THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 167 



^'Quantitative formulation, that is, the establishing of a con- 

 nection,, expressed by a formula, between different quanti- 

 tatively measurable magnitudes, is the peculiar feature of a 

 law." ("Theories of Chemistry," Price's translation, p. 3.) 

 Now, chemistry, as an exact science, has no lack of laws 

 of this kind, but no branch of chemistry, whether physical, 

 organic, or inorganic, knows of any law of complexity, that 

 can be stated in either quantitative, or descriptive, terms. 

 We will, however, let Moore speak for himself: 



"It may then be summed up as a general law universal in 

 its application to all matter, ... a law which might be 

 called the Law of Complexity, that matter so far as its en- 

 ergy environment will permit tends to assume more and more 

 complex forms in labile equilibrium. Atoms, molecules, col- 

 loids, and living organisms, arise as a result of the operations 

 of this law, and in the higher regions of complexity it induces 

 organic evolution and all the many thousands of living 

 forms. . . . 



"In this manner we can conceive that the hiatus between 

 non-living and living things can be bridged over, and there 

 awakens in our minds the conception of a kind of spontaneous 

 production of life of a different order from the old. The 

 territory of this spontaneous generation of life lies not at 

 the level of bacteria, or animalculae, springing forth into life 

 from dead organic matter, but at a level of life lying deeper 

 than anything the microscope can reveal, and possessing a 

 lower unit than the living cell, as we form our concept of 

 it from the tissues of higher animals and plants. 



"In the future, the stage at which colloids begin to be 

 able to deal with external energy forms, such as light, and 

 build up in chemical complexity, will yield a new unit of 

 life opening a vista of possibilities as magnificent as that 

 which the establishment of the cell as a unit gave, with the 

 development of the microscope, about a century ago." ("Ori- 

 gin and Nature of Life," pp. 188-190.) 



Having heard out a rhapsody of this sort, one may be 



