ELEMENTS OF ORIGINALITY 163 



laws of which we know, conditioned. This does not, 

 however, in the least detract from the definiteness 

 of the law. 



It readily appears that the law has immediate 

 bearing on the problem of life on other worlds than 

 ours. 



VII. The statement of the basic law of growth. 



VIII. The definition of life. 



In this definition life is described as a quantity 

 that is not matter but that consists of the same 

 elementary units that constitute matter. The con- 

 tention is that life is not a mere catenary series of 

 chemical reactions. Life is a quantity — not of matter 

 nor of undefined and undefinable "energy," nor of 

 peculiar life-units or entities, but of the same con- 

 stituents which make up matter, which are combined 

 in a different manner. 



Needless to say, this concept is revolutionary. 

 Svante Arrhenius' pointblank statement may be 

 repeated: *'We cannot measure life in its various 

 aspects quantitatively as we measure matter and 

 energy .... To detect means of measuring the 

 quantity of life would be a revolutionary discovery 

 which may never be made."^ 



IX. The definition of the soul. 



The soul is interpreted in terms of atomic physics, 



^ Life of the Universe, II, 252. 



