VII MECHANISM AND HOLISM 165 



But the surrender of the law would bring the whole 

 structure of science toppling down. Nor, on the other 

 hand, is the nullity of life or mind for a moment to be 

 conceded. As I have already pointed out, the sense of 

 effective choice, willing and self-direction is the clearest, 

 most indubitable deliverance of consciousness we have, and 

 its denial must necessarily destroy the very foundations on 

 which experience and knowledge are built. Besides, if Life 

 and Mind are nullities, then the Evolution which produced 

 them must be a farce; but this is totally inadmissible. A 

 way out of this dilemma must therefore be found. But let 

 us first look at the second law of Thermodynamics. 



The second law affirms the principle of the universal 

 dissipation or degradation of energy. It likens energy to 

 water; as water constantly tends to run down from a 

 higher to a lower level, so the potential of energy constantly 

 tends to run down, and the energy tends to lose its efficiency 

 and availability. While the energy of a closed system 

 therefore remains constant in amount, it changes in char- 

 acter, it becomes dissipated or degraded and less efficient 

 and useful. And this principle is apparently of universal 

 application in the physical world. When any phenomenon 

 seems to contradict it, that phenomenon will in the end be 

 found to be based on faulty observation. 



But living bodies seem to contradict it. In a living body 

 the potentials of energy and efficiency are rising instead of 

 falling. In living bodies complex substances are for ever 

 being built up with a high energy efficiency; and the break- 

 ing down of these substances in the processes of life supplies 

 the energy which the living body requires for its proper 

 functioning. These complex chemical compounds with high 

 energy efficiency have been called the high explosives which 

 are necessary for the battle of life. And it is the essential 

 function of living bodies through their subtle metabolism 

 to manufacture these high explosives whose breaking down 

 liberates the energy which life needs for its functions and 

 processes. The process of organic Evolution marks a con- 

 tinuous rise in the complexity of the organic substances 



