48 Absence of Inorganic Synthesis 



balance accounts for at least a short time. It is prob- 

 able that it was during this integration of the first 

 organisms that mind emerged in sparks at least. One 

 may ask whether the difficulty of the problem of the 

 origin of living creatures may not be due in part to 

 the psycho-biological nature of the integration. 



A third objection, also serious, is that as a matter 

 of fact we cannot find a trace of synthetic processes 

 going on in the physico-chemical world apart from 

 life. If there was in the dim and distant past a natural 

 synthesis of carbohydrates and even nitrogenous 

 compounds, why has it altogether stopped? To this, 

 what can one answer save that we must not be too 

 sure that the process has stopped, and, secondly, that 

 the original integration may have required a specially 

 happy combination of favorable circumstances? We 

 have given prominence to the most serious objections 

 that we know, but we must confess that the general 

 trend of evidence is strongly in favor of belief in a 

 continuity of process from nebula to earth and from 

 cooling earth to awakening life, always supposing, 

 however, that mind is the warp to matter's or elec- 

 tricity's woof; for in the beginning was mind, and 

 that same mind is the light of men. 



§2. Note on Photosynthesis. 



To appreciate the importance of Professor Baly's 

 work, we must bear in mind that photosynthesis has 

 been and is the most important process in the world. 

 It is the activity by which the green plant utilizes 

 the energy of the sunlight — notably the orange- 



