in cell structure, they +imitate so closely the cell structures of organic growth as to suggest +something uncanny or diabolical. And yet the author of them does not +claim that they are alive. They are not edible, they contain no +protoplasm--no starch or sugar or peptone or fats or carbohydrates. +These chemical creations by Dr. Leduc are still dead matter--dead +colloids--only one remove from crystallization; on the road to life, +fore-runners of life, but not life. If he could set up the +chlorophyllian process in his chemical reactions among inorganic +compounds, the secret of life would be in his hands. But only the green +leaf can produce chlorophyll; and yet, which was first, the leaf or the +chlorophyll? + +Professor Czapek is convinced that "some substances must exist in +protoplasm which are directly responsible for the life processes," and +yet the chemists cannot isolate and identify those substances. + +How utterly unmechanical a living body is, at least how far it +transcends mere mechanics is shown by what the chemists call +"autolysis." Pulverize your watch, and you have completely destroyed +everything that made it a watch except the dead matter; but pulverize or +reduce to a pulp a living plant, and though you have destroyed all cell +structure, you have not yet destroyed the living substance; you have +annihilated the mechanism, but you have not killed the something that +keeps up the life process. Protoplasm takes time to die, but your +machine stops instantly, and its elements are no more potent in a new +machine than they were at first. "In the pulp prepared by grinding down +living organisms in a mortar, some vital phenomena continue for a long +time." The life processes cease, and the substances or elements of the +dead body remain as before. Their chemical reactions are the same. There +is no new chemistry, no new mechanics, no new substance in a live body, +but there is a new tendency or force or impulse acting in matter, +inspiring it, so to speak, to new ends. It is here that idealism parts +company with exact science. It is here that the philosophers go one +way, and the rigid scientists the other. It is from this point of view +that the philosophy of Henri Bergson, based so largely as it is upon +scientific material, has been so bitterly assailed from the scientific +camp. + +The living cell is a wonderful machine, but if we ask which is first, +life or the cell, where are we? There is the synthetical reaction in the +cell, and the analytical or splitting reaction--the organizing, and the +disorganizing processes--what keeps up this seesaw and preserves the +equilibrium? A life force, said the older scientists; only chemical +laws, say the new. A prodigious change in the behavior of matter is +wrought by life, and whether we say it is by chemical laws, or by a life +force, the mystery remains. + +The whole secret of life centres in the cell, in the plant cell; and +this cell does not exceed .005 millimetres in diameter. An enormous +number of chemical reactions take place in this minute space. It is a +world in little. Here are bodies of different shapes whose service is to +absorb carbon dioxide, and form sugar and carbohydrates. Must we go +outside of matter itself, and of chemical reactions, to account for it? +Call this unknown factor "vital force," as has so long been done, or +name it "biotic energy," as Professor Moore has lately done, and the +mystery remains the same. It is a new behavior in matter, call it by +what name we will. + +Inanimate nature seems governed by definite laws; that is, given the +same conditions, the same results always follow. The reactions between +two chemical elements under the same conditions are always the same. The +physical forces go their unchanging ways, and are variable only as the +conditions vary. In dealing with them we know exactly what to expect. We +know at what degree of temperature, under the same conditions, water +will boil, and at what degree of temperature it will freeze. Chance and +probability play no part in such matters. But when we reach the world of +animate nature, what a contrast we behold! Here, within certain limits, +all is in perpetual flux and change. Living bodies are never two moments +the same. Variability is the rule. We never know just how a living body +will behave, under given conditions, till we try it. A late spring frost +may kill nearly every bean stalk or potato plant or hill of corn in your +garden, or nearly every shoot upon your grapevine. The survivors have +greater powers of resistance--a larger measure of that mysterious +something we call vitality. One horse will endure hardships and +exposures that will kill scores of others. What will agitate one +community will not in the same measure agitate another. What will break +or discourage one human heart will sit much more lightly upon another. +Life introduces an element of uncertainty or indeterminateness that we +do not find in the inorganic world. Bodies still have their laws or +conditions of activity, but they are elastic and variable. Among living +things we have in a measure escaped from the iron necessity that holds +the world of dead matter in its grip. Dead matter ever tends to a static +equilibrium; living matter to a dynamic poise, or a balance between the +intake and the output of energy. Life is a peculiar activity in matter. +If the bicyclist stops, his wheel falls down; no mechanical contrivance +could be devised that could take his place on the wheel, and no +combination of purely chemical and physical forces can alone do with +matter what life does with it. The analogy here hinted at is only +tentative. I would not imply that the relation of life to matter is +merely mechanical and external, like that of the rider to his wheel. In +life, the rider and his wheel are one, but when life vanishes, the wheel +falls down. The chemical and physical activity of matter is perpetual; +with a high-power microscope we may see the Brunonian movement in +liquids and gases any time and at all times, but the movement we call +vitality dominates these and turns them to new ends. I suppose the +nature of the activity of the bombarding molecules of gases and liquids +is the same in our bodies as out; that turmoil of the particles goes on +forever; it is, in itself, blind, fateful, purposeless; but life +furnishes, or _is_, an organizing principle that brings order and +purpose out of this chaos. It does not annul any of the mechanical or +chemical principles, but under its tutelage or inspiration they produce +a host of new substances, and a world of new and beautiful and wonderful +forms. + + +IV + +Bergson says the intellect is characterized by a natural inability to +understand life. Certain it is, I think, that science alone cannot grasp +its mystery. We must finally appeal to philosophy; we must have recourse +to ideal values--to a non-scientific or super-scientific principle. We +cannot live intellectually or emotionally upon science alone. Science +reveals to us the relations and inter-dependence of things in the +physical world and their relations to our physical well-being; +philosophy reveals their relations to our mental and spiritual life, +their meanings and their ideal values. Poor, indeed, is the man who has +no philosophy, no commanding outlook over the tangles and contradictions +of the world of sense. There is probably some unknown and unknowable +factor involved in the genesis of life, but that that factor or +principle does not belong to the natural, universal order is +unthinkable. Yet to fail to see that what we must call intelligence +pervades and is active in all organic nature is to be spiritually blind. +But to see it as something foreign to or separable from nature is to do +violence to our faith in the constancy and sufficiency of the natural +order. One star differeth from another in glory. There are degrees of +mystery in the universe. The most mystifying thing in inorganic nature +is electricity,--that disembodied energy that slumbers in the ultimate +particles of matter, unseen, unfelt, unknown, till it suddenly leaps +forth with such terrible vividness and power on the face of the storm, +or till we summon it through the transformation of some other form of +energy. A still higher and more inscrutable mystery is life, that +something which clothes itself in each infinitely varied and beautiful +as well as unbeautiful form of matter. We can evoke electricity at will +from many different sources, but we can evoke life only from other life; +the biogenetic law is inviolable. + +Professor Soddy says, "Natural philosophy may explain a rainbow but not +a rabbit." There is no secret about a rainbow; we can produce it at will +out of perfectly colorless beginnings. "But nothing but rabbits will or +can produce a rabbit, a proof again that we cannot say what a rabbit is, +though we may have a perfect knowledge of every anatomical and +microscopic detail." + +To regard life as of non-natural origin puts it beyond the sphere of +legitimate inquiry; to look upon it as of natural origin, or as bound in +a chain of chemical sequences, as so many late biochemists do, is still +to put it where our science cannot unlock the mystery. If we should ever +succeed in producing living matter in our laboratories, it would not +lessen the mystery any more than the birth of a baby in the household +lessens the mystery of generation. It only brings it nearer home. + + +V + +What is peculiar to organic nature is the living cell. Inside the cell, +doubtless, the same old chemistry and physics go on--the same universal +law of the transformation of energy is operative. In its minute compass +the transmutation of the inorganic into the organic, which constitutes +what Tyndall called "the miracle and the mystery of vitality," is +perpetually enacted. But what is the secret of the cell itself? Science +is powerless to tell us. You may point out to your heart's content that +only chemical and physical forces are discoverable in living matter; +that there is no element or force in a plant that is not in the stone +beside which it grew, or in the soil in which it takes root; and yet, +until your chemistry and your physics will enable you to produce the +living cell, or account for its mysterious self-directed activities, +your science avails not. "Living cells," says a late European authority, +"possess most effective means to accelerate reactions and to cause +surprising chemical results." + +Behold the four principal elements forming stones and soils and water +and air for whole geologic or astronomic ages, and then behold them +forming plants and animals, and finally forming the brains that give us +art and literature and philosophy and modern civilization. What prompted +the elements to this new and extraordinary behavior? Science is dumb +before such a question. + +Living bodies are immersed in physical conditions as in a sea. External +agencies--light, moisture, air, gravity, mechanical and chemical +influences--cause great changes in them; but their power to adapt +themselves to these changes, and profit by them, remains unexplained. +Are morphological processes identical with chemical ones? + +In the inorganic world we everywhere see mechanical adjustment, repose, +stability, equilibrium, through the action and interaction of outward +physical forces; a natural bridge is a striking example of the action of +blind mechanical forces among the rocks. In the organic world we see +living adaptation which involves a non-mechanical principle. An +adjustment is an outward fitting together of parts; an adaptation +implies something flowing, unstable, plastic, compromising; it is a +moulding process; passivity on one side, and activity on the other. +Living things struggle; they struggle up as well as down; they struggle +all round the circle, while the pull of dead matter is down only. + +Behold what a good chemist a plant is! With what skill it analyzes the +carbonic acid in the air, retaining the carbon and returning the oxygen +to the atmosphere! Then the plant can do what no chemist has yet been +able to do; it can manufacture chlorophyll, a substance which is the +basis of all life on the globe. Without chlorophyll (the green substance +in plants) the solar energy could not be stored up in the vegetable +world. Chlorophyll makes the plant, and the plant makes chlorophyll. To +ask which is first is to call up the old puzzle, Which is first, the +egg, or the hen that laid it? + +According to Professor Soddy, the engineer's unit of power, that of the +British cart-horse, has to be multiplied many times in a machine before +it can do the work of a horse. He says that a car which two horses used +to pull, it now takes twelve or fifteen engine-horse to pull. The +machine horse belongs to a different order. He does not respond to the +whip; he has no nervous system; he has none of the mysterious reserve +power which a machine built up of living cells seems to possess; he is +inelastic, non-creative, non-adaptive; he cannot take advantage of the +ground; his pull is a dead, unvarying pull. Living energy is elastic, +adaptive, self-directive, and suffers little loss through friction, or +through imperfect adjustment of the parts. A live body converts its fuel +into energy at a low temperature. One of the great problems of the +mechanics of the future is to develop electricity or power directly from +fuel and thus cut out the enormous loss of eighty or ninety per cent +which we now suffer. The growing body does this all the time; life +possesses this secret; the solar energy stored up in fuel suffers no +loss in being transformed into work by the animal mechanism. + +Soddy asks whether or not the minute cells of the body may not have the +power of taking advantage of the difference in temperature of the +molecules bombarding them, and thus of utilizing energy that is beyond +the capacity of the machinery of the motor-car. Man can make no machine +that can avail itself of the stores of energy in the uniform temperature +of the earth or air or water, or that can draw upon the potential energy +of the atoms, but it may be that the living cell can do this, and thus a +horse can pull more than a one-horse-power engine. Soddy makes the +suggestive inquiry: "If life begins in a single cell, does intelligence? +does the physical distinction between living and dead matter begin in +the jostling molecular crowd? Inanimate molecules, in all their +movements, obey the law of probability, the law which governs the +successive falls of a true die. In the presence of a rudimentary +intelligence, do they still follow that law, or do they now obey another +law--the law of a die that is loaded?" In a machine the energy of fuel +has first to be converted into heat before it is available, but in a +living machine the chemical energy of food undergoes direct +transformation into work, and the wasteful heat-process is cut off. + + +VI + +Professor Soddy, in discussing the relation of life to energy, does not +commit himself to the theory of the vitalistic or non-mechanical origin +of life, but makes the significant statement that there is a consensus +of opinion that the life processes are not bound by the second law of +thermo-dynamics, namely, the law of the non-availability of the energy +latent in low temperatures, or in the chaotic movements of molecules +everywhere around us. To get energy, one must have a fall or an incline +of some sort, as of water from a higher to a lower level, or of +temperature from a higher to a lower degree, or of electricity from one +condition of high stress to another less so. But the living machine +seems able to dispense with this break or incline, or else has the +secret of creating one for itself. + +In the living body the chemical energy of food is directly transformed +into work, without first being converted into heat. Why a horse can do +more work than a one-horse-power engine is probably because his living +cells can and do draw upon this molecular energy. Molecules of matter +outside the living body all obey the law of probability, or the law of +chance; but inside the living body they at least seem to obey some other +law--the law of design, or of dice that are loaded, as Soddy says. They +are more likely always to act in a particular way. Life supplies a +directing agency. Soddy asks if the physical distinction between living +and dead matter begins in the jostling molecular crowd--begins by the +crowd being directed and governed in a particular way. If so, by what? +Ah! that is the question. Science will have none of it, because science +would have to go outside of matter for such an agent, and that science +cannot do. Such a theory implies intelligence apart from matter, or +working in matter. Is that a hard proposition? Intelligence clearly +works in our bodies and brains, and in those of all the animals--a +controlled and directed activity in matter that seems to be life. The +cell which builds up all living bodies behaves not like a machine, but +like a living being; its activities, so far as we can judge, are +spontaneous, its motions and all its other processes are self-prompted. +But, of course, in it the mechanical, the chemical, and the vital are so +blended, so interdependent, that we may never hope to separate them; but +without the activity called vital, there would be no cell, and hence no +body. + +It were unreasonable to expect that scientific analysis should show that +the physics and chemistry of a living body differs from that of the +non-living. What is new and beyond the reach of science to explain is +the _kind of activity_ of these elements. They enter into new compounds; +they build up bodies that have new powers and properties; they people +the seas and the air and the earth with living creatures, they build +the body and brain of man. The secret of the activity in matter that we +call vital is certainly beyond the power of science to tell us. It is +like expecting that the paint and oil used in a great picture must +differ from those in a daub. The great artist mixed his paint with +brains, and the universal elements in a living body are mixed with +something that science cannot disclose. Organic chemistry does not +differ intrinsically from inorganic; the difference between the two lies +in the purposive activity of the elements that build up a living body. + +Or is life, as a New England college professor claims, "an _x_-entity, +additional to matter and energy, but of the same cosmic rank as they," +and "manifesting itself to our senses only through its power to keep a +certain quantity of matter and energy in the continuous orderly ferment +we call life"? + +I recall that Huxley said that there was a third reality in this +universe besides matter and energy, and this third reality was +consciousness. But neither the "_x_-entity" of Professor Ganong nor the +"consciousness" of Huxley can be said to be of the same cosmic rank as +matter and energy, because they do not pervade the universe as matter +and energy do. These forces abound throughout all space and endure +throughout all time, but life and consciousness are flitting and +uncertain phenomena of matter. A prick of a pin, or a blow from a +hammer, may destroy both. Unless we consider them as potential in all +matter (and who shall say that they are not?) may we look upon them as +of cosmic rank? + +It is often urged that it is not the eye that sees, or the brain that +thinks, but something in them. But it is something in them that never +went into them; it arose in them. It is the living eye and the living +brain that do the seeing and the thinking. When the life activity +ceases, these organs cease to see and to think. Their activity is kept +up by certain physiological processes in the organs of the body, and to +ask what keeps up these is like the puppy trying to overtake its own +tail, or to run a race with its own shadow. + +The brain is not merely the organ of the mind in an external and +mechanical sense; it is the mind. When we come to living things, all +such analogies fail us. Life is not a thing; thought is not a thing; but +rather the effect of a certain activity in matter, which mind alone can +recognize. When we try to explain or account for that which we are, it +is as if a man were trying to lift himself. + +Life seems like something apart. It does not seem to be amenable to the +law of the correlation and conservation of forces. You cannot transform +it into heat or light or electricity. The force which a man extracts +from the food he eats while he is writing a poem, or doing any other +mental work, seems lost to the universe. The force which the engine, or +any machine, uses up, reappears as work done, or as heat or light or +some other physical manifestation. But the energy of foodstuffs which a +man uses up in a mental effort does not appear again in the circuit of +the law of the conservation of energy. A man uses up more energy in his +waking moments, though his body be passive, than in his sleeping. What +we call mental force cannot be accounted for in terms of physical force. +The sun's energy goes into our bodies through the food we eat, and so +runs our mental faculties, but how does it get back again into the +physical realm? Science does not know. + +It must be some sort of energy that lights the lamps of the firefly and +the glow-worm, and it must be some sort or degree of energy that keeps +consciousness going. The brain of a Newton, or of a Plato, must make a +larger draft on the solar energy latent in food-stuffs than the brain of +a day laborer, and his body less. The same amount of food-consumption, +or of oxidation, results in physical force in the one case, and mental +force in the other, but the mental force escapes the great law of the +equivalence of the material forces. + +John Fiske solves the problem when he drops his physical science and +takes up his philosophy, declaring that the relation of the mind to the +body is that of a musician to his instrument, and this is practically +the position of Sir Oliver Lodge. + +Inheritance and adaptation, says Haeckel, are sufficient to account for +all the variety of animal and vegetable forms on the earth. But is there +not a previous question? Do we not want inheritance and adaptation +accounted for? What mysteries they hold! Does the river-bed account for +the river? How can a body adapt itself to its environment unless it +possess an inherent, plastic, changing, and adaptive principle? A stone +does not adapt itself to its surroundings; its change is external and +not internal. There is mechanical adjustment between inert bodies, but +there is no adaptation without the push of life. A response to new +conditions by change of form implies something actively +responsive--something that profits by the change. + + +VII + +If we could tell what determines the division of labor in the hive