.166 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



produced and the level of the energy potentials reached. 

 Living bodies and Evolution generally, therefore, seem to 

 run counter to the stream of natural tendency as expressed 

 in the second law of Thermodynamics. The systems of 

 life and mind seem to be in contradiction to both the great 

 principles of physical science. Is a reconciliation possible? 

 Clerk-Maxwell, one of the heroic figures of nineteenth- 

 century physics, was the first to suggest an idea which may 

 open up a possible clue to the solution of the problem. 

 He pointed out that the laws of energy were statistical in 

 character; they regarded bodies, systems and their energies 

 en masse, and their principles apply to these energies 

 taken statistically and on an average. When, therefore, the 

 energy of a physical system is spoken of, the average of 

 its particular energies considered together and as a whole 

 is referred to. In this sense, for instance, the principle of 

 the degradation of energy held true, but in no other sense. 

 And he illustrated his meaning by taking as an instance 

 a volume of gas with a certain ascertainable total kinetic 

 energy. In this volume the molecules of the gas would 

 have different energies according to their rates of motion. 

 In accordance with the formula E = y^mv'^, the energy of 

 a particle is proportional to the square of its velocity. Now 

 some molecules would be pushed forward by the impact of 

 other molecules in their line of motion and would therefore 

 have their motion accelerated; others, again, would suffer 

 impacts contrary to their line of motion and would be 

 slowed down. And, as a fact, the molecules constituting 

 the volume of gas would have all sorts and rates of motion 

 and consequent differences of energy. Now, if without 

 introducing any additional energy into such a system, 

 some sifting and sorting out and grading of the different 

 molecules according to their velocities could take place, we 

 could have an assortment of molecules with a higher energy 

 than the average of the gas, while the balance would have 

 an energy below the average. In other words, by sorting 

 out instead of merely averaging we could have bodies with 

 a higher energy potential or efficiency than the average of 



