16 The Universe and Life 



and the rest, is a constituent feature of the universe 

 on the same basis of reahty and "naturalness" as its 

 other features; something that reveals its nature as 

 do its other constituents. Any discussion of the nature 

 of the universe, any picture of its activities that 

 leaves this out of account, is preposterously incom- 

 plete, inadequate, and misleading. The universe is 

 a system that brings forth life, sensation, emotion, 

 thought. This will be the keynote of our presentation. 



In another respect the material studied by the bi- 

 ologist reveals features that are of the highest inter- 

 est for our understanding of the nature of things. 

 Viewed either from without or from within, biologi- 

 cal material is not "running down" but "running 

 up." It is developing instead of degenerating. The ac- 

 tivities of the material which the physicist observes, 

 we are told (in some quarters at least), are running 

 down; are becoming continually more diffused, less 

 contrasted. Its structure and behavior are becoming, 

 on the whole, less complex, less definite. The end that 

 is in sight is a universe of diffused particles, in which 

 nothing occurs but a faint quivering. The physicist's 

 material is dominated by the generalized second law 

 of thermodynamics ; in it energy passes, on the whole, 

 from regions of higher intensity to regions of lower 

 intensity. Consequently, energy becomes continually 

 more diffused and equalized, material structures be- 

 come less sharply defined, until ultimately there must 

 occur a uniform distribution of matter and energy in 

 which nothing happens. 