of +bees or a colony of ants, we could tell what determines the division of +labor among the cells in the body. A hive of bees and a colony of ants +is a unit--a single organism. The spirit of the body, that which +regulates all its economies, which directs all its functions, which +cooerdinates its powers, which brings about all its adaptations, which +adjusts it to its environment, which sees to its repairs, heals its +wounds, meets its demands, provides more force when more is needed, +which makes one organ help do the work of another, which wages war on +disease germs by specific ferments, which renders us immune to this or +that disease; in fact, which carries on all the processes of our +physical life without asking leave or seeking counsel of us,--all this +is on another plane from the mechanical or chemical--super-mechanical. + +The human spirit, the brute spirit, the vegetable spirit--all are mere +names to fill a void. The spirit of the oak, the beech, the pine, the +palm--how different! how different the plan or idea or interior +economies of each, though the chemical and mechanical processes are the +same, the same mineral and gaseous elements build them up, the same sun +is their architect! But what physical principle can account for the +difference between a pine and an oak, or, for that matter, between a man +and his dog, or a bird and a fish, or a crow and a lark? What play and +action or interaction and reaction of purely chemical and mechanical +forces can throw any light on the course evolution has taken in the +animal life of the globe--why the camel is the camel, and the horse the +horse? or in the development of the nervous system, or the circulatory +system, or the digestive system, or of the eye, or of the ear? + +A living body is never in a state of chemical repose, but inorganic +bodies usually are. Take away the organism and the environment remains +essentially the same; take away the environment and the organism changes +rapidly and perishes--it goes back to the inorganic. Now, what keeps up +the constant interchange--this seesaw? The environment is permanent; the +organism is transient. The spray of the falls is permanent; the bow +comes and goes. Life struggles to appropriate the environment; a rock, +for example, does not, in the same sense, struggle with its +surroundings, it weathers passively, but a tree struggles with the +winds, and to appropriate minerals and water from the soil, and the +leaves struggle to store up the sun's energy. The body struggles to +eliminate poisons or to neutralize them; it becomes immune to certain +diseases, learns to resist them; the thing is _alive_. Organisms +struggle with one another; inert bodies clash and pulverize one another, +but do not devour one another. + +Life is a struggle between two forces, a force within and a force +without, but the force within does all the struggling. The air does not +struggle to get into the lungs, nor the lime and iron to get into our +blood. The body struggles to digest and assimilate the food; the +chlorophyll in the leaf struggles to store up the solar energy. The +environment is unaware of the organism; the light is indifferent to the +sensitized plate of the photographer. Something in the seed we plant +avails itself of the heat and the moisture. The relation is not that of +a thermometer or hygrometer to the warmth and moisture of the air; it is +a vital relation. + +Life may be called an aquatic phenomenon, because there can be no life +without water. It may be called a thermal phenomenon, because there can +be no life below or above a certain degree of temperature. It may be +called a chemical phenomenon, because there can be no life without +chemical reactions. Yet none of these things define life. We may discuss +biological facts in terms of chemistry without throwing any light on the +nature of life itself. If we say the particular essence of life is +chemical, do we mean any more than that life is inseparable from +chemical reactions? + +After we have mastered the chemistry of life, laid bare all its +processes, named all its transformations and transmutations, analyzed +the living cell, seen the inorganic pass into the organic, and beheld +chemical reaction, the chief priestess of this hidden rite, we shall +have to ask ourselves, Is chemistry the creator of life, or does life +create or use chemistry? These "chemical reaction complexes" in living +cells, as the biochemists call them, are they the cause of life, or only +the effect of life? We shall decide according to our temperaments or our +habits of thought. + + + + +IX + +THE JOURNEYING ATOMS + +I + + +Emerson confessed in his "Journal" that he could not read the +physicists; their works did not appeal to him. He was probably repelled +by their formulas and their mathematics. But add a touch of chemistry, +and he was interested. Chemistry leads up to life. He said he did not +think he would feel threatened or insulted if a chemist should take his +protoplasm, or mix his hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, and make an +animalcule incontestably swimming and jumping before his eyes. It would +be only evidence of a new degree of power over matter which man had +attained to. It would all finally redound to the glory of matter itself, +which, it appears, "is impregnated with thought and heaven, and is +really of God, and not of the Devil, as we had too hastily believed." +This conception of matter underlies the new materialism of such men as +Huxley and Tyndall. But there is much in the new physics apart from its +chemical aspects that ought to appeal to the Emersonian type of mind. +Did not Emerson in his first poem, "The Sphinx," sing of + + Journeying atoms, + Primordial wholes? + +In those ever-moving and indivisible atoms he touches the very +corner-stone of the modern scientific conception of matter. It is hardly +an exaggeration to say that in this conception we are brought into +contact with a kind of transcendental physics. A new world for the +imagination is open--a world where the laws and necessities of +ponderable bodies do not apply. The world of gross matter disappears, +and in its place we see matter dematerialized, and escaping from the +bondage of the world of tangible bodies; we see a world where friction +is abolished, where perpetual motion is no longer impossible; where two +bodies may occupy the same space at the same time; where collisions and +disruptions take place without loss of energy; where subtraction often +means more--as when the poison of a substance is rendered more virulent +by the removal of one or more atoms of one of the elements; and where +addition often means less--as when three parts of the gases of oxygen +and hydrogen unite and form only two parts of watery vapor; where mass +and form, centre and circumference, size and structure, exist without +any of the qualities ordinarily associated with these things through our +experience in a three-dimension world. We see, or contemplate, bodies +which are indivisible; if we divide them, their nature changes; if we +divide a molecule of water, we get atoms of hydrogen and oxygen gas; if +we divide a molecule of salt, we get atoms of chlorine gas and atoms of +the metal sodium, which means that we have reached a point where matter +is no longer divisible in a mechanical sense, but only in a chemical +sense; which again means that great and small, place and time, inside +and outside, dimensions and spatial relations, have lost their ordinary +meanings. Two bodies get inside of each other. To the physicist, heat +and motion are one; light is only a mechanical vibration in the ether; +sound is only a vibration in the air, which the ear interprets as sound. +The world is as still as death till the living ear comes to receive the +vibrations in the air; motion, or the energy which it implies, is the +life of the universe. + +Physics proves to us the impossibility of perpetual motion among +visible, tangible bodies, at the same time that it reveals to us a world +where perpetual motion is the rule--the world of molecules and atoms. In +the world of gross matter, or of ponderable bodies, perpetual motion is +impossible because here it takes energy, or its equivalent, to beget +energy. Friction very soon turns the kinetic energy of motion into the +potential energy of heat, which quickly disappears in that great sea of +energy, the low uniform temperature of the earth. But when we reach the +interior world of matter, the world of molecules, atoms, and electrons, +we have reached a world where perpetual motion _is_ the rule; we have +reached the fountain-head of energy, and the motion of one body is not +at the expense of the motion of some other body, but is a part of the +spontaneous struggling and jostling and vibration that go on forever in +all the matter of the universe. What is called the Brunonian movement +(first discovered by the botanist Robert Brown in 1827) is within reach +of the eye armed with a high-power microscope. Look into any liquid that +holds in suspension very small particles of solid matter, such as dust +particles in the air, or the granules of ordinary water-color paints +dissolved in water: not a single one of the particles is at rest; they +are all mysteriously agitated; they jump hither and thither; it is a +wild chaotic whirl and dance of minute particles. Brown at first thought +they were alive, but they were only non-living particles dancing to the +same tune which probably sets suns and systems whirling in the heavens. +Ramsay says that tobacco smoke confined in the small flat chamber formed +in the slide of a microscope, shows this movement, in appearance like +the flight of minute butterflies. The Brunonian movement is now believed +to be due to the bombardment of the particles by the molecules of the +liquid or gas in which they are suspended. The smaller the particles, +the livelier they are. These particles themselves are made up of a vast +number of molecules, among which the same movement or agitation, much +more intense, is supposed to be taking place; the atoms which compose +the molecules are dancing and frisking about like gnats in the air, and +the electrons inside the atoms are still more rapidly changing places. + +We meet with the same staggering figures in the science of the +infinitely little that we do in the science of the infinitely vast. Thus +the physicist deals with a quantity of matter a million million times +smaller than can be detected in the most delicate chemical balance. +Molecules inconceivably small rush about in molecular space +inconceivably small. Ramsay calculates how many collisions the molecules +of gas make with other molecules every second, which is four and one +half quintillions. This staggers the mind like the tremendous +revelations of astronomy. Mathematics has no trouble to compute the +figures, but our slow, clumsy minds feel helpless before them. In every +drop of water we drink, and in every mouthful of air we breathe, there +is a movement and collision of particles so rapid in every second of +time that it can only be expressed by four with eighteen naughts. If the +movement of these particles were attended by friction, or if the energy +of their impact were translated into heat, what hot mouthfuls we should +have! But the heat, as well as the particles, is infinitesimal, and is +not perceptible. + + +II + +The molecules and atoms and electrons into which science resolves matter +are hypothetical bodies which no human eye has ever seen, or ever can +see, but they build up the solid frame of the universe. The air and the +rocks are not so far apart in their constituents as they might seem to +our senses. The invisible and indivisible molecules of oxygen which we +breathe, and which keep our life-currents going, form about half the +crust of the earth. The soft breeze that fans and refreshes us, and the +rocks that crush us, are at least half-brothers. And herein we get a +glimpse of the magic of chemical combinations. That mysterious property +in matter which we call chemical affinity, a property beside which human +affinities and passions are tame and inconstant affairs, is the +architect of the universe. Certain elements attract certain other +elements with a fierce and unalterable attraction, and when they unite, +the resultant compound is a body totally unlike either of the +constituents. Both substances have disappeared, and a new one has taken +their place. This is the magic of chemical change. A physical change, as +of water into ice, or into steam, is a simple matter; it is merely a +matter of more or less heat; but the change of oxygen and hydrogen into +water, or of chlorine gas and the mineral sodium into common salt, is a +chemical change. In nature, chlorine and sodium are not found in a free +or separate state; they hunted each other up long ago, and united to +produce the enormous quantities of rock salt that the earth holds. One +can give his imagination free range in trying to picture what takes +place when two or more elements unite chemically, but probably there is +no physical image that can afford even a hint of it. A snake trying to +swallow himself, or two fishes swallowing each other, or two bullets +meeting in the air and each going through the centre of the other, or +the fourth dimension, or almost any other impossible thing, from the +point of view of tangible bodies, will serve as well as anything. The +atoms seem to get inside of one another, to jump down one another's +throats, and to suffer a complete transformation. Yet we know that they +do not; oxygen is still oxygen, and carbon still carbon, amid all the +strange partnerships entered into, and all the disguises assumed. We can +easily evoke hydrogen and oxygen from water, but just how their +molecules unite, how they interpenetrate and are lost in one another, it +is impossible for us to conceive. + +We cannot visualize a chemical combination because we have no experience +upon which to found it. It is so fundamentally unlike a mechanical +mixture that even our imagination can give us no clew to it. It is +thinkable that the particles of two or more substances however fine, +mechanically mixed, could be seen and recognized if sufficiently +magnified; but in a chemical combination, say like iron sulphide, no +amount of magnification could reveal the two elements of iron and +sulphur. They no longer exist. A third substance unlike either has taken +their place. + +We extract aluminum from clay, but no conceivable power of vision could +reveal to us that metal in the clay. It is there only potentially. In a +chemical combination the different substances interpenetrate and are +lost in one another: they are not mechanically separable nor +individually distinguishable. The iron in the red corpuscles of the +blood is not the metal we know, but one of its many chemical disguises. +Indeed it seems as if what we call the ultimate particles of matter did +not belong to the visible order and hence were incapable of +magnification. + +That mysterious force, chemical affinity, is the true and original +magic. That two substances should cleave to each other and absorb each +other and produce a third totally unlike either is one of the profound +mysteries of science. Of the nature of the change that takes place, I +say, we can form no image. Chemical force is selective; it is not +promiscuous and indiscriminate like gravity, but specific and +individual. Nearly all the elements have their preferences and they will +choose no other. Oxygen comes the nearest to being a free lover among +the elements, but its power of choice is limited. + +Science conceives of all matter as grained or discrete, like a bag of +shot, or a pile of sand. Matter does not occupy space continuously, not +even in the hardest substances, such as the diamond; there is space, +molecular space, between the particles. A rifle bullet whizzing past is +no more a continuous body than is a flock of birds wheeling and swooping +in the air. Air spaces separate the birds, and molecular spaces separate +the molecules of the bullet. Of course it is unthinkable that +indivisible particles of matter can occupy space and have dimensions. +But science goes upon this hypothesis, and the hypothesis proves itself. + +After we have reached the point of the utmost divisibility of matter in +the atom, we are called upon to go still further and divide the +indivisible. The electrons, of which the atom is composed, are one +hundred thousand times smaller, and two thousand times lighter than the +smallest particle hitherto recognized, namely, the hydrogen atom. A +French physicist conceives of the electrons as rushing about in the +interior of the atom like swarms of gnats whirling about in the dome of +a cathedral. The smallest particle of dust that we can recognize in the +air is millions of times larger than the atom, and millions of millions +of times larger than the electron. Yet science avers that the +manifestations of energy which we call light, radiant heat, magnetism, +and electricity, all come from the activities of the electrons. Sir J. +J. Thomson conceives of a free electron as dashing about from one atom +to another at a speed so great as to change its location forty million +times a second. In the electron we have matter dematerialized; the +electron is not a material particle. Hence the step to the electric +constitution of matter is an easy one. In the last analysis we have pure +disembodied energy. "With many of the feelings of an air-man," says +Soddy, "who has left behind for the first time the solid ground beneath +him," we make this plunge into the demonstrable verities of the newest +physics; matter in the old sense--gross matter--fades away. To the three +states in which we have always known it, the solid, the liquid, and the +gaseous, we must add a fourth, the ethereal--the state of matter which +Sir Oliver Lodge thinks borders on, or is identical with, what we call +the spiritual, and which affords the key to all the occult phenomena of +life and mind. + +As we have said, no human eye has ever seen, or will see, an atom; only +the mind's eye, or the imagination, sees atoms and molecules, yet the +atomic theory of matter rests upon the sure foundation of experimental +science. Both the chemist and the physicist are as convinced of the +existence of these atoms as they are of the objects we see and touch. +The theory "is a necessity to explain the experimental facts of chemical +composition." "Through metaphysics first," says Soddy, "then through +alchemy and chemistry, through physical and astronomical spectroscopy, +lastly through radio-activity, science has slowly groped its way to the +atom." The physicists make definite statements about these hypothetical +bodies all based upon definite chemical phenomena. Thus Clerk Maxwell +assumes that they are spherical, that the spheres are hard and elastic +like billiard-balls, that they collide and glance off from one another +in the same way, that is, that they collide at their surfaces and not at +their centres. + +Only two of our senses make us acquainted with matter in a state which +may be said to approach the atomic--smell and taste. Odors are material +emanations, and represent a division of matter into inconceivably small +particles. What are the perfumes we smell but emanations, flying atoms +or electrons, radiating in all directions, and continuing for a shorter +or longer time without any appreciable diminution in bulk or weight of +the substances that give them off? How many millions or trillions of +times does the rose divide its heart in the perfume it sheds so freely +upon the air? The odor of the musk of certain animals lingers under +certain conditions for years. The imagination is baffled in trying to +conceive of the number and minuteness of the particles which the fox +leaves of itself in the snow where its foot was imprinted--so palpable +that the scent of a hound can seize upon them hours after the fox has +passed! The all but infinite divisibility of matter is proved by every +odor that the breeze brings us from field and wood, and by the delicate +flavors that the tongue detects in the food we eat and drink. But these +emanations and solutions that affect our senses probably do not +represent a chemical division of matter; when we smell an apple or a +flower, we probably get a real fragment of the apple, or of the flower, +and not one or more of its chemical constituents represented by atoms or +electrons. A chemical analysis of odors, if it were possible, would +probably show the elements in the same state of combination as the +substances from which the odors emanated. + +The physicists herd these ultimate particles of matter about; they have +a regular circus with them; they make them go through films and screens; +they guide them through openings; they count them as their tiny flash is +seen on a sensitized plate; they weigh them; they reckon their velocity. +The alpha-rays from radio-active substances are swarms of tiny meteors +flying at the incredible speed of twelve thousand miles a second, while +the meteors of the midnight sky fly at the speed of only forty miles a +second. Those alpha particles are helium atoms. They are much larger +than beta particles, and have less penetrative power. Sir J. J. Thomson +has devised a method by which he has been able to photograph the atoms. +The photographic plate upon which their flight is recorded suggests a +shower of shooting stars. Oxygen is found to be made up of atoms of +several different forms. + + +III + +The "free path" of molecules, both in liquids and in gases, is so minute +as to be beyond the reach of the most powerful microscope. This free +path in liquids is a zigzag course, owing to the perpetual collisions +with other molecules. The molecular behavior of liquids differs from +that of gases only in what is called surface tension. Liquids have a +skin, a peculiar stress of the surface molecules; gases do not, but tend +to dissipate and fill all space. A drop of water remains intact till +vaporization sets in; then it too becomes more and more diffused. + +When two substances combine chemically, more or less heat is evolved. +When the combination is effected slowly, as in an animal's body, heat is +slowly evolved. When the combustion is rapid, as in actual fire, heat is +rapidly evolved. The same phenomenon may reach the eye as light, and the +hand as heat, though different senses get two different impressions of +the same thing. So a mechanical disturbance may reach the ear as sound, +and be so interpreted, and reach the hand as motion in matter. In +combustion, the oxygen combines rapidly with the carbon, giving out heat +and light and carbon dioxide, but why it does so admits of no +explanation. Herein again is where life differs from fire; we can +describe combustion in terms of chemistry, but after we have described +life in the same terms something--and this something is the main +thing--remains untouched. + +The facts of radio-activity alone demonstrate the truth of the atomic +theory. The beta rays, or emanations from radium, penetrating one foot +of solid iron are very convincing. And this may go on for hundreds of +years without any appreciable diminution of size or weight of the +radio-active substance. "A gram of such substance," says Sir Oliver +Lodge, "might lose a few thousand of atoms a second, and yet we could +not detect the loss if we continued to weigh it for a century." The +volatile essences of organic bodies which we detect in odors and +flavors, are not potent like the radium emanations. We can confine them +and control them, but we cannot control the rays of radio-active matter +any more than we can confine a spirit. We can separate the three +different kinds of rays--the alpha, the beta, and the gamma--by magnetic +devices, but we cannot cork them up and isolate them, as we can musk and +the attar of roses. + +And these emanations are taking place more or less continuously all +about us and we know it not. In fact, we are at all times subjected to a +molecular bombardment of which we never dream; minute projectiles, +indivisible points of matter, are shot out at us in the form of +electrons from glowing metals, from lighted candles, and from other +noiseless and unsuspected batteries at a speed of tens of thousands of +miles a second, and we are none the wiser for it. Indeed, if we could +see or feel or be made aware of it, in what a different world we should +find ourselves! How many million-or billion-fold our sense of sight and +touch would have to be increased to bring this about! We live in a world +of collisions, disruptions, and hurtling missiles of which our senses +give us not the slightest evidence, and it is well that they do not. +There is a tremendous activity in the air we breathe, in the water we +drink, in the food we eat, and in the soil we walk upon, which, if +magnified till our senses could take it in, would probably drive us mad. +It is in this interior world of molecular activity, this world of +electric vibrations and oscillations, that the many transformations of +energy take place. This is the hiding-place of the lightning, of the +electrons which moulded together make the thunderbolt. What an +underworld of mystery and power it is! In it slumbers all the might and +menace of the storm, the power that rends the earth and shakes the +heavens. With the mind's eye one can see the indivisible atoms giving up +their electrons, see the invisible hosts, in numbers beyond the power of +mathematics to compute, being summoned and marshalled by some mysterious +commander and hurled in terrible fiery phalanxes across the battlefield +of the storm. + +The physicist describes the atom and talks about it as if it were "a +tangible body which one could hold in his hand like a baseball." "An +atom," Sir Oliver Lodge says, "consists of a globular mass of positive +electricity with minute negative electrons embedded in it." He speaks of +the spherical form of the atom, and of its outer surface, of its centre, +and of its passing through other atoms, and of the electrons that +revolve around its centre as planets around a sun. The electron, one +hundred thousand times smaller than an atom, yet has surface, and that +surface is a dimpled and corrugated sheet--like the cover of a mattress. +What a flight of the scientific imagination is that! + +The disproportion between the size of an atom and the size of an +electron is vastly greater than that between the sun and the earth. +Represent an atom, says Sir Oliver Lodge, by a church one hundred and +sixty feet long, eighty feet broad, and forty feet high; the electrons +are like gnats inside it. Yet on the electric theory of matter, +electrons are all of the atom there is; there is no church, but only the +gnats rushing about. We know of nothing so empty and hollow, so near a +vacuum, as matter in this conception of it. Indeed, in the new physics, +matter is only a hole in the ether. Hence the newspaper joke about the +bank sliding down and leaving the woodchuck-hole sticking out, looks +like pretty good physics. The electrons give matter its inertia, and +give it the force we call cohesion, give it its toughness, its strength, +and all its other properties. They make water wet, and the diamond hard. +They are the fountain-head of the immense stores of the inter-atomic +energy, which, if it could be tapped and controlled, would so easily do +all the work of the world. But this we cannot do. "We are no more +competent," says Professor Soddy, "to make use of these supplies of +atomic energy than a savage, ignorant of how to kindle a fire, could +make use of a steam-engine." The natural rate of flow of this energy +from its atomic sources we get as heat, and it suffices to keep life +going upon this planet. It is the source of all the activity we see upon +the globe. Its results, in the geologic ages, are stored up for us in +coal and oil and natural gas, and, in our day, are available in the +winds, the tides, and the waterfalls, and in electricity. + + +IV + +The electric constitution of matter is quite beyond anything we can +imagine. The atoms are little worlds by themselves, and the whole +mystery of life and death is in their keeping. The whole difference in +the types of mind and character among men is supposed to be in their +keeping. The different qualities and properties of bodies are in their +keeping. Whether an object is hot or cold to our senses, depends upon +the character of their vibrations; whether it be sweet or sour, +poisonous or innocuous to us, depends upon how the atoms select their +partners in the whirl and dance of their activities. The hardness and +brilliancy of the diamond is supposed to depend upon how the atoms of +carbon unite and join hands. + +I have heard the view expressed that all matter, as such, is dead +matter, that the molecules of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, iron, +phosphorus, calcium, and so on, in a living body, are themselves no more +alive than the same molecules in inorganic matter. Nearly nine tenths of +a living body is water; is not this water the same as the water we get +at the spring or the brook? is it any more alive? does water undergo any +chemical change in the body? is it anything more than a solvent, than a +current that carries the other elements to all parts of the body? There +are any number of chemical changes or reactions in a living body, but +are the atoms and molecules that are involved in such changes radically +changed? Can oxygen be anything but oxygen, or carbon anything but +carbon? Is what we call life the result of their various new +combinations? Many modern biologists hold to this view. In this +conception merely a change in the order of arrangement of the molecules +of a substance--which follows which or which is joined to which--is +fraught with consequences as great as the order in which the letters of +the alphabet are arranged in words, or the words themselves are arranged +in sentences. The change of one letter in a word often utterly changes +the meaning of that word, and the changing of a word in the sentence may +give expression to an entirely different idea. Reverse the letters in +the word "God," and you get the name of our faithful friend the dog. +Huxley and Tyndall both taught that it was the way that the ultimate +particles of matter are compounded that makes the whole difference +between a cabbage and an oak, or between a frog and a man. It is a hard +proposition. We know with scientific certainty that the difference +between a diamond and a piece of charcoal, or between a pearl and an +oyster-shell, is the way that the particles of carbon in the one case, +and of calcium carbide in the other, are arranged. We know with equal +certainty that the difference between certain chemical bodies, like +alcohol and ether, is the arrangement of their ultimate particles, since +both have the same chemical formula. We do not spell acetic acid, +alcohol, sugar, starch, animal fat, vegetable oils, glycerine, and the +like, with the same letters; yet nature compounds them all of the same +atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but in different proportions and +in different orders. + +Chemistry is all-potent. A mechanical mixture of two or more elements +is a simple affair, but a chemical mixture introduces an element of +magic. No conjurer's trick can approach such a transformation as that of +oxygen and hydrogen gases into water. The miracle of turning water into +wine is tame by comparison. Dip plain cotton into a mixture of nitric +and sulphuric acids and let it dry, and we have that terrible explosive, +guncotton. Or, take the cellulose of which cotton is composed, and add +two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, and we have sugar. But we are +to remember that the difference here indicated is not a quantitative, +but a qualitative one, not one affecting bulk, but affecting structure. +Truly chemistry works wonders. Take ethyl alcohol, or ordinary spirits +of wine, and add four more atoms of carbon to the carbon molecule, and +we have the poison carbolic acid. Pure alcohol can be turned into a +deadly poison, not by adding to, but simply by taking from it; take out +one atom of carbon and two of hydrogen from the alcohol molecule, and we +have the poison methyl alcohol. But we are to remember that the +difference here indicated is not a quantitative, but a qualitative one, +not one affecting bulk, but affecting structure. + +In our atmosphere we have a mechanical mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, +four parts of nitrogen to one of oxygen. By uniting the nitrogen and +oxygen chemically (N_{2}O) we have nitrous oxide, laughing-gas. Ordinary +starch is made up of three different elements--six parts of carbon, ten +parts of hydrogen, and five parts of oxygen (C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}). Now if +we add water to this compound, we have a simple mixture of starch and +water, but if we bring about a chemical union with the elements of water +(hydrogen and oxygen), we have grape sugar. This sugar is formed in +green leaves by the agency of sunlight, and is the basis of all plant +and animal food, and hence one of the most important things in nature. + +Carbon is a solid, and is seen in its pure state in the diamond, the +hardest body in nature and the most valued of all precious stones, but +it enters largely into all living bodies and is an important constituent +of all the food we eat. As a gas, united with the oxygen of the air, +forming carbon dioxide, it was present at the beginning of life, and +probably helped kindle the first vital spark. In the shape of wood and +coal, it now warms us and makes the wheels of our material civilization +go round. Diamond stuff, through the magic of chemistry, plays one of +the principle roles in our physical life; we eat it, and are warmed and +propelled by it, and cheered by it. Taken as carbonic acid gas into our +lungs, it poisons us; taken into our stomachs, it stimulates us; +dissolved in water, it disintegrates the rocks, eating out the carbonate +of lime which they contain. It is one of the principal actors in the +drama of organized matter. + + +V + +We have a good illustration of the power of chemistry, and how closely +it is dogging the footsteps of life, in the many organic compounds it +has built up out of the elements, such as sugar, starch, indigo, +camphor, rubber, and so forth, all of which used to be looked upon as +impossible aside from life-processes. It is such progress as this that +leads some men of science to believe that the creation of life itself is +within the reach of chemistry. I do not believe that any occult or +transcendental principle bars the way, but that some unknown and perhaps +unknowable condition does, as mysterious and unrepeatable as that which +separates our mental life from our physical. The transmutation of the +physical into the psychical takes place, but the secret of it we do not +know. It does not seem to fall within the law of the correlation and the +conservation of energy. + +Free or single atoms are very rare; they all quickly find their mates or +partners. This eagerness of the elements to combine is one of the +mysteries. If the world of visible matter were at one stroke resolved +into its constituent atoms, it would practically disappear; we might +smell it, or taste it, if we were left, but we could not see it, or feel +it; the water would vanish, the solid ground would vanish--more than +half of it into oxygen atoms, and the rest mainly into silicon atoms. + +The atoms of different bodies are all alike, and presumably each holds +the same amount of electric energy. One wonders, then, how the order in +which they are arranged can affect them so widely as to produce bodies +so unlike as, say, alcohol and ether. This brings before us again the +mystery of chemical arrangement or combination, so different from +anything we know among tangible bodies. It seems to imply that each atom +has its own individuality. Mix up a lot of pebbles together, and the +result would be hardly affected by the order of the arrangement, but mix +up a lot of people, and the result would be greatly affected by the fact +of who is elbowing who. It seems the same among the mysterious atoms, as +if some complemented or stimulated those next them, or had an opposite +effect. But can we think of the atoms in a chemical compound as being +next one another, or merely in juxtaposition? Do we not rather have to +think of them as identified with one another to an extent that has no +parallel in the world of ponderable bodies? A kind of sympathy or +affinity makes them one in a sense that we only see realized among +living beings. + +Chemical activity is the first step from physical activity to vital +activity, but the last step is taken rarely--the other two are +universal. Chemical changes involve the atom. What do vital changes +involve? We do not know. We can easily bring about the chemical +changes, but not so the vital changes. A chemical change destroys one or +more substances and produces others totally unlike them; a vital change +breaks up substances and builds up other bodies out of them; it results +in new compounds that finally cover the earth with myriads of new and +strange forms. + + + + +X + +THE VITAL ORDER + +I + + +The mechanistic theory of life--the theory that all living things can be +explained and fully accounted for on purely physico-chemical +principles--has many defenders in our day. The main aim of the foregoing +chapters is to point out the inadequacy of this view. At the risk of +wearying my reader I am going to collect under the above heading a few +more considerations bearing on this point. + +A thing that grows, that develops, cannot, except by very free use of +language, be called a machine. We speak of the body as a machine, but we +have to qualify it by prefixing the adjective living--the living +machine, which takes it out of the mechanical order of things +fabricated, contrived, built up from without, and puts it in the order +we call vital, the order of things self-developed from within, the order +of things autonomous, as contrasted with things automatic. All the +mechanical principles are operative in the life processes, but they have +been vitalized, not changed in any way but in the service of a new order +of reality. The heart with its chambers and valves is a pump that +forces the blood through the system, but a pump that works itself and +does not depend upon pneumatic pressure--a pump in which vital energy +takes the place of gravitational energy. The peristaltic movement in the +intestines involves a mechanical principle, but it is set up by an +inward stimulus, and not by outward force. It is these inward stimuli, +which of course involve chemical reactions, that afford the motive power +for all living bodies and that put the living in another order from the +mechanical. The eye is an optical instrument,--a rather crude one, it is +said,--but it cannot be separated from its function, as can a mere +instrument--the eye sees as literally as the brain thinks. In breathing +we unconsciously apply the principle of the bellows; it is a bellows +again which works itself, but the function of which, in a very limited +sense, we can inhibit and control. An artificial, or man-made, machine +always implies an artificer, but the living machine is not made in any +such sense; it grows, it arises out of the organizing principle that +becomes active in matter under conditions that we only dimly understand, +and that we cannot reproduce. + +The vital and the mechanical cooeperate in all our bodily functions. +Swallowing our food is a mechanical process, the digestion of it is a +chemical process and the assimilation and elimination of it a vital +process. Inhaling and exhaling the air is a mechanical process, the +oxidation of the blood is a chemical process, and the renewal of the +corpuscles is a vital process. Growth, assimilation, elimination, +reproduction, metabolism, and secretion, are all vital processes which +cannot be described in terms of physics and chemistry. All our bodily +movements--lifting, striking, walking, running--are mechanical, but +seeing, hearing, and tasting, are of another order. And that which +controls, directs, cooerdinates, and inhibits our activities belongs to a +still higher order, the psychic. The world of thoughts and emotions +within us, while dependent upon and interacting with the physical world +without us, cannot be accounted for in terms of the physical world. A +living thing is more than a machine, more than a chemical laboratory. + +We can analyze the processes of a tree into their mechanical and +chemical elements, but there is besides a kind of force there which we +must call vital. The whole growth and development of the tree, its +manner of branching and gripping the soil, its fixity of species, its +individuality--all imply something that does not belong to the order of +the inorganic, automatic forces. In the living animal how the psychic +stands related to the physical or physiological and arises out of it, +science cannot tell us, but the relation must be real; only philosophy +can grapple with that question. To resolve the psychic and the vital +into the mechanical and chemical and refuse to see any other factors at +work is the essence of materialism. + + +II + +Any contrivance which shows an interdependence of parts, that results in +unity of action, is super-mechanical. The solar system may be regarded +as a unit, but it has not the purposive unity of a living body. It is +one only in the sense that its separate bodies are all made of one +stuff, and obey the same laws and move together in the same direction, +but a living body is a unit because all its parts are in the service of +one purposive end. An army is a unit, a flock of gregarious birds, a +colony of ants or bees, is a unit because the spirit and purpose of one +is the spirit and purpose of all; the unity is psychological. + +Only living bodies are adaptive. Adaptation, of course, has its physics +or its chemistry, because it is a physical phenomenon; but there is no +adaptation of a rock or a clay-bank to its environment; there is only +mechanical and chemical adjustment. The influence of the environment may +bring about chemical and physical changes in a non-living body, but they +are not purposive as in a living body. The fat in the seeds of plants in +northern countries is liquid and solid at a lower temperature than in +tropical climates. Living organisms alone react in a formative or +deformative way to external stimuli. In warm climates the fur of +animals and the wool of sheep become thin and light. The colder the +climate, the thicker these coverings. Such facts only show that in the +matter of adaptation among living organisms, there is a factor at work +other than chemistry and physics--not independent of them, but making a +purposive use of them. Cut off the central shoot that leads the young +spruce tree upwards, and one of the shoots from the whirl of lateral +branches below it slowly rises up and takes the place of the lost +leader. Here is an action not prompted by the environment, but by the +morphological needs of the tree, and it illustrates how different is its +unity from the unity of a mere machine. I am only aiming to point out +that in all living things the material forces behave in a purposive way +to a degree that cannot be affirmed of them in non-living, and that, +therefore, they imply intelligence. + +Evidently the cells in the body do not all have the same degree of +life,--that is, the same degree of irritability. The bone cells and the +hair cells, for instance, can hardly be so much alive--or so +irritable--as the muscle cells; nor these as intensely alive as the +nerve and brain cells. Does not a bird possess a higher degree of life +than a mollusk, or a turtle? Is not a brook trout more alive than a +mud-sucker? You can freeze the latter as stiff as an icicle and +resuscitate it, but not the former. There is a scale of degrees in life +as clearly as there is a scale of degrees in temperature. There is an +endless gradation of sensibilities of the living cells, dependent +probably upon the degree of differentiation of function. Anaesthetics +dull or suspend this irritability. The more highly developed and complex +the nervous system, the higher the degree of life, till we pass from +mere physical life to psychic life. Science might trace this difference +to cell structure, but what brings about the change in the character of +the cell, or starts the cells to building a complex nervous system, is a +question unanswerable to science. The biologist imagines this and that +about the invisible or hypothetical molecular structure; he assigns +different functions to the atoms; some are for endosmosis, others for +contraction, others for conduction of stimuli. Intramolecular oxygen +plays a part. Other names are given to the mystery--the micellar strings +of Naegeli, the biophores of Weismann, the plastidules of Haeckel; they +all presuppose millions of molecules peculiarly arranged in the +protoplasm. + +On purely mechanical and chemical principles Tyndall accounts for the +growth from the germ of a tree. The germ would be quiet, but the solar +light and heat disturb its dreams, break up its atomic equilibrium. The +germ makes an "effort" to restore it (why does it make an effort?), +which effort is necessarily defeated and incessantly renewed, and in +the turmoil or "scrapping" between the germ and the solar forces, matter +is gathered from the soil and from the air and built into the special +form of a tree. Why not in the form of a cabbage, or a donkey, or