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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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