178 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



words, it would be an energy with differences in itself, 

 which is contradictory to the concept of energy. 



Therefore we cannot speak of intensities of a subsidiary 

 " entelechian energy " in any sense. 



The Relation of Entelechy to the Intensities of Energies 



But in spite of that our study of the true second 

 principle of energetics has been of some use to us. Even 

 though it be not comparable to an energy in any sense, 

 entelechy, as far as it comes into connexion with the 

 energies of inorganic nature, can do so only through the 

 aid of those factors which are concerned in any kind of 

 connexion of the inorganic energies with one another. 

 The intensities of inorganic energies, therefore, are the 

 point at which any possible relation between the living 

 and the non-living must be set up, for upon the intensities 

 depends all spatial becoming exclusively. 



Now intensities of inorganic energies, as we know, if 

 standing in any sort of possible exchange at all, stand 

 either in the relative state of equilibrium or compensation, 

 or in the state of mutual appearing and disappearing. It 

 is clear from what we have said that entelechy also can 

 act only upon the state of compensation or non-compensa- 

 tion of the inorganic intensities. 



Let us try to fix this fundamental relation in a more 

 concrete manner, which will illustrate at the same time, 

 in the clearest manner, how we wish the differences 

 between the vital and the inorganic to be understood. 

 Imagine a non-living system of a specific number of 

 specific chemical compounds in specific states of aggregation 