a +clam? If the forces are purely automatic, why not? Why should matter be +gathered in at all in a mechanical struggle between inorganic elements? +But these are not all inorganic; the seed is organic. Ah! that makes the +difference! That accounts for the "effort." So we have to have the +organic to start with, then the rest is easy. No doubt the molecules of +the seed would remain in a quiescent state, if they were not disturbed +by external influences, chemical and mechanical. But there is something +latent or potential in that seed that is the opposite of the mechanical, +namely, the vital, and in what that consists, and where it came from, is +the mystery. + + +III + +I fancy that the difficulty which an increasing number of persons find +in accepting the mechanistic view of life, or evolution,--the view which +Herbert Spencer built into such a ponderous system of philosophy, and +which such men as Huxley, Tyndall, Gifford, Haeckel, Verworn, and +others, have upheld and illustrated,--is temperamental rather than +logical. The view is distasteful to a certain type of mind--the +flexible, imaginative, artistic, and literary type--the type that loves +to see itself reflected in nature or that reads its own thoughts and +emotions into nature. In a few eminent examples the two types of mind to +which I refer seem more or less blended. Sir Oliver Lodge is a case in +point. Sir Oliver is an eminent physicist who in his conception of the +totality of things is yet a thoroughgoing idealist and mystic. His +solution of the problem of living things is extra-scientific. He sees in +life a distinct transcendental principle, not involved in the +constitution of matter, but independent of it, entering into it and +using it for its own purposes. + +Tyndall was another great scientist with an inborn idealistic strain in +him. His famous, and to many minds disquieting, declaration, made in his +Belfast address over thirty years ago, that in matter itself he saw the +promise and the potency of all terrestrial life, stamps him as a +scientific materialist. But his conception of matter, as "at bottom +essentially mystical and transcendental," stamps him as also an +idealist. The idealist in him speaks very eloquently in the passage +which, in the same address, he puts into the mouth of Bishop Butler, in +the latter's imaginary debate with Lucretius: "Your atoms," says the +Bishop, "are individually without sensation, much more are they without +intelligence. May I ask you, then, to try your hand upon this problem. +Take your dead hydrogen atoms, your dead oxygen atoms, your dead carbon +atoms, your dead nitrogen atoms, your dead phosphorus atoms, and all +the other atoms, dead as grains of shot, of which the brain is formed. +Imagine them separate and sensationless, observe them running together +and forming all imaginable combinations. This, as a purely mechanical +process, is _seeable_ by the mind. But can you see or dream, or in any +way imagine, how out of that mechanical art, and from these individually +dead atoms, sensation, thought, and emotion are to arise? Are you likely +to extract Homer out of the rattling of dice, or the Differential +Calculus out of the clash of billiard balls?" Could any vitalist, or +Bergsonian idealist have stated his case better? + +Now the Bishop Butler type of mind--the visualizing, idealizing, +analogy-loving, literary, and philosophical mind--is shared by a good +many people; it is shared by or is characteristic of all the great +poets, artists, seers, idealists of the world; it is the humanistic type +that sees man everywhere reflected in nature; and is radically different +from the strictly scientific type which dehumanizes nature and reduces +it to impersonal laws and forces, which distrusts analogy and sentiment +and poetry, and clings to a rigid logical method. + +This type of mind is bound to have trouble in accepting the +physico-chemical theory of the nature and origin of life. It visualizes +life, sees it as a distinct force or principle working in and through +matter but not of it, super-physical in its origin and psychological in +its nature. This is the view Henri Bergson exploits in his "Creative +Evolution." This is the view Kant took when he said, "It is quite +certain that we cannot even satisfactorily understand, much less +explain, the nature of an organism and its internal forces on purely +mechanical principles." It is the view Goethe took when he said, "Matter +can never exist without spirit, nor spirit without matter." + +Tyndall says Goethe was helped by his poetic training in the field of +natural history, but hindered as regards the physical and mechanical +sciences. "He could not formulate distinct mechanical conceptions; he +could not see the force of mechanical reasoning." His literary culture +helped him to a literary interpretation of living nature, but not to a +scientific explanation of it; it helped put him in sympathy with living +things, and just to that extent barred him from the mechanistic +conception of those of pure science. Goethe, like every great poet, saw +the universe through the colored medium of his imagination, his +emotional and aesthetic nature; in short, through his humanism, and not +in the white light of the scientific reason. His contributions to +literature were of the first order, but his contributions to science +have not taken high rank. He was a "prophet of the soul," and not a +disciple of the scientific understanding. + +If we look upon life as inherent or potential in the constitution of +matter, dependent upon outward physical and chemical conditions for its +development, we are accounting for life in terms of matter and motion, +and are in the ranks of the materialists. But if we find ourselves +unable to set the ultimate particles of matter in action, or so working +as to produce the reaction which results in life, without conceiving of +some new force or principle operating upon them, then we are in the +ranks of the vitalists or idealists. The idealists see the original +atoms slumbering there in rock and sea and soil for untold ages, till, +moved upon by some unknown factor, they draw together in certain fixed +order and numbers, and life is the result. Something seems to put a +spell upon them and cause them to behave so differently from the way +they behaved before they were drawn into the life circuit. + +When we think of life, as the materialists do, as of mechanico-chemical +origin, or explicable in terms of the natural universal order, we think +of the play of material forces amid which we live, we think of their +subtle action and interaction all about us--of osmosis, capillarity, +radio-activity, electricity, thermism, and the like; we think of the +four states of matter,--solid, fluid, gaseous, and ethereal,--of how +little our senses take in of their total activities, and we do not feel +the need of invoking a transcendental principle to account for it. + +Yet to fail to see that what we must call intelligence pervades and is +active in all organic nature is to be spiritually blind. But to see it +as something foreign to, or separable from, nature is to do violence to +our faith in the constancy and sufficiency of the natural order. One +star differeth from another star in glory. There are degrees of mystery +in the universe. The most mysterious thing in inorganic nature is +electricity--that disembodied energy that slumbers in the ultimate +particles of matter--unseen, unfelt, unknown, till it suddenly leaps +forth with such terrible vividness and power on the face of the storm, +or till we summon it through the transformation of some other form of +energy. A still higher and more inscrutable mystery is life--that +something which clothes itself in such infinitely varied and beautiful +as well as unbeautiful forms of matter. We can evoke electricity at will +from many different sources, but we can evoke life only from other life; +the biogenetic law is inviolable. + + +IV + +It takes some of the cold iron out of the mechanistic theory of life if +we divest it of all our associations with the machine-mad and +machine-ridden world in which we live and out of which our material +civilization came. The mechanical, the automatic, is the antithesis of +the spontaneous and the poetic, and it repels us on that account. We are +so made that the artificial systems please us far less than the natural +systems. A sailing-ship takes us more than a steamship. It is nearer +life, nearer the winged creatures. There is determinism in nature, +mechanical forces are everywhere operative, but there are no machines in +the proper sense of the word. When we call an organism a living machine +we at once take it out of the categories of the merely mechanical and +automatic and lift it into a higher order--the vital order. + +Professor Le Dantec says we are mechanisms in the third degree, a +mechanism of a mechanism of a mechanism. The body is a mechanism by +virtue of its anatomy--its framework, its levers, its hinges; it is a +mechanism by virtue of its chemical activities; and it is a mechanism by +virtue of its colloid states--three kinds of mechanisms in one, and all +acting together harmoniously and as a unit--in other words, a +super-mechanical combination of activities. + +The mechanical conception of life repels us because of its association +in our minds with the fabrications of our own hands--the dead metal and +wood and the noise and dust of our machine-ridden and machine-produced +civilization. + +But Nature makes no machines like our own. She uses mechanical +principles everywhere, in inert matter and in living bodies, but she +does not use them in the bald and literal way we do. We must divest her +mechanisms of the rigidity and angularity that pertain to the works of +our own hands. Her hooks and hinges and springs and sails and coils and +aeroplanes, all involve mechanical contrivances, but how differently +they impress us from our own application of the same principles! Even in +inert matter--in the dews, the rains, the winds, the tides, the snows, +the streams,--her mechanics and her chemistry and her hydrostatics and +pneumatics, seem much nearer akin to life than our own. We must remember +that Nature's machines are not human machines. When we place our machine +so that it is driven by the great universal currents,--the wheel in the +stream, the sail on the water,--the result is much more pleasing and +poetic than when propelled by artificial power. The more machinery we +get between ourselves and Nature, the farther off Nature seems. The +marvels of crystallization, the beautiful vegetable forms which the +frost etches upon the stone flagging of the sidewalk, and upon the +window-pane, delight us and we do not reason why. A natural bridge +pleases more than one which is the work of an engineer, yet the natural +bridge can only stand when it is based upon good engineering principles. +I found at the great Colorado Canon, that the more the monuments of +erosion were suggestive of human structures, or engineering and +architectural works, the more I was impressed by them. We are pleased +when Nature imitates man, and we are pleased when man imitates Nature, +and yet we recoil from the thought that life is only applied mechanics +and chemistry. But the thought that it is mechanics and chemistry +applied by something of which they as such, form no part, some agent or +principle which we call vitality, is welcome to us. No machine we have +ever made or seen can wind itself up, or has life, no chemical compound +from the laboratories ever develops a bit of organic matter, and +therefore we are disbelievers in the powers of these things. + + +V + +Is gravity or chemical affinity any more real to the mind than vitality? +Both are names for mysteries. Something which we call life lifts matter +up, in opposition to gravity, into thousands of living forms. The tree +lifts potash, silica, and lime up one or two hundred feet into the air; +it elbows the soil away from its hole where it enters the ground; its +roots split rocks. A giant sequoia lifts tons of solid matter and water +up hundreds of feet. So will an explosion of powder or dynamite, but the +tree does it slowly and silently by the organizing power of life. The +vital is as inscrutably identified with the mechanical and chemical as +the soul is identified with the body. They are one while yet they are +two. + +For purely mechanical things we can find equivalents. Arrest a purely +mechanical process, and the machine only rests or rusts; arrest a vital +process, and the machine evaporates, disintegrates, myriads of other +machines reduce it to its original mineral and gaseous elements. In the +organic world we strike a principle that is incalculable in its +operation and incommensurable in its results. The physico-chemical +forces we can bring to book; we know their orbits, their attractions and +repulsions, and just what they will and will not do; we can forecast +their movements and foresee their effects. But the vital forces +transcend all our mathematics; we cannot anticipate their behavior. +Start inert matter in motion and we know pretty nearly what will happen +to it; mix the chemical elements together and we can foresee the +results; but start processes or reactions we call life, and who can +foresee the end? We know the sap will mount in the tree and the tree +will be true to its type, but what do we or can we know of what it is +that determines its kind and size? We know that in certain plants the +leaves will always be opposite each other on the stalk, and that in +other plants the leaves will alternate; that certain plants will have +conspicuous and others inconspicuous flowers; but how can we know what +it is in the cells of the plants that determines these things? We can +graft the scion of a sour apple tree upon a sweet, and _vice versa_, and +the fruit of the scion will be true to its kind, but no analysis of the +scion or of the stock will reveal the secret, as it would in the case of +chemical compounds. In inorganic nature we meet with concretions, but +not secretions; with crystallization, but not with assimilation and +growth from within. Chemistry tells us that the composition of animal +bodies is identical with that of vegetable; that there is nothing in one +that is not in the other; and yet, behold the difference! a difference +beyond the reach of chemistry to explain. Biology can tell us all about +these differences and many other things, but it cannot tell us the +secret we are looking for,--what it is that fashions from the same +elements two bodies so unlike as a tree and a man. + +Decay and disintegration in the inorganic world often lead to the +production of beautiful forms. In life the reverse is true; the vital +forces build up varied and picturesque forms which when pulled down are +shapeless and displeasing. The immense layers of sandstone and limestone +out of which the wonderful forms that fill the Grand Canon of the +Colorado are carved were laid down in wide uniform sheets; if the waters +had deposited their material in the forms which we now see, it would +have been a miracle. We marvel and admire as we gaze upon them now; we +do more, we have to speculate as to how it was all done by the blind, +unintelligent forces. Giant stairways, enormous alcoves, dizzy, highly +wrought balustrades, massive vertical walls standing four-square like +huge foundations--how did all the unguided erosive forces do it? The +secret is in the structure of the rock, in the lines of cleavage, in the +unequal hardness, and in the impulsive, irregular, and unequal action of +the eroding agents. These agents follow the lines of least resistance; +they are active at different times and seasons, and from different +directions; they work with infinite slowness; they undermine, they +disintegrate, they dislodge, they transport; the hard streaks resist +them, the soft streaks invite them; water charged with sand and gravel +saws down; the wind, armed with fine sand, rounds off and hollows out; +and thus the sculpturing goes on. But after you have reasoned out all +these things, you still marvel at the symmetry and the structural beauty +of the forms. They look like the handiwork of barbarian gods. They are +the handiwork of physical forces which we can see and measure and in a +degree control. But what a gulf separates them from the handiwork of the +organic forces! + + +VI + +Some things come and some things arise; things that already exist may +come, but potential things arise; my friend comes to visit me, the tide +comes up the river, the cold or hot wave comes from the west; but the +seasons, night and morning, health and disease, and the like, do not +come in this sense; they arise. Life does not come to dead matter in +this sense; it arises. Day and night are not traveling round the earth, +though we view them that way; they arise from the turning of the earth +upon its axis. If we could keep up with the flying moments,--that is, +with the revolution of the earth,--we could live always at sunrise, or +sunset, or at noon, or at any other moment we cared to elect. Love or +hate does not come to our hearts; it is born there; the breath does not +come to the newborn infant; respiration arises there automatically. See +how the life of the infant is involved in that first breath, yet it is +not its life; the infant must first be alive before it can breathe. If +it is still-born, the respiratory reaction does not take place. We can +say, then, that the breath means life, and the life means breath; only +we must say the latter first. We can say in the same way that +organization means life, and life means organization. Something sets up +the organizing process in matter. We may take all the physical elements +of life known to us and jumble them together and shake them up to all +eternity, and life will not result. A little friction between solid +bodies begets heat, a little more and we get fire. But no amount of +friction begets life. Heat and life go together, but heat is the +secondary factor. + +Life is always a vanishing-point, a constant becoming--an unstable +something that escapes us while we seem to analyze it. In its nature or +essence, it is a metaphysical problem, and not one of physical science. +Science cannot grasp it; it evaporates in its crucibles. And science is +compelled finally to drive it into an imaginary region--I had almost +said, metaphysical region, the region of the invisible, hypothetical +atoms of matter. Here in the mysteries of molecular attraction and +repulsion, it conceives the secret of life to lie. + +"Life is a wave," says Tyndall, but does not one conceive of something, +some force or impulse in the wave that is not of the wave? What is it +that travels along lifting new water each moment up into waves? It is a +physical force communicated usually by the winds. When the wave dies +upon the shore, this force is dissipated, not lost, or is turned into +heat. Why may we not think of life as a vital force traveling through +matter and lifting up into organic life waves in the same way? But not +translatable into any other form of energy because not derivable from +any other form. + +Every species of animal has something about it that is unique and +individual and that no chemical or physiological analysis of it will +show--probably some mode of motion among its ultimate particles that is +peculiar to itself. This prevents cross-breeding among different species +and avoids a chaos of animal and vegetable forms. Living tissues and +living organs from one species cannot be grafted upon the individuals +of another species; the kidney of a cat, for instance, cannot be +substituted for that of a dog, although the functions and the anatomy of +the two are identical. It is suggested that an element of felineness and +an element of canineness adhere in the cells of each, and the two are +antagonistic. This specific quality, or selfness, of an animal pervades +every drop of its blood, so that the blood relationship of the different +forms may be thus tested, where chemistry is incompetent to show +agreement or antagonism. The reactions of life are surer and more subtle +than those of chemistry. Thus the blood relationship between birds and +reptiles is clearly shown, as is the relationship of man and the +chimpanzee and the orang-outang. The same general fact holds true in the +vegetable world. You cannot graft the apple upon the oak, or the plum +upon the elm. It seems as if there were the quality of oakness and the +quality of appleness, and they would not mix. + +The same thing holds among different chemical compounds. Substances +which have precisely the same chemical formulae (called isomers) have +properties as widely apart as alcohol and ether. + +If chemistry is powerless to trace the relationship between different +forms of life, is it not highly improbable that the secret of life +itself is in the keeping of chemistry? + +Analytical science has reached the end of its tether when it has +resolved a body into its constituent elements. Why or how these elements +build up a man in the one case, and a monkey in another, is beyond its +province to say. It can deal with all the elements of the living body, +vegetable and animal; it can take them apart and isolate them in +different bottles; but it cannot put them together again as they were in +life. It knows that the human body is built up of a vast multitude of +minute cells, that these cells build tissues, that the tissues build +organs, that the organs build the body; but the secret of the man, or +the dog, or even the flea, is beyond its reach. The secret of biology, +that which makes its laws and processes differ so widely from those of +geology or astronomy, is a profound mystery. Science can take living +tissue and make it grow outside of the body from which it came, but it +will only repeat endlessly the first step of life--that of +cell-multiplication; it is like a fire that will burn as long as fuel is +given it and the ashes are removed; but it is entirely purposeless; it +will not build up the organ of which it once formed a part, much less +the whole organized body. + +The difference between one man and another does not reside in his +anatomy or physiology, or in the elements of which the brains and bodies +are composed, but in something entirely beyond the reach of experimental +science to disclose. The difference is psychological, or, we may say, +philosophical, and science is none the wiser for it. The mechanics and +the chemistry of a machine are quite sufficient to account for it, plus +the man behind it. To the physics and chemistry of a living body, we are +compelled to add some intangible, unknowable principle or tendency that +physics and chemistry cannot disclose or define. One hesitates to make +such a statement lest he do violence to that oneness, that sameness, +that pervades the universe. + +All trees go to the same soil for their ponderable elements, their +ashes, and to the air and the light for their imponderable,--their +carbon and their energy,--but what makes the tree, and makes one tree +differ from another? Has the career of life upon this globe, the +unfolding of the evolutionary process, been accounted for when you have +named all the physical and material elements and processes which it +involves? We take refuge in the phrase "the nature of things," but the +nature of things evidently embraces something not dreamed of in our +science. + + +VII + +It is reported that a French scientist has discovered the secret of the +glow-worm's light. Of course it is a chemical reaction,--what else could +it be?