58 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap, m 



of those physical and chemical reactions which are specially 

 required for vital activities. It shows a certain power of 

 selectiveness, which may be related to chemical affinity, but 

 which seems to have a farther reach and to partake of the 

 character of life. It begins to manufacture substances, such 

 as chlorophyll and haemoglobin, which are the special 

 mechanisms of life, and without which life as we know 

 it could not be. These substances are the links which 

 connect material structure with the life structures which 

 are to follow in the course of Evolution. They are them- 

 selves inorganic chemical substances, but they are the spe- 

 cial instruments and the very basis of life, so to say. At 

 their colloidal surfaces the energies of Nature are utilised 

 to convert the inorganic material of Nature into the most 

 complex organic substances required for the sustenance of 

 life; and the conversion is brought about by processes which, 

 however simple and direct apparently, have hitherto defied 

 all attempts at imitation in our most highly equipped labora- 

 tories. We therefore see matter in this colloidal state 

 reaching up to the very threshold of life, so to speak. A gap 

 remains; a great leap may have taken place across it. But 

 beyond a doubt some forms of matter in their colloidal state 

 are fairly close to life in their properties. And it may even 

 be that life began with much more primitive forms and 

 structures than any of which we have knowledge to-day. 

 Thus the gap may not have been so wide nor the leap so 

 great as would appear to us to-day. 



