262 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



the laws of physico-chemical causality exclusively. Does 

 entelechy actively withdraw from matter or not, and, if 

 actively, then why ? Why has " regulation " become im- 

 possible ? But it is of no use formulating any more of 

 these unapproachable questions. 



The Origin of Life in General 



The question about the so-called primary origin of life is 

 as incapable of being discussed as is the problem of death, 

 in spite of the great number of popular works written 

 about it. We certainly cannot grant that life has originated 

 by a fortuitous concourse of inorganic constituents that 

 is clear without any further discussion from our analysis 

 of entelechy in its relation to matter in general. 1 Con- 

 stellations do not create entelechy, but entelechy governs 

 constellation. But nothing can be said concerning the 

 absolutely primordial relations between entelechy and 

 elemental materiality. 



Whilst speaking about entelechy in its relation to 

 intensities of energy, we mentioned that our theory 

 postulates the continuity of life which is well illustrated 

 by the fact of inheritance. From this we may conclude 

 that there are no gaps in entelechian manifestations : there 

 is a continuity of a constellation of specific kinds of matter 

 always maintained by entelechy, always overcome, so to 

 say, by its suspension of inorganic becoming. 



If we accept the theory of descent we may say that 



1 It therefore is only an argument of minor, i.e. merely empirical im- 

 portance against "generatio equivoca" by contingency, that organic com- 

 pounds, even of low complexity, do not exist on earth except if produced 

 by organisms. 