--but it is a chemical reaction in a vital process. Our mental and +spiritual life--our emotions of art, poetry, religion--are inseparable +from physical processes in the brain and the nervous system; but is +that their final explanation? The sunlight has little effect on a +withered leaf, but see what effect it has upon the green leaf upon the +tree! The sunlight is the same, but it falls upon a new force or potency +in the chlorophyll of the leaf,--a bit of chemistry there inspired by +life,--and the heat of the sun is stored up in the carbon or woody +tissues of the plant or tree, to be given out again in our stoves or +fireplaces. And behold how much more of the solar heat is stored up in +one kind of a tree than in certain other kinds,--how much in the +hickory, oak, maple, and how little comparatively in the pine, spruce, +linden,--all through the magic of something in the leaf, or shall we say +of the spirit of the tree? If the laws of matter and force alone account +for the living organism, if we do not have to think of something that +organizes, then how do we account for the marvelous diversity of living +forms, and their still more marvelous power of adaptation to changed +conditions, since the laws of matter and force are the same everywhere? +Science can deal only with the mechanism and chemistry of life, not with +its essence; that which sets up the new activity in matter that we call +vital is beyond its analysis. It is hard to believe that we have told +the whole truth about a living body when we have enumerated all its +chemical and mechanical activities. It is by such enumeration that we +describe a watch, or a steam-engine, or any other piece of machinery. +Describe I say, but such description does not account for the watch or +tell us its full significance. To do this, we must include the +watchmaker, and the world of mind and ideas amid which he lives. Now, in +a living machine, the machine and the maker are one. The watch is +perpetually self-wound and self-regulated and self-repaired. It is made +up of millions of other little watches, the cells, all working together +for one common end and ticking out the seconds and minutes of life with +unfailing regularity. Unlike the watch we carry in our pockets, if we +take it apart so as to stop its ticking, it can never be put together +again. It has not merely stopped; it is dead. + +The late William Keith Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University, said in +opposition to Huxley that he held to the "old-fashioned conviction that +living things do in some way, and in some degree, control or condition +inorganic nature; that they hold their own by setting the mechanical +properties of matter in opposition to each other, and that this is their +most notable and distinctive characteristic." And yet, he said, to think +of the living world as "anything but natural" is impossible. + + +VIII + +Life seems to beget a new kind of chemistry, the same elements behave so +differently when they are drawn into the life circuit from what they +did before. Carbon, for instance, enters into hundreds of new compounds +in the organic world that are unknown in the inorganic world. I am thus +speaking of life as if it were something, some force or agent, that +antedates its material manifestations, whereas in the eyes of science +there is no separation of the one from the other. In an explosion there +is usually something anterior to, or apart from, the explosive compound, +that pulls the trigger, or touches the match, or completes the circuit, +but in the slow and gentle explosions that keep the life machinery +going, we cannot make such a distinction. The spark and the powder are +one; the gun primes and fires itself; the battery is perpetually +self-charged; the lamp is self-trimmed and self-lit. + +Sir Oliver Lodge is apparently so impressed with some such +considerations that he spiritualizes life, and makes it some mysterious +entity in itself, existing apart from the matter which it animates and +uses; not a source of energy but a timer and releaser of energy. Henri +Bergson, in his "Creative Evolution," expounds a similar philosophy of +life. Life is a current in opposition to matter which it enters into, +and organizes into the myriads of living forms. + +I confess that it is easier for me to think of life in these terms than +in terms of physical science. The view falls in better with our +anthropomorphic tendencies. It appeals to the imagination and to our +myth-making aptitudes. It gives a dramatic interest to the question. +With Bergson we see life struggling with matter, seeking to overcome its +obduracy, compromising with it, taking a half-loaf when it cannot get a +whole one; we see evolution as the unfolding of a vast drama acted upon +the stage of geologic time. Creation becomes a perpetual process, the +creative energy an ever-present and familiar fact. Bergson's book is a +wonderful addition to the literature of science and of philosophy. The +poet, the dreamer, the mystic, in each of us takes heart at Bergson's +beautiful philosophy; it seems like a part of life; it goes so well with +living things. As James said, it is like the light of the morning and +the singing of birds; we glory in seeing the intellect humbled as he +humbles it. The concepts of science try our mettle. They do not appeal +to our humanity, or to our myth-making tendencies; they appeal to the +purely intellectual, impersonal force within us. Though all our gods +totter and fall, science goes its way; though our hearts are chilled and +our lives are orphaned, science cannot turn aside, or veil its light. It +does not temper the wind to the shorn lamb. + +Hence the scientific conception of the universe repels many people. They +are not equal to it. To think of life as involved in the very +constitution of matter itself is a much harder proposition than to +conceive of it as Bergson and Sir Oliver Lodge do, as an independent +reality. The latter view gives the mind something more tangible to lay +hold of. Indeed, science gives the mind nothing to take hold of. Does +any chemical process give the mind any separate reality to take hold of? +Is there a spirit of fire, or of decay, or of disease, or of health? + + +IX + +Behold a man with his wonderful body, and still more wonderful mind; try +to think of him as being fathered and mothered by the mere mechanical +and chemical forces that we see at work in the rocks and soil underfoot, +begotten by chemical affinity or the solar energy working as molecular +physic, and mothered by the warmth and moisture, by osmosis and the +colloid state--and all through the chance clashings and groupings of the +irrational physical forces. Nothing is added to them, nothing guides or +inspires them, nothing moves upon the face of the waters, nothing +breathes upon the insensate clay. The molecules or corpuscles of the +four principal elements--carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen--just +happened to come together in certain definite numbers, and in a certain +definite order, and invented or built up that most marvelous thing in +the universe, the cell. The cells put their heads, or bodies, together, +and built the tissues, the tissues formed the organs, the organs in +convention assembled organized themselves into the body, and behold! a +man, a bird, or a tree!--as chance a happening as the juxtaposition of +the grains of sand upon the shore, or the shape of the summer clouds in +the sky. + +Aristotle dwells upon the internal necessity. The teeth of an animal +arise from necessity, he says; the animal must have them in order to +live. Yet it must have lived before it had them, else how would the +necessity arise? If the horns of an animal arise from the same +necessity, the changing conditions of its life begat the necessity; its +life problem became more and more complicated, till new tools arose to +meet new wants. But without some indwelling principle of development and +progress, how could the new wants arise? Spencer says this progress is +the result of the action and reaction between organisms and their +changing environment. But you must first get your organism before the +environment can work its effects, and you must have something in the +organism that organizes and reacts from the environment. We see the +agents he names astronomic, geologic, meteorologic, having their effects +upon inanimate objects as well, but they do not start the process of +development in them; they change a stone, but do not transform it into +an organism. The chemist can take the living body apart as surely as the +watchmaker can take a watch apart, but he cannot put the parts together +again so that life will reappear, as the watchmaker can restore the +time-keeping power of the watch. The watch is a mere mechanical +contrivance with parts fitted to parts externally, while the living body +is a mechanical and chemical contrivance, with parts blended with parts +internally, so to speak, and acting together through sympathy, and not +merely by mechanical adjustment. Do we not have to think of some +organizing agent embracing and controlling all the parts, and integral +in each of them, making a vital bond instead of a mechanical one? + +There are degrees of vitality in living things, whereas there are only +degrees of complexity and delicacy and efficiency in mechanical +contrivances. One watch differs from another in the perfection of its +works, but not as two living bodies with precisely similar structure +differ from each other in their hold upon life, or in their measure of +vitality. No analysis possible to science could show any difference in +the chemistry and physics of two persons of whom one would withstand +hardships and diseases that would kill the other, or with whom one would +have the gift of long life and the other not. Machines differ from one +another quantitatively--more or less efficiency; a living body differs +from a machine qualitatively--its efficiency is of a different order; +its unity is of a different order; its complexity is of a different +order; the interdependence of its parts is of a different order. Yet +what a parallel there is between a machine and a living body! Both are +run by external forces or agents, solar energy in one applied +mechanically from without; in the other applied vitally from within; +both suffer from the wear and tear of time and from abuse, but one is +self-repaired and the other powerless in this respect--two machines with +the same treatment running the same number of years, but two men with +the same treatment running a very unequal number of years. Machines of +the same kind differ in durability, men differ in powers of endurance; a +man can "screw up his courage," but a machine has no courage to screw +up. Science may be unable to see any difference between vital mechanics, +vital chemistry, and the chemics and mechanics of inorganic bodies--its +analysis reveals no difference; but that there is a difference as +between two different orders, all men see and feel. + +Science cannot deal with fundamental questions. Only philosophy can do +this. Science is only a tool or a key, and it can unlock only certain +material problems. It cannot appraise itself. It is not a judge but a +witness. Problems of mind, of character, moral, aesthetic, literary, +artistic problems, are not its sphere. It counts and weighs and measures +and analyzes, it traces relations, but it cannot appraise its own +results. Science and religion come in conflict only when the latter +seeks to deal with objective facts, and the former seeks to deal with +subjective ideas and emotions. On the question of miracle they clash, +because religion is then dealing with natural phenomena and challenges +science. Philosophy offends science when it puts its own interpretation +upon scientific facts. Science displeases literature when it dehumanizes +nature and shows us irrefragable laws when we had looked for humanistic +divinities. + + + + +XI + +THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIT + + +In my youth I once heard the then well-known lecturer Starr King speak +on "The Law of Disorder." I have no recollection of the main thought of +his discourse, but can see that it might have been upon the order and +harmony that finally come out of the disharmonies of nature and of man. +The whole universe goes blundering on, but surely arrives. Collisions +and dispersions in the heavens above, and failure and destruction among +living things on the earth below, yet here we all are in a world good to +be in! The proof that it is good to be in is that we are actually here. +It is as if the Creator played his right hand against his left--what one +loses the other gains. + +It has been aptly said that while Darwin's theory of natural selection +may account for the survival of the fittest, it does not account for the +arrival of the fittest. The arrival of the fittest, sooner or later, +seems in some way guaranteed by tendencies that are beyond the +hit-and-miss method of natural selection. + +When we look back over the course of organic evolution, we see the +unfolding of a great drama, or tragedy, in which, for millions upon +millions of years the sole actors are low and all but brainless forms +of life, devouring and devoured, in the old seas. We see, during other +millions upon millions of years, a savage carnival of huge bestial forms +upon the land, amphibian monsters and dragons of the land and air, +devouring and being devoured, a riot of blood and carnage. We see the +shifting of land and sea, the folding and crumpling of the earth's +crust, the rise of mountains, the engulfing of forests, a vast +destruction of life, immense numbers of animal forms becoming extinct +through inability to adapt themselves to new conditions, or from other +causes. We see creatures, half beast, half bird, or half dragon, half +fish; we see the evolutionary process thwarted or delayed apparently by +the hardening or fixing of its own forms. We see it groping its way like +a blind man, and experimenting with this device and with that, fumbling, +awkward, ineffectual, trying magnitude of body and physical strength +first, and then shifting the emphasis to size of brain and delicacy and +complexity of nerve-organization, pushing on but gropingly, learning +only by experience, regardless of pain and waste and suffering; whole +races of sentient beings swept away by some terrestrial cataclysm, as at +the end of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic times; prodigal, inhuman, riotous, +arming some vegetable growths with spurs and thorns that tear and stab, +some insects with stings, some serpents with deadly fangs, the +production of pain as much a part of the scheme of things as the +production of pleasure; the creative impulse feeling its way through the +mollusk to the fish, and through the fish to the amphibian and the +reptile, through the reptile to the mammal, and through the mammal to +the anthropoid apes, and through the apes to man, then through the rude +and savage races of man, the long-jawed, small-brained, Pliocene man, +hairy and savage, to the cave-dwellers and stone-implement man of +Pleistocene times, and so on to our rude ancestors whom we see dimly at +the dawn of history, and thus rapidly upward to the European man of our +own era. What a record! What savagery, what thwartings and delays, what +carnage and suffering, what an absence of all that we mean by +intelligent planning and oversight, of love, of fatherhood! Just a clash +of forces, the battle to the strong and the race to the fleet. + +It is hard to believe that the course of organic evolution would have +eventuated in man and the other higher forms of life without some +guiding principle; yet it is equally difficult to believe that the +course of any guiding intelligence down the ages would have been strewn +with so many failures and monstrosities, so much waste and suffering and +delay. Man has not been specially favored by one force or element in +nature. Behold the enemies that beset him without and within, and that +are armed for his destruction! The intelligence that appears to pervade +the organic world, and that reaches its conscious expression in the +brain of man, is just as manifest in all the forms of animals and plants +that are inimical to him, in all his natural enemies,--venomous snakes +and beasts of prey, and insect pests,--as in anything else. Nature is as +wise and solicitous for rats and mice as for men. In fact, she has +endowed many of the lower creatures with physical powers that she has +denied him. Evidently man is only one of the cards in her pack; +doubtless the highest one, but the game is not played for him alone. + +There is no economy of effort or of material in nature as a whole, +whatever there may be in special parts. The universe is not run on +modern business-efficiency principles. There is no question of time, or +of profit, of solvency or insolvency. The profit-and-loss account in the +long run always balances. In our astronomic age there are probably +vastly more dead suns and planets strewing the depths of sidereal space +than there are living suns and planets. But in some earlier period in +the cycle of time the reverse may have been true, or it may be true in +some future period. + +There is economy of effort in the individual organism, but not in the +organic series, at least from the human point of view. During the +biologic ages there have been a vast number of animal forms, great and +small, and are still, that had no relation to man, that were not in his +line of descent, and played no part in his evolution. During that +carnival of monstrous and gigantic forms in Mesozoic time the ancestor +of man was probably some small and insignificant creature whose life was +constantly imperiled by the huge beasts about it. That it survived at +all in the clash of forces, bestial and elemental, during those early +ages, is one of the wonders of time. The drama or tragedy of evolution +has had many actors, some of them fearful and terrible to look upon, who +have played their parts and passed off the stage, as if the sole purpose +was the entertainment of some unseen spectator. When we reach human +history, what wasted effort, what failures, what blind groping, what +futile undertakings!--war, famine, pestilence, delaying progress or +bringing to naught the wisdom of generations of men! Those who live in +this age are witnessing in the terrible European war something analogous +to the blind, wasteful fury of the elemental forces; millions of men who +never saw one another, and who have not the shadow of a quarrel, engage +in a life-and-death struggle, armed with all the aids that centuries of +science and civilization can give them--a tragedy that darkens the very +heavens and makes a mockery of all our age-old gospel of peace and good +will to men. It is a catastrophe on a scale with the cataclysms of +geologic time when whole races disappeared and the face of continents +was changed. It seems that men in the aggregate, with all their science +and religion, are no more exempt from the operation of cosmic laws than +are the stocks and stones. Each party to this gigantic struggle declares +that he is in it against his will; the fate that rules in the solar +system seems to have them all in its grip; the working of forces and +tendencies for which no man was responsible seems to have brought it +about. Social communities grow in grace and good-fellowship, but +governments in their relations to one another, and often in relation to +their own subjects, are still barbarous. Men become christianized, but +man is still a heathen, the victim of savage instincts. In this struggle +one of the most admirable and efficient of nations, and one of the most +solicitous for the lives and well-being of its citizens, is suddenly +seized with a fury of destruction, hurling its soldiers to death as if +they were only the waste of the fields, and trampling down other peoples +whose geographic position placed them in their way as if they were +merely vermin, throwing international morality to the winds, looking +upon treaties as "scraps of paper," regarding themselves as the salt of +the earth, the chosen of the Lord, appropriating the Supreme Being as +did the colossal egotism of old Israel, and quickly getting down to the +basic principle of savage life--that might makes right. + +Little wonder that the good people are asking, Have we lost faith? We +may or we may not have lost faith, but can we not see that our faith +does not give us a key to the problem? Our faith is founded on the old +prescientific conception of a universe in which good and evil are +struggling with each other, with a Supreme Being aiding and abetting the +good. We fail to appreciate that the cosmic laws are no respecters of +persons. Emerson says there is no god dare wrong a worm, but worms dare +wrong one another, and there is no god dare take sides with either. The +tides in the affairs of men are as little subject to human control as +the tides of the sea and the air. We may fix the blame of the European +war upon this government or upon that, but race antagonisms and +geographical position are not matters of choice. An island empire, like +England, is bound to be jealous of all rivals upon the sea, because her +very life, when nations clash, depends upon her control of it; and an +inland empire, like Germany, is bound to grow restless under the +pressure of contiguous states of other races. A vast empire, like +Russia, is always in danger of falling apart by its own weight. It is +fused and consolidated by a turn of events that arouse the patriotic +emotions of the whole people and unite them in a common enthusiasm. + +The evolution of nations is attended by the same contingencies, the same +law of probability, the same law of the survival of the fit, as are +organic bodies. I say the survival of the fit; there are degrees of +fitness in the scale of life; the fit survive, and the fittest lead and +dominate, as did the reptiles in Mesozoic time, and the mammals in +Tertiary time. Among the mammals man is dominant because he is the +fittest. Nations break up or become extinct when they are no longer fit, +or equal to the exigencies of the struggles of life. The Roman Empire +would still exist if it had been entirely fit. The causes of its +unfitness form a long and intricate problem. Germany of to-day evidently +looks upon herself as the dominant nation, the one fittest to survive, +and she has committed herself to the desperate struggle of justifying +her self-estimate. She tramples down weaker nations as we do the stubble +of the fields. She would plough and harrow the world to plant her +Prussian _Kultur_. This _Kultur_ is a mighty good product, but we +outside of its pale think that French _Kultur_, and English _Kultur_, +and American _Kultur_ are good products also, and equally fit to +survive. We naturally object to being ploughed under. That Russian +_Kultur_ has so far proved itself a vastly inferior product cannot be +doubted, but the evolutionary processes will in time bring a finer and +higher Russia out of this vast weltering and fermenting mass of +humanity. In all these things impersonal laws and forces are at work, +and the balance of power, if temporarily disturbed, is bound, sooner or +later, to be restored just as it is in the inorganic realm. + +Evolution is creative, as Bergson contends. The wonder is that, +notwithstanding the indifference of the elemental forces and the blind +clashing of opposing tendencies among living forms,--a universe that +seems run entirely on the trial-and-error principle,--evolution has gone +steadily forward, a certain order and stability has been reached in the +world of inert bodies and forces, and myriads of forms of wonderful +fitness and beauty have been reached in the organic realm. Just as the +water-system and the weather-system of the globe have worked themselves +out on the hit-and-miss plan, but not without serious defects,--much too +much water and heat at a few places, and much too little at a few +others,--so the organic impulse, warred upon by the blind inorganic +elements and preyed upon by the forms it gave rise to, has worked itself +out and peopled the world as we see it peopled to-day--not with forms +altogether admirable and lovely from our point of view, but so from the +point of view of the whole. The forests get themselves planted by the +go-as-you-please winds and currents, the pines in one place, the spruce, +the oaks, the elms, the beeches, in another, all with a certain fitness +and system. The waters gather themselves together in great bodies and +breathe salubrity and fertility upon the land. + +A certain order and reasonableness emerges from the chaos and +cross-purposes. There are harmony and cooeperation among the elemental +forces, as well as strife and antagonism. Life gets on, for all groping +and blundering. There is the inherent variability of living forms to +begin with--the primordial push toward the development from within +which, so far as we can see, is not fortuitous, but predestined; and +there is the stream of influences from without, constantly playing upon +and modifying the organism and taken advantage of by it. + +The essence of life is in adaptability; it goes into partnership with +the forces and conditions that surround it. It is this trait which leads +the teleological philosopher to celebrate the fitness of the environment +when its fitness is a foregone conclusion. Shall we praise the fitness +of the air for breathing, or of the water for drinking, or of the winds +for filling our sails? If we cannot say explicitly, without speaking +from our anthropomorphism, that there is a guiding intelligence in the +evolution of living forms, we can at least say, I think, that the +struggle for life is favored by the very constitution of the universe +and that man in some inscrutable way was potential in the fiery nebula +itself. + + + + +XII + +THE NATURALIST'S VIEW OF LIFE + + +I + +William James said that one of the privileges of a philosopher was to +contradict other philosophers. I may add in the same spirit that one of +the fatalities of many philosophers is, sooner or later, to contradict +themselves. I do not know that James ever contradicted himself, but I +have little doubt that a critical examination of his works would show +that he sometimes did so; I remember that he said he often had trouble +to make both ends of his philosophy meet. Any man who seeks to compass +any of the fundamental problems with the little span of his finite mind, +is bound at times to have trouble to make both ends meet. The man of +science seldom has any such trouble with his problems; he usually knows +what is the matter and forthwith seeks to remedy it. But the philosopher +works with a much more intangible and elusive material, and is lucky if +he is ever aware when both ends fail to meet. + +I have often wondered if Darwin, who was a great philosopher as well as +a great man of science, saw or felt the contradiction between his theory +of the origin of species through natural selection working upon +fortuitous variations, and his statement, made in his old age, that he +could not look upon man, with all his wonderful powers, as the result of +mere chance. The result of chance man certainly is--is he not?--as are +all other forms of life, if evolution is a mere mechanical process set +going and kept going by the hit-and-miss action of the environment upon +the organism, or by the struggle for existence. If evolution involves no +intelligence in nature, no guiding or animating principle, then is not +man an accidental outcome of the blind clashing and jolting of the +material forces, as much so as the great stone face in the rocks which +Hawthorne used so suggestively in one of his stories? + +I have wondered if Huxley was aware that both ends of his argument did +not quite meet when he contended for the truth of determinism--that +there is and can be no free or spontaneous volition; and at the same +time set man apart from the cosmic order, and represented him as working +his will upon it, crossing and reversing its processes. In one of his +earlier essays, Huxley said that to the student of living things, as +contrasted with the student of inert matter, the aspect of nature is +reversed. "In living matter, incessant, and so far as we know, +spontaneous, change is the rule, rest the exception, the anomaly, to be +accounted for. Living things have no inertia, and tend to no +equilibrium," except the equilibrium of death. This is good vitalistic +doctrine, as far as it goes, yet Huxley saw no difference between the +matter of life and other matter, except in the manner in which the atoms +are aggregated. Probably the only difference between a diamond and a +piece of charcoal, or between a pearl and an oyster-shell, is the manner +in which the atoms are aggregated; but that the secret of life is in the +peculiar compounding of the atoms or molecules--a spatial arrangement of +them--is a harder proposition. It seems to me also that Haeckel involves +himself in obvious contradictions when he ascribes will, sensation, +inclination, dislike, though of a low order, to the atoms of matter; in +fact, sees them as living beings with souls, and then denies soul, will, +power of choice, and the like to their collective unity in the brain of +man. + +A philosopher cannot well afford to assume the air of lofty indifference +that the poet Whitman does when he asks, "Do I contradict myself? Very +well, then, I contradict myself"; but he may take comfort in the thought +that contradictions are often only apparent, and not real, as when two +men standing on opposite sides of the earth seem to oppose each other, +and yet their heads point to the same heavens, and their feet to the +same terrestrial centre. The logic of the earth completely contradicts +the ideas we draw from our experience with other globes, both our +artificial globes and the globes in the forms of the sun and the moon +that we see in the heavens. The earth has only one side, the outside, +which is always the upper side; at the South Pole, as at the North, we +are on the top side. I fancy the whole truth of any of the great +problems, if we could see it, would reconcile all our half-truths, all +the contradictions in our philosophy. + +In considering this problem of the mystery of living things, I have had +a good deal of trouble in trying to make my inborn idealism go hand in +hand with my inborn naturalism; but I am not certain that there is any +real break or contradiction between them, only a surface one, and that +deeper down the strata still unite them. Life seems beyond the capacity +of inorganic nature to produce; and yet here is life in its myriad +forms, here is the body and mind of man, and here is the world of +inanimate matter out of which all living beings arise, and into which +they sooner or later return; and we must either introduce a new +principle to account for it all, or else hold to the idea that what is +is natural--a legitimate outcome of the universal laws and processes +that have been operating through all time. This last is the point of +view of the present chapter,--the point of view of naturalism; not +strictly the scientific view which aims to explain all life phenomena in +terms of exact experimental science, but the larger, freer view of the +open-air naturalist and literary philosopher. I cannot get rid of, or +hold in abeyance, my inevitable idealism, if I would; neither can I do +violence to my equally inevitable naturalism, but may I not hope to make +the face of my naturalism beam with the light of the ideal--the light +that never was in the physico-chemical order, and never can be there? + + +II + +The naturalist cannot get away from the natural order, and he sees man, +and all other forms of life, as an integral part of it--the order, which +in inert matter is automatic and fateful, and which in living matter is +prophetic and indeterminate; the course of one down the geologic ages, +seeking only a mechanical repose, being marked by collisions and +disruptions; the other in its course down the biologic ages seeking a +vital and unstable repose, being marked by pain, failure, carnage, +extinction, and ceaseless struggle with the physical order upon which it +depends. Man has taken his chances in the clash of blind matter, and in +the warfare of living forms. He has been the pet of no god, the favorite +of no power on earth or in heaven. He is one of the fruits of the great +cosmic tree, and is subject to the same hazards and failures as the +fruit of all other trees. The frosts may nip him in the bud, the storms +beat him down, foes of earth and air prey upon him, and hostile +influences from all sides impede or mar him. The very forces that +uphold him and furnish him his armory of tools and of power, will +destroy him the moment he is off his guard. He is like the trainer of +wild beasts who, at his peril, for one instant relaxes his mastery over +them. Gravity, electricity, fire, flood, hurricane, will crush or +consume him if his hand is unsteady or his wits tardy. Nature has dealt +with him upon the same terms as with all other forms of life. She has +shown him no favor. The same elements--the same water, air, lime, iron, +sulphur, oxygen, carbon, and so on--make up his body and his brain as +make up theirs, and the same make up theirs as are the constituents of +the insensate rocks, soils, and clouds. The same elements, the same +atoms and molecules, but a different order; the same solar energy, but +working to other ends; the same life principle but lifted to a higher +plane. How can we separate man from the total system of things, setting +him upon one side and them upon another, making the relation of the two +mechanical or accidental? It is only in thought, or in obedience to some +creed or philosophy, that we do it. In life, in action, we unconsciously +recognize ourselves as a part of Nature. Our success and well-being +depend upon the closeness and spontaneousness of the relation. + +If all this is interpreted to mean that life, that the mind and soul of +man, are of material origin, science does not shrink from the inference. +Only the inference demands a newer and higher conception of matter--the +conception that Tyndall expressed when he wrote the word with a capital +M, and declared that Matter was "at bottom essentially mystical and +transcendental"; that Goethe expressed when he called matter "the living +garment of God"; and that Whitman expressed when he said that the soul +and the body were one. The materialism of the great seers and prophets +of science who penetrate into the true inwardness of matter, who see +through the veil of its gross obstructive forms and behold it translated +into pure energy, need disturb no one. + +In our religious culture we have beggared matter that we might exalt +spirit; we have bankrupted earth that we might enrich heaven; we have +debased the body that we might glorify the soul. But science has changed +all this. Mankind can never again rest in the old crude dualism. The +Devil has had his day, and the terrible Hebrew Jehovah has had his day; +the divinities of this world are now having their day. + +The puzzle or the contradiction in the naturalistic view of life appears +when we try to think of a being as a part of Nature, having his genesis +in her material forces, who is yet able to master and direct Nature, +reversing her processes and defeating her ends, opposing his will to her +fatalism, his mercy to her cruelty--in short, a being who thinks, +dreams, aspires, loves truth, justice, goodness, and sits in judgment +upon the very gods he worships. Must he not bring a new force, an alien +power? Can a part be greater than the whole? Can the psychic dominate +the physical out of which it came? Again we have only to enlarge our +conception of the physical--the natural--or make our faith measure up to +the demands of reason. Our reason demands that the natural order be +all-inclusive. Can our faith in the divinity of matter measure up to +this standard? Not till we free ourselves from the inherited prejudices +which have grown up from our everyday struggles with gross matter. We +must follow the guidance of science till we penetrate this husk and see +its real mystical and transcendental character, as Tyndall did. + +When we have followed matter from mass to molecule, from molecule to +atom, from atom to electron, and seen it in effect dematerialized,--seen +it in its fourth or ethereal, I had almost said spiritual, state,--when +we have grasped the wonder of radio-activity, and the atomic +transformations that attend it, we shall have a conception of the +potencies and possibilities of matter that robs scientific materialism +of most of its ugliness. Of course, no deductions of science can satisfy +our longings for something kindred to our own spirits in the universe. +But neither our telescopes nor our microscopes reveal such a reality. Is +this longing only the result of our inevitable anthropomorphism, or is +it the evidence of things unseen, the substance of things hoped for, the +prophecy of our kinship with the farthest star? Can soul arise out of a +soulless universe? + +Though the secret of life is under our feet, yet how strange and +mysterious it seems! It draws our attention away from matter. It arises +among the inorganic elements like a visitant from another sphere. It is +a new thing in the world. Consciousness is a new thing, yet Huxley makes +it one of his trinity of realities--matter, energy, and consciousness. +We are so immersed in these realities that we do not see the divinity +they embody. We call that sacred and divine which is far off and +unattainable. Life and mind are so impossible of explanation in terms of +matter and energy, that it is not to be wondered at that mankind has so +long looked upon their appearance upon this earth as a miraculous event. +But until science opened our eyes we did not know that the celestial and +the terrestrial are one, and that we are already in the heavens among +the stars. When we emancipate ourselves from the bondage of wont and +use, and see with clear vision our relations to the Cosmos, all our +ideas of materialism and spiritualism are made over, and we see how the +two are one; how life and death play into each other's hands, and how +the whole truth of things cannot be compassed by any number of finite +minds. + + +III + +When we are bold enough to ask the question, Is life an addition to +matter or an evolution from matter? how all these extra-scientific +theories about life as a separate entity wilt and fade away! If we know +anything about the ways of creative energy, we know that they are not as +our ways; we know its processes bear no analogy to the linear and +external doings of man. Creative energy works from within; it identifies +itself with, and is inseparable from, the element in which it works. I +know that in this very statement I am idealizing the creative energy, +but my reader will, I trust, excuse this inevitable anthropomorphism. +The way of the creative energy is the way of evolution. When we begin to +introduce things, when we begin to separate the two orders, the vital +and the material, or, as Bergson says, when we begin to think of things +created, and of a thing that creates, we are not far from the state of +mind of our childhood, and of the childhood of the race. We are not far +from the Mosaic account of creation. Life appears as an introduction, +man and his soul as introductions. + +Our reason, our knowledge of the method of Nature, declare for +evolution; because here we are, here is this amazing world of life about +us, and here it goes on through the action and interaction of purely +physical and chemical forces. Life seems as natural as day and night, +as the dews and the rain. Our studies of the past history of the globe +reveal the fact that life appeared upon a cooling planet when the +temperature was suitable, and when its basic elements, water and carbon +dioxide, were at hand. How it began, whether through insensible changes +in the activities of inert matter, lasting whole geologic ages, or by a +sudden transformation at many points on the earth's surface, we can +never know. But science can see no reason for believing that its +beginning was other than natural; it was inevitable from the +constitution of matter itself. Moreover, since the law of evolution +seems of universal application, and affords the key to more great +problems than any other generalization of the human mind, one would say +on _a priori_ grounds that life is an evolution, that its genesis is to +be sought in the inherent capacities and potentialities of matter +itself. How else could it come? Science cannot go outside of matter and +its laws for an explanation of any phenomena that appear in matter. It +goes inside of matter instead, and in its mysterious molecular +attractions and repulsions, in the whirl and dance of the atoms and +electrons, in their emanations and transformations, in their amazing +potencies and activities, sees, or seems to see, the secret of the +origin of life itself. But this view is distasteful to a large number of +thinking persons. Many would call it frank materialism, and declare +that it is utterly inadequate to supply the spiritual and ideal +background which is the strength and solace of our human life. + + +IV + +The lay mind can hardly appreciate the necessity under which the man of +science feels to account for all the phenomena of life in terms of the +natural order. To the scientist the universe is complete in itself. He +can admit of no break or discontinuity anywhere. Threads of relation, +visible and invisible,--chemical, mechanical, electric, magnetic, solar, +lunar, stellar, geologic, biologic,--forming an intricate web of subtle +forces and influences, bind all things, living and dead, into a cosmic +unity. Creation is one, and that one is symbolized by the sphere which +rests forever on itself, which is whole at every point, which holds all +forms, which reconciles all contradictions, which has no beginning and +no ending, which has no upper and no under, and all of whose lines are +fluid and continuous. The disruptions and antagonisms which we fancy we +see are only the result of our limited vision; nature is not at war with +itself; there is no room or need for miracle; there is no outside to the +universe, because there are no bounds to matter or spirit; all is +inside; deep beneath deep, height above height, and this mystery and +miracle that we call life must arise out of the natural order in the +course of time as inevitably as the dew forms and the rain falls. When +the rains and the dews and the snows cease to fall,--a time which +science predicts,--then life, as we know it, must inevitably vanish from +the earth. Human life is a physical phenomenon, and though it involves, +as we believe, a psychic or non-physical principle, it is still not +exempt from the operation of the universal physical laws. It came by +them or through them, and it must go by them or through them. + +The rigidly scientific mind, impressed with all these things as the lay +mind cannot be, used to the searching laboratory methods, and familiar +with the phenomenon of life in its very roots, as it were, dealing with +the wonders of chemical compounds, and the forces that lurk in molecules +and atoms, seeing in the cosmic universe, and in the evolution of the +earth, only the operation of mechanical and chemical principles; seeing +the irrefragable law of the correlation and the conservation of forces; +tracing consciousness and all our changes in mental states to changes in +the brain substance; drilled in methods of proof by experimentation; +knowing that the same number of ultimate atoms may be so combined or +married as to produce compounds that differ as radically as alcohol and +ether,--conversant with all these things, and more, I say,--the strictly +scientific mind falls naturally and inevitably into the mechanistic +conception of all life phenomena. + +Science traces the chain of cause and effect everywhere and finds no +break. It follows down animal life till it merges in the vegetable, +though it cannot put its finger or its microscope on the point where one +ends and the other begins. It finds forms that partake of the +characteristics of both. It is reasonable to expect that the vegetable +merges into the mineral by the same insensible degrees, and that the one +becomes the other without any real discontinuity. The change, if we may +call it such, probably takes place in the interior world of matter among +the primordial atoms, where only the imagination can penetrate. In that +sleep of the ultimate corpuscle, what dreams may come, what miracles may +be wrought, what transformations take place! When I try to think of life +as a mode of motion in matter, I seem to see the particles in a mystic +dance, a whirling maze of motions, the infinitely little people taking +hold of hands, changing partners, facing this way and that, doing all +sorts of impossible things, like jumping down one another's throats, or +occupying one another's bodies, thrilled and vibrating at an +inconceivable rate. + +The theological solution of this problem of life fails more and more to +satisfy thinking men of to-day. Living things are natural phenomena, and +we feel that they must in some way be an outcome of the natural order. +Science is more and more familiarizing our minds with the idea that the +universe is a universe, a oneness; that its laws are continuous. We +follow the chemistry of it to the farthest stars and there is no serious +break or exception; it is all of one stuff. We follow the mechanics of +it into the same abysmal depths, and there are no breaks or exceptions. +The biology of it we cannot follow beyond our own little corner of the +universe; indeed, we have no proof that there is any biology anywhere +else. But if there is, it must be similar to our own. There is only one +kind of electricity (though two phases of it), only one kind of light +and heat, one kind of chemical affinity, in the universe; and hence only +one kind of life. Looked at in its relation to the whole, life appears +like a transient phenomenon of matter. I will not say accidental; it +seems inseparably bound up with the cosmic processes, but, I may say, +fugitive, superficial, circumscribed. Life comes and goes; it penetrates +but a little way into the earth; it is confined to a certain range of +temperature. Beyond a certain degree of cold, on the one hand, it does +not appear; and beyond a certain degree of heat, on the other, it is cut +off. Without water or moisture, it ceases; and without air, it is not. +It has evidently disappeared from the moon, and probably from the +inferior planets, and it is doubtful if it has yet appeared on any of +the superior planets, save Mars. + +Life comes to matter as the flowers come in the spring,--when the time +is ripe for it,--and it disappears when the time is over-ripe. Man +appears in due course and has his little day upon the earth, but that +day must as surely come to an end. Yet can we conceive of the end of the +physical order? the end of gravity? or of cohesion? The air may +disappear, the water may disappear, combustion may cease; but oxygen, +hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon will continue somewhere. + + +V + +Science is the redeemer of the physical world. It opens our eyes to its +true inwardness, and purges it of the coarse and brutal qualities with +which, in our practical lives, it is associated. It has its inner world +of activities and possibilities of which our senses give us no hint. +This inner world of molecules and atoms and electrons, thrilled and +vibrating with energy, the infinitely little, the almost infinitely +rapid, in the bosom of the infinitely vast and distant and +automatic--what a revelation it all is! what a glimpse into "Nature's +infinite book of secrecy"! + +Our senses reveal to us but one kind of motion--mass motion--the change +of place of visible bodies. But there is another motion in all matter +which our senses do not reveal to us as motion--molecular vibration, or +the thrill of the atoms. At the heart of the most massive rock this +whirl of the atoms or corpuscles is going on. If our ears were fine +enough to hear it, probably every rock and granite monument would sing, +as did Memnon, when the sun shone upon it. This molecular vibration is +revealed to us as heat, light, sound, electricity. Heat is only a mode +of this invisible motion of the particles of matter. Mass motion is +quickly converted into this molecular motion when two bodies strike each +other. May not life itself be the outcome of a peculiar whirl of the +ultimate atoms of matter? + +Says Professor Gotch, as quoted by J. Arthur Thomson in his +"Introduction to Science": "To the thought of a scientific mind the +universe with all its suns and worlds is throughout one seething welter +of modes of motion, playing in space, playing in ether, playing in all +existing matter, playing in all living things, playing, therefore, in +ourselves." Physical science, as Professor Thomson says, leads us from +our static way of looking at things to the dynamic way. It teaches us to +regard the atom, not as a fixed and motionless structure, like the +bricks in a wall, but as a centre of ever-moving energy; it sees the +whole universe is in a state of perpetual flux, a flowing stream of +creative energy out of which life arises as one of the manifestations of +this energy. + +When we have learned all that science can tell us about the earth, is it +not more rather than less wonderful? When we know all it can tell us +about the heavens above, or about the sea, or about our own bodies, or +about a flower, or a bird, or a tree, or a cloud, are they less +beautiful and wonderful? The mysteries of generation, of inheritance, of +cell life, are rather enhanced by science. + + +VI + +When the man of science seeks to understand and explain the world in +which we live, he guards himself against seeing double, or seeing two +worlds instead of one, as our unscientific fathers did--an immaterial or +spiritual world surrounding and interpenetrating the physical world, or +the supernatural enveloping and directing the natural. He sees but one +world, and that a world complete in itself; surrounded, it is true, by +invisible forces, and holding immeasured and immeasurable potencies; a +vastly more complex and wonderful world than our fathers ever dreamed +of; a fruit, as it were, of the great sidereal tree, bound by natal +bonds to myriads of other worlds, of one stuff with them, ahead or +behind them in its ripening, but still complete in itself, needing no +miracle to explain it, no spirits or demons to account for its +processes, not even its vital processes. + +In the light of what he knows of the past history of the earth, the man +of science sees with his mind's eye the successive changes that have +taken place in it; he sees the globe a mass of incandescent matter +rolling through space; he sees the crust cooling and hardening; he sees +the waters appear, the air and the soil appear, he sees the clouds begin +to form and the rain to fall, he sees living things appear in the +waters, then upon the land, and in the air; he sees the two forms of +life arise, the vegetable and the animal, the latter standing upon the +former; he sees more and more complex forms of both vegetable and animal +arise and cover the earth. They all appear in the course of the geologic +ages on the surface of the earth; they arise out of it; they are a part +of it; they come naturally; no hand reaches down from heaven and places +them there; they are not an addendum; they are not a sudden creation; +they are an evolution; they were potential in the earth before they +arose out of it. The earth ripened, her crust mellowed, and thickened, +her airs softened and cleared, her waters were purified, and in due time +her finer fruits were evolved, and, last of all, man arose. It was all +one process. There was no miracle, no first day of creation; all were +days of creation. Brooded by the sun, the earth hatched her offspring; +the promise and the potency of all terrestrial life was in the earth +herself; her womb was fertile from the first. All that we call the +spiritual, the divine, the celestial, were hers, because man is hers. +Our religions and our philosophies and our literatures are hers; man is +a part of the whole system of things; he is not an alien, nor an +accident, nor an interloper; he is here as the rains, the dews, the +flowers, the rocks, the soil, the trees, are here. He appeared when the +time was ripe, and he will disappear when the time is over-ripe. He is +of the same stuff as the ground he walks upon; there is no better stuff +in the heavens above him, nor in the depths below him, than sticks to +his own ribs. The celestial and the terrestrial forces unite and work +together in him, as in all other creatures. We cannot magnify man +without magnifying the universe of which he is a part; and we cannot +belittle it without belittling him. + +Now we can turn all this about and look upon it as mankind looked upon +it in the prescientific ages, and as so many persons still look upon it, +and think of it all as the work of external and higher powers. We can +think of the earth as the footstool of some god, or the sport of some +demon; we can people the earth and the air with innumerable spirits, +high and low; we can think of life as something apart from matter. But +science will not, cannot follow us; it cannot discredit the world it has +disclosed--I had almost said, the world it has created. Science has made +us at home in the universe. It has visited the farthest stars with its +telescope and spectroscope, and finds we are all akin. It has sounded +the depths of matter with its analysis, and it finds nothing alien to +our own bodies. It sees motion everywhere, motion within motion, +transformation, metamorphosis everywhere, energy everywhere, currents +and counter-currents everywhere, ceaseless change everywhere; it finds +nothing in the heavens more spiritual, more mysterious, more celestial, +more godlike, than it finds upon this earth. This does not imply that +evolution may not have progressed farther upon other worlds, and given +rise to a higher order of intelligences than here; it only implies that +creation is one, and that the same forces, the same elements and +possibilities, exist everywhere. + + +VII + +Give free rein to our anthropomorphic tendencies, and we fill the world +with spirits, good and bad--bad in war, famine, pestilence, disease; +good in all the events and fortunes that favor us. Early man did this on +all occasions; he read his own hopes and fears and passions into all the +operations of nature. Our fathers did it in many things; good people of +our own time do it in exceptional instances, and credit any good fortune +to Providence. Men high in the intellectual and philosophical world, +still invoke something antithetical to matter, to account for the +appearance of life on the planet. + +It may be justly urged that the effect upon our habits of thought of the +long ages during which this process has been going on, leading us to +differentiate matter and spirit and look upon them as two opposite +entities, hindering or contending with each other,--one heavenly, the +other earthly, one everlasting, the other perishable, one the supreme +good, the other the seat and parent of all that is evil,--the cumulative +effect of this habit of thought in the race-mind is, I say, not easily +changed or overcome. We still think, and probably many of us always will +think, of spirit as something alien to matter, something mystical, +transcendental, and not of this world. We look upon matter as gross, +obstructive, and the enemy of the spirit. We do not know how we are +going to get along without it, but we solace ourselves with the thought +that by and by, in some other, non-material world, we shall get along +without it, and experience a great expansion of life by reason of our +emancipation from it. Our practical life upon this planet is more or +less a struggle with gross matter; our senses apprehend it coarsely; of +its true inwardness they tell us nothing; of the perpetual change and +transformation of energy going on in bodies about us they tell us +nothing; of the wonders and potencies of matter as revealed in +radio-activity, in the X-ray, in chemical affinity and polarity, they +tell us nothing; of the all-pervasive ether, without which we could not +see or live at all, they tell us nothing. In fact we live and move and +have our being in a complex of forces and tendencies of which, even by +the aid of science, we but see as through a glass darkly. Of the +effluence of things, the emanations from the minds and bodies of our +friends, and from other living forms about us, from the heavens above +and from the earth below, our daily lives tell us nothing, any more than +our eyes tell us of the invisible rays in the sun's spectrum, or than +our ears tell us of the murmurs of the life-currents in growing things. +Science alone unveils the hidden wonders and sleepless activities of the +world forces that play through us and about us. It alone brings the +heavens near, and reveals the brotherhood or sisterhood of worlds. It +alone makes man at home in the universe, and shows us how many friendly +powers wait upon him day and night. It alone shows him the glories and +the wonders of the voyage we are making upon this ship in the stellar +infinitude, and that, whatever the port, we shall still be on familiar +ground--we cannot get away from home. + +There is always an activity in inert matter that we little suspect. See +the processes going on in the stratified rocks that suggest or parody +those of life. See the particles of silica that are diffused through the +limestone, hunting out each other and coming together in concretions and +forming flint or chert nodules; or see them in the process of +petrifaction slowly building up a tree of chalcedony or onyx in place of +a tree of wood, repeating every cell, every knot, every worm-hole--dead +matter copying exactly a form of living matter; or see the phenomenon of +crystallization everywhere; see the solution of salt mimicking, as +Tyndall says, the architecture of Egypt, building up miniature +pyramids, terrace upon terrace, from base to apex, forming a series of +steps like those up which the traveler in Egypt is dragged by his +guides! We can fancy, if we like, these infinitesimal structures built +by an invisible population which swarms among the constituent molecules, +controlled and coerced by some invisible matter, says Tyndall. This +might be called literature, or poetry, or religion, but it would not be +science; science says that these salt pyramids are the result of the +play of attraction and repulsion among the salt molecules themselves; +that they are self-poised and self-quarried; it goes further than that +and says that the quality we call saltness is the result of a certain +definite arrangement of their ultimate atoms of matter; that the +qualities of things as they affect our senses--hardness, softness, +sweetness, bitterness--are the result of molecular motion and +combination among the ultimate atoms. All these things seem on the +threshold of life, waiting in the antechamber, as it were; to-morrow +they will be life, or, as Tyndall says, "Incipient life, as it were, +manifests itself throughout the whole of what is called inorganic +nature." + + +VIII + +The question of the nature and origin of life is a kind of perpetual +motion question in biology. Life without antecedent life, so far as +human experience goes, is an impossibility, and motion without previous +motion, is equally impossible. Yet, while science shows us that this +last is true among ponderable bodies where friction occurs, it is not +true among the finer particles of matter, where friction does not exist. +Here perpetual or spontaneous motion is the rule. The motions of the +molecules of gases and liquids, and their vibrations in solids, are +beyond the reach of our unaided senses, yet they are unceasing. By +analogy we may infer that while living bodies, as we know them, do not +and cannot originate spontaneously, yet the movement that we call life +may and probably does take place spontaneously in the ultimate particles +of matter. But can atomic energy be translated into the motion of +ponderable bodies, or mass energy? In like manner can, or does, this +potential life of the world of atoms and electrons give rise to +organized living beings? + +This distrust of the physical forces, or our disbelief in their ability +to give rise to life, is like a survival in us of the Calvinistic creed +of our fathers. The world of inert matter is dead in trespasses and sin +and must be born again before it can enter the kingdom of the organic. +We must supplement the natural forces with the spiritual, or the +supernatural, to get life. The common or carnal nature, like the natural +man, must be converted, breathed upon by the non-natural or divine, +before it can rise to the plane of life--the doctrine of Paul carried +into the processes of nature. + +The scientific mind sees in nature an infinitely complex mechanism +directed to no special human ends, but working towards universal ends. +It sees in the human body an infinite number of cell units building up +tissues and organs,--muscles, nerves, bones, cartilage,--a living +machine of infinite complexity; but what shapes and cooerdinates the +parts, how the cells arose, how consciousness arose, how the mind is +related to the body, how or why the body acts as a unit--on these +questions science can throw no light. With all its mastery of the laws +of heredity, of cytology, and of embryology, it cannot tell why a man is +a man, and a dog is a dog. No cell-analysis will give the secret; no +chemical conjuring with the elements will reveal why in the one case +they build up a head of cabbage, and in the other a head of Plato. + +It must be admitted that the scientific conception of the universe robs +us of something--it is hard to say just what--that we do not willingly +part with; yet who can divest himself of this conception? And the +scientific conception of the nature of life, hard and unfamiliar as it +may seem in its mere terms, is difficult to get away from. Life must +arise through the play and transformations of matter and energy that are +taking place all around us; though it seems a long and impossible road +from mere chemistry to the body and soul of man. But if life, with all +that has come out of it, did not come by way of matter and energy, by +what way did it come? Must we have recourse to the so-called +supernatural?--as Emerson's line puts it,-- + + "When half-gods go, the gods arrive." + +When our traditional conception of matter as essentially vulgar and +obstructive and the enemy of the spirit gives place to the new +scientific conception of it as at bottom electrical and all-potent, we +may find the poet's great line come true, and that for a thing to be +natural, is to be divine. For my own part, I do not see how we can get +intelligence out of matter unless we postulate intelligence in matter. +Any system of philosophy that sees in the organic world only a +fortuitous concourse of chemical atoms, repels me, though the +contradiction here implied is not easily cleared up. The theory of life +as a chemical reaction and nothing more does not interest me, but I am +attracted by that conception of life which, while binding it to the +material order, sees in the organic more than the physics and chemistry +of the inorganic--call it whatever name you will--vitalism, idealism, or +dualism. + +In our religious moods, we may speak, as Theodore Parker did, of the +universe as a "handful of dust which God enchants," or we may speak of +it, as Goethe did, as "the living garment of God"; but as men of +science we can see it only as a vast complex of forces, out of which man +has arisen, and of which he forms a part. We are not to forget that we +are a part of it, and that the more we magnify ourselves, the more we +magnify it; that its glory is our glory, and our glory its glory, +because we are its children. In some way utterly beyond the reach of +science to explain, or of philosophy to confirm, we have come out of it, +and all we are or can be, is, or has been, potential in it. + + +IX + +The evolution of life is, of course, bound up with the evolution of the +world. As the globe has ripened and matured, life has matured; higher +and higher forms--forms with larger and larger brains and more and more +complex nerve mechanisms--have appeared. + +Physicists teach us that the evolution of the primary +elements--hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and the +like--takes place in a solar body as the body cools. As temperature +decreases, one after another of the chemical elements makes its +appearance, the simpler elements appearing first, and the more complex +compounds appearing last, all apparently having their origin in some +simple parent element. It appears as if the evolution of life upon the +globe had followed the same law and had waited upon the secular cooling +of the earth. + +Does not a man imply a cooler planet and a greater depth and refinement +of soil than a dinosaur? Only after a certain housecleaning and +purification of the elements do higher forms appear; the vast +accumulation of Silurian limestone must have hastened the age of fishes. +The age of reptiles waited for the clearing of the air of the burden of +carbon dioxide. The age of mammals awaited the deepening and the +enrichment of the soil and the stability of the earth's crust. Who knows +upon what physical conditions of the earth's elements the brain of man +was dependent? Its highest development has certainly taken place in a +temperate climate. There can be little doubt that beyond a certain point +the running-down of the earth-temperature will result in a running-down +of life till it finally goes out. Life is confined to a very narrow +range of temperature. If we were to translate degrees into miles and +represent the temperature of the hottest stars, which is put at 30,000 +degrees, by a line 30,000 miles long, then the part of the line marking +the limits of life would be approximately three hundred miles. + +Life does not appear in a hard, immobile, utterly inert world, but in a +world thrilling with energy and activity, a world of ceaseless +transformations of energy, of radio-activity, of electro-magnetic +currents, of perpetual motion in its ultimate particles, a world whose +heavens are at times hung with rainbows, curtained with tremulous +shifting auroras, and veined and illumined with forked lightnings, a +world of rolling rivers and heaving seas, activity, physical and +chemical, everywhere. On such a world life appeared, bringing no new +element or force, but setting up a new activity in matter, an activity +that tends to check and control the natural tendency to the dissipation +and degradation of energy. The question is, Did it arise through some +transformation of the existing energy, or out of the preexisting +conditions, or was it supplementary to them, an addition from some +unknown source? Was it a miraculous or a natural event? We shall answer +according to our temperaments. + +One sees with his mind's eye this stream of energy, which we name the +material universe, flowing down the endless cycles of time; at a certain +point in its course, a change comes over its surface; what we call life +appears, and assumes many forms; at a point farther along in its course, +life disappears, and the eternal river flows on regardless, till, at +some other point, the same changes take place again. Life is inseparable +from this river of energy, but it is not coextensive with it, either in +time or in space. + +In midsummer what river-men call "the blossoming of the water" takes +place in the Hudson River; the water is full of minute vegetable +organisms; they are seasonal and temporary; they are born of the +midsummer heats. By and by the water is clear again. Life in the +universe seems as seasonal and fugitive as this blossoming of the +water. More and more does science hold us to the view of the unity of +nature--that the universe of life and matter and force is all natural or +all supernatural, it matters little which you call it, but it is not +both. One need not go away from his own doorstep to find mysteries +enough to last him a lifetime, but he will find them in his own body, in +the ground upon which he stands, not less than in his mind, and in the +invisible forces that play around him. We may marvel how the delicate +color and perfume of the flower could come by way of the root and stalk +of the plant, or how the crude mussel could give birth to the +rainbow-tinted pearl, or how the precious metals and stones arise from +the flux of the baser elements, or how the ugly worm wakes up and finds +itself a winged creature of the air; yet we do not invoke the +supernatural to account for these things. + +It is certain that in the human scale of values the spirituality of man +far transcends anything in the animal or physical world, but that even +that came by the road of evolution, is, indeed, the flowering of ruder +and cruder powers and attributes of the life below us, I cannot for a +moment doubt. Call it a transmutation or a metamorphosis, if you will; +it is still within the domain of the natural. The spiritual always has +its root and genesis in the physical. We do not degrade the spiritual in +such a conception; we open our eyes to the spirituality of the +physical. And this is what science has always been doing and is doing +more and more--making us familiar with marvelous and transcendent powers +that hedge us about and enter into every act of our lives. The more we +know matter, the more we know mind; the more we know nature, the more we +know God; the more familiar we are with the earth forces, the more +intimate will be our acquaintance with the celestial forces. + + +X + +When we speak of the gulf that separates the living from the non-living, +are we not thinking of the higher forms of life only? Are we not +thinking of the far cry it is from man to inorganic nature? When we get +down to the lowest organism, is the gulf so impressive? Under the +scrutiny of biologic science the gulf that separates the animal from the +vegetable all but vanishes, and the two seem to run together. The chasm +between the lowest vegetable forms and unorganized matter is evidently a +slight affair. The state of unorganized protoplasm which Haeckel named +the Monera, that precedes the development of that architect of life, the +cell, can hardly be more than one remove from inert matter. By +insensible molecular changes and transformations of energy, the miracle +of living matter takes place. We can conceive of life arising only +through these minute avenues, or in the invisible, molecular +constitution of matter itself. What part the atoms and electrons, and +the energy they bear, play in it we shall never know. Even if we ever +succeed in bringing the elements together in our laboratories so that +there living matter appears, shall we then know the secret of life? + +After we have got the spark of life kindled, how are we going to get all +the myriad forms of life that swarm upon the earth? How are we going to +get man with physics and chemistry alone? How are we going to get this +tremendous drama of evolution out of mere protoplasm from the bottom of +the old geologic seas? Of course, only by making protoplasm creative, +only by conceiving as potential in it all that we behold coming out of +it. We imagine it equal to the task we set before it; the task is +accomplished; therefore protoplasm was all-sufficient. I am not +postulating any extra-mundane power or influence; I am only stating the +difficulties which the idealist experiences when he tries to see life in +its nature and origin as the scientific mind sees it. Animal life and +vegetable life have a common physical basis in protoplasm, and all their +different forms are mere aggregations of cells which are constituted +alike and behave alike in each, and yet in the one case they give rise +to trees, and in the other they give rise to man. Science is powerless +to penetrate this mystery, and philosophy can only give its own elastic +interpretation. Why consciousness should be born of cell structure in +one form of life and not in another, who shall tell us? Why matter in +the brain should think, and in the cabbage only grow, is a question. + +The naturalist has not the slightest doubt that the mind of man was +evolved from some order of animals below him that had less mind, and +that the mind of this order was evolved from that of a still lower +order, and so on down the scale till we reach a point where the animal +and vegetable meet and blend, and the vegetable mind, if we may call it +such, passed into the animal, and still downward till the vegetable is +evolved from the mineral. If to believe this is to be a monist, then +science is monistic; it accepts the transformation or metamorphosis of +the lower into the higher from the bottom of creation to the top, and +without any break of the causal sequence. There has been no miracle, +except in the sense that all life is a miracle. Of how the organic rose +out of the inorganic, we can form no mental image; the intellect cannot +bridge the chasm; but that such is the fact, there can be no doubt. +There is no solution except that life is latent or potential in matter, +but these again are only words that cover a mystery. + +I do not see why there may not be some force latent in matter that we +may call the vital force, physical force transformed and heightened, as +justifiably as we can postulate a chemical force latent in matter. The +chemical force underlies and is the basis of the vital force. There is +no life without chemism, but there is chemism without life. + +We have to have a name for the action and reaction of the primary +elements upon one another and we call it chemical affinity; we have to +have a name for their behavior in building up organic bodies, and we +call it vitality or vitalism. + +The rigidly scientific man sees no need of the conception of a new form +or kind of force; the physico-chemical forces as we see them in action +all about us are adequate to do the work, so that it seems like a +dispute about names. But my mind has to form a new conception of these +forces to bridge the chasm between the organic and the inorganic; not a +quantitative but a qualitative change is demanded, like the change in +the animal mind to make it the human mind, an unfolding into a higher +plane. + +Whether the evolution of the human mind from the animal was by +insensible gradations, or by a few sudden leaps, who knows? The animal +brain began to increase in size in Tertiary times, and seems to have +done so suddenly, but the geologic ages were so long that a change in +one hundred thousand years would seem sudden. "The brains of some +species increase one hundred per cent." The mammal brain greatly +outstripped the reptile brain. Was Nature getting ready for man? + +The air begins at once to act chemically upon the blood in the lungs of +the newly born, and the gastric juices to act chemically upon the food +as soon as there is any in the stomach of the newly born, and breathing +and swallowing are both mechanical acts; but what is it that breathes +and swallows, and profits by it? a machine? + +Maybe the development of life, and its upward tendency toward higher and +higher forms, is in some way the result of the ripening of the earth, +its long steeping in the sea of sidereal influences. The earth is not +alone, it is not like a single apple on a tree; there are many apples on +the tree, and there are many trees in the orchard. + + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +Adaptation, 184, 215, 216. + +Alpha rays, 60, 199. + +Aquosity, 127, 128, 141-143. + +Aristotle, 240. + +Asphalt lake, 123. + +Atoms, different groupings of, 56-60; + weighed and counted, 60, 61; + indivisibility, 61; + the hydrogen atom, 65; + chemical affinity, 193-195; + photography of, 199, 200; + form, 203; + atomic energy, 204; + qualities and properties of bodies in their keeping, 204; + unchanging character, 205, 206; + rarity of free atoms, 209; + mystery of combination, 210. + +Autolysis, 169. + + +Balfour, Arthur James, on Bergson's "Evolution Creatrice," 15. + +Bees, the spirit of the hive, 82. + +Benton, Joel, quoted, 70. + +Bergson, Henri, 129, 173, 263; + on light and the eye, 5; + his view of life, 14-16, 27-29, 221, 237, 238; + on the need of philosophy, 85, 86; + on life on other planets, 87; + his method, 109, 110; + the key to his "Creative Evolution," 132; + on life as a psychic principle, 162; + his book as literature, 238. + +Beta rays, 61, 199, 201. + +Biogenesis, 25. _See also_ Life. + +Biophores, 217. + +Body, the, elements of, 38, 39; + the chemist in, 152, 153; + intelligence of, 153, 154; + a community of cells, 157, 158; + viewed as a machine, 212-214, 224. + +Brain, evolution of, 288. + +Breathing, mechanics and chemistry of, 50-54, 213. + +Brooks, William Keith, quoted, 128, 236. + +Brown, Robert, 191; + the Brunonian movement, 167, 172, 191. + +Brunonian movement, 167, 172, 191. + +Butler, Bishop, imaginary debate with Lucretius, 219, 220. + + +Carbon, 38, 56, 59; + importance, 208. + +Carbonic-acid gas, 52, 53. + +Carrel, Dr. Alexis, 98, 148. + +Catalysers, 135, 136. + +Cell, the, 83-85, 90, 96, 97, 180; + Wilson on, 95; + living after the death of the body, 98; + Prof. Benjamin Moore on, 107; + nature of, 113; + aimless multiplication, 148, 233; + the unit of life, 156; + communistic activity, 157, 158, 184; + a world in little, 170; + mystery of, 175; + different degrees of irritability, 216, 217. + +Changes in matter, 131, 133. + +Chemist, in the body, 152, 153. + +Chemistry, the silent world of, 49-54; + wonders worked by varying arrangement of atoms, 56-60; + leads up to life, 188; + a new world for the imagination, 189-192; + chemical affinity, 193-195; + various combinations of elements, 205-208; + organic compounds, 209; + mystery of chemical combinations, 210; + chemical changes, 210, 211; + powerless to trace relationships between different forms + of life, 231, 232; + cannot account for differences in organisms, 233, 234. + +Chlorophyll, 77, 113, 168, 169, 177, 235. + +Colloids, 76, 108, 135, 136. + +Conn, H. W., on mechanism, 91-94. + +Consciousness, Huxley on, 95, 181, 262. + +Corpuscles, speed in the ether, 65. + +Creative energy, immanent in matter, 9, 21; + its methods, 263. + +Crystallization, 276, 277. + +Czapek, Frederick, on vital forces, 133, 152; + on life, 164, 166, 169; + on enzymes in living bodies, 167. + +Darwin, Charles, quoted, 9; + on force of growing radicles, 19; + a contradiction in his philosophy, 254, 255. + +Electricity, in the constitution of matter, 46-49; + a state of the ether, 63; + power from, 67, 68; + the most mysterious thing in inorganic nature, 223. + +Electrons, knots in the ether, 63; + size and weight, 196; + speed, 197; + matter dematerialized, 197; + bombardment from, 201, 202; + revolving in the atom, 203; + surface, 203; + compared with atoms, 203; + properties of matter supplied by, 204. + +Elements, of living bodies, 38, 39, 77, 78; + analogy with the alphabet, 57-59, 206; + undergoing spontaneous change, 67; + various combinations, 205-208; + eagerness to combine, 209. + _See also_ Atoms. + +Eliot, George, on the development theory, 103. + +Elliot, Hugh S. R., on mechanism, 16. + +Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 250; + on physics and chemistry, 188; + quoted, 280. + +Energy, relation of life to, 177-183; + atomic, 204. + _See also_ Creative energy _and_ Force. + +Energy, biotic, 106-111, 145, 146. + +England, 250. + +Entities, 99, 100. + +Environment, 86-88. + +Enzymes, 167. + +Ether, the, omnipresent and all-powerful, 61, 62; + its nature, 62, 63; + its finite character, 65, 66; + paradoxes of, 66. + +Ethics, and the mechanistic conception, 12. + +Evolution, creative impulse in, 6, 111; + progression in, 13, 14; + and the arrival of the fit, 244-253; + creative, 251-253; + evolution of life bound up with the evolution of the world, 281-283; + creative protoplasm in, 286; + a cosmic view of, 289. + +Explosives, 43. + + +Fire, chemistry of, 54. + +Fiske, John, on the soul and immortality, 4; + on the physical and the psychical, 75, 183. + +Fittest, arrival and survival of the, 244-253. + +Force, physical and mental, 3-5; + and life, 17-23; + dissymmetric force, 22; + the origin of matter, 43, 44. + _See also_ Energy. + + +Galls, 147, 154-156. + +Ganong, William Francis, on life, 181. + +Germany, in the War of 1914, 249-251. + +Glaser, Otto C., quoted, 98. + +Goethe, quoted, 111, 221, 260, 280; + as a scientific man, 221. + +Gotch, Prof., quoted, 270. + +Grafting, 40, 41. + +Grand Canon of the Colorado, 225, 228, 229. + +Grape sugar, 208. + +Growth, of a germ, 217, 218. + + +Haeckel, Ernst, 3, 285; + on physical activity in the atom, 25, 26; + his "living inorganics," 91; + on the origin of life, 161; + on inheritance and adaptation, 184; + his "plastidules," 217; + a contradiction in his philosophy, 256. + +Hartog, Marcus, 129. + +Heat, changes wrought by, 55, 56; + detection of, at a distance, 60. + +Helmholtz, Hermann von, on life, 25, 161. + +Henderson, Lawrence J., his "Fitness of the Environment," 73; + his concession to the vitalists, 83, 85; + on the environment, 86-88; + a thorough mechanist, 88, 89. + +Horse-power, 177, 178. + +Hudson River, "blossoming of the water," 283. + +Huxley, Thomas Henry, on the + properties of protoplasm, 31, 126, 127; + on consciousness, 95, 181, 262; + on the vital principle, 101, 126, 127, 140; + his three realities, 140; + a contradiction in his philosophy, 255, 256. + +Hydrogen, the atom of, 65. + + +Idealist, view of life, 218-222. + +Inorganic world, beauty in decay in, 228, 229. + +Intelligence, characteristic of living matter, 134, 139, 151-154; + pervading organic nature, 223. + +Irritability, degrees of, 216, 217. + + +James, William, 254. + + +Kant, Immanuel, quoted, 221. + +Kelvin, Lord, 83. + +King, Starr, 244. + + +Lankester, Sir Edwin Ray, quoted, 128, 141; + his "plasmogen," 145, 146. + +Le Dantec, Felix Alexandre, his "Nature and Origin of Life," 73, 79, 80; + on consciousness, 80; + on the artificial production of the cell, 83; + on the mechanism of the body, 224. + +Leduc, Stephane, his "osmotic growths," 167, 168. + +Liebig, Baron Justus von, quoted, 83. + +Life, may be a mode of motion, 5; + evolution of, 6; + its action on matter, 8, 9; + its physico-chemical origin, 9; + its appearance viewed as accidental, 10-14; + Bergson's view, 14-17, 27-29; + Sir Oliver Lodge's view, 17, 18; + and energy, 17-23; + theories as to its origin, 24-27; + Tyndall's view, 28-30; + Verworn's view, 30, 31; + the vitalistic view, 32-38; + matter as affected by, 39; + not to be treated mathematically, 40; + a slow explosion, 41, 42; + an insoluble mystery, 43, 44; + relations with the psychic and the inorganic, 44, 45; + compared with fire, 54, 55; + the final mystery of, 69, 70; + vitalistic and mechanistic views, 71-114; + Benjamin Moore's view, 106-113; + the theory of derivation from other spheres, 104; + spontaneous generation, 105; + plays a small part in the cosmic scheme, 115-119; + mystery of, 120; + nature merciless towards, 120-124; + as an entity, 124-130; + evanescent character, 131, 132; + Prof. Schaefer's view, 133-138; + intelligence the characteristic of, 134, 139, 151-154; + power of adaptation, 147-149; + versatility, 155, 156; + the fields of science and philosophy in dealing with, 161-166, 173-176; + simulation of, 167, 168; + and protoplasm, 169; + and the cell, 170; + variability, 171, 172; + the biogenetic law, 174; + relation to energy, 177-183; + an _x_-entity, 181, 182; + struggle with environment, 185, 186; + as a chemical phenomenon, 187; + inadequacy of the mechanistic view, 212-243; + degrees of, 216, 217; + arises, not comes, 230; + a metaphysical problem, 231; + as a wave, 231; + its adaptability, 253; + a vitalistic view, 254-289; + naturalness of, 263-268; + advent and disappearance, 268, 269; + the unscientific view, 274, 275; + analogy with the question of perpetual motion, 277, 278; + no great gulf between animate and inanimate, 285; + a cosmic view, 289. + _See also_ Living thing, Vital force, Vitalism, Vitality. + +Light, measuring its speed, 60. + +Liquids, molecular behavior, 200. + +Living thing, not a machine, 1-3, 212-214; + viewed as a machine, 34-37, 224-228; + a unit, 215; + adaptation, 215, 216; + contrasted and compared with a machine, 241, 242. + +Lodge, Sir Oliver, 183, 197; + his view of life, 17, 18, 34, 132, 161, 219, 237; + his vein of mysticism, 34; + on the ether, 62, 63, 66; + on molecular spaces, 65; + on radium, 201; + on the atom, 203; + on electrons, 203. + +Loeb, Jacques, on mechanism, 10-13, 73; + his experiments, 74, 76, 79, 147; + on variations, 148. + + +Machines, Nature's and man's, 224-226; + contrasted and compared with living bodies, 241, 242. + +Maeterlinck, Maurice, on the Spirit of the Hive, 82. + +Man, evolution of, 246-251; + as the result of chance, 255; + as a part of the natural order, 258, 259; + his little day, 269. + +Matter, as acted upon by life, 8, 9; + creative energy immanent in, 9; + change upon entry of life, 39; + constitution of, 43, 44, 46-48; + a state of the ether, 63; + changes in, 131, 133; + Emerson on, 188; + discrete, 196; + emanations detected by smell and taste, 198, 199; + a hole in the ether, 203; + origin of its properties, 204-206; + a higher conception of, 259-261; + common view of grossness of, 274, 275. + +Maxwell, James Clerk, on the ether, 63; + on atoms, 198. + +Mechanism, the scientific explanation of mind, 5; + and ethics, 12; + reaction against, 32; + definition, 72; + Prof. Henderson's view, 88, 89; + _vs._ vitalism, 212-243. + _See also_ Life. + +Metaphysics, necessity of, 101. + +Micellar strings, 217. + +Microbalance, 60. + +Mind, evolution of, 287, 288. + _See also_ Intelligence. + +Molecules, spaces between, 65, 196; + speed, 192; + unchanging character, 205, 206. + +Monera, 285. + +Moore, Benjamin, a scientific vitalist, 106; + his "biotic energy," 106-113, 145, 146. + +Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 148. + +Motion, perpetual, 190, 191, 278; + mass and molecular, 269, 270. + + +Naegeli, Karl Wilhelm von, 217. + +Nitrogen, 51. + +Nonentities, 99, 100. + + +Odors, 198, 199. + +Osmotic growths, 167, 168. + +Oxygen, activities of, 51, 52, 59; + in the crust of the earth, 193; + chemical affinities, 193-195; + different forms of atoms, 200. + + +Parker, Theodore, on the universe, 280. + +Parthenogenesis, artificial, 11, 74. + +Pasteur, Louis, his "dissymmetric force," 22, 32. + +Philosophy, supplements science, 94-96, 104, 109, 163, 164; + deals with fundamental problems, 242, 243; + contradictions in, 254-258. + +Phosphorus, 59, 60. + +Physics, staggering figures in, 192. + +Pitch lake, 123. + +Plants, force exerted by growing, 17-20. + +Plasmogen, 145, 146. + +Plastidules, 217. + +Protobion, 135. + +Protoplasm, vitality of, 169; + creative, 286. + + +Radio-activity, 66-70, 132. + +Radium, 61, 201. + _See also_ Beta rays. + +Rainbow, 70. + +Ramsay, Sir William, 191, 192. + +Rand, Herbert W., on the mechanistic view of life, 89, 90. + +Russia, 250, 251. + + +Salt, crystallization, 276, 277. + +Schaefer, Sir Edward Albert, 73; + his mechanistic view of life, 133-138. + +Science, delicacy of its methods and implements, 60, 61; + limitations of its field, 94-100, 104; + cannot deal with life except as a physical phenomenon, 161, 162; + does not embrace the whole of human life, 162, 163; + inadequacy, 163-166; + cannot grasp the mystery of life, 173, 175, 176, 234-236; + cannot deal with fundamental problems, 242, 243; + concerns itself with matter only, 264; + inevitably mechanistic, 265, 266; + views the universe as one, 267, 268, 271-274; + the redeemer of the physical world, 269-271, 276; + spiritual insight gained through, 278. + +Sea-urchins, Loeb's experiments, 147. + +Seed, growth of, 217, 218. + +Soddy, Frederick, 46, 66; + on vital force, 133; + on rainbows and rabbits, 174; + on the relation of life to energy, 177-180; + on the atom, 197, 198; + on atomic energy, 204. + +Spencer, Herbert, 218, 240; + quoted, 15, 16; + on the origin of life, 26; + on vital capital, 34, 35. + +Spirit, common view of, 274, 275. + +Spirituality, evolution of, 284. + +Sugar, grape, 208. + +Sunflower, wild, force exerted by, 19. + + +Thomson, J. Arthur, 270. + +Thomson, Sir J. J., on electrons, 197; + photographing atoms, 199, 200. + +Tropisms, 11. + +Tyndall, John, his view of life, 28-30, 160, 162, 231; + his "molecular force," 42, 133; + his Belfast Address, 64, 219; + and the "miracle of vitality," 105; + on energy, 161; + on growth from the germ, 217; + an idealist, 219, 220; + on Goethe, 221; + on matter, 260; + on crystallisation of salt, 276, 277; + on incipient life in inorganic nature, 277. + + +Universe, the, oneness of, 267, 268; + a view of, 289. + +Uranium, 67. + + +Verworn, Max, 25, 79, 146; + his view of life, 30, 31, 73; + his term for vital force, 145. + +Vital force, constructive, 7, 38; + inventive and creative, 7; + resisting repose, 40; + as a postulate, 99-103; + its existence denied by science, 133; + convenience of the term, 144; + other names, 144-146. + _See also_ Life. + +Vitalism, making headway, 32; + reason for, 71, 72; + Moore's scientific vitalism, 106-112; + type of mind believing in, 218-223. + _See also_ Life. + +Vitality, the question of its reality, 140-143; + degrees of, 241, 242. + _See also_ Life. + + +War of 1914, 248-251. + +Water-power, and electricity, 67, 68. + +Weismann, August, 217. + +Whitman, Walt, quoted, 14, 48, 110, 256, 260. + +Wilson, Edmund Beecher, on the cell, 95. + + + +[Transcriber's Notes: + +1. The phrase 'To resolve the pyschic and the vital' was changed to +'To resolve the psychic and the vital'.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Breath of Life, by John Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BREATH OF LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 18335.txt or 18335.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/3/18335/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Jamie Atiga, Leonard Johnson and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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