176 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



new; the one is a continuation of the other, a continuation 

 indeed of a novel and creative character, but not a denial of 

 and a going back on the other. 



Thus life is a structure like matter; and a structure in 

 a similar state of unstable* equilibrium. The change of 

 equilibrium has the same rhythmic character; only this 

 character is far more noticeable and pervasive than the 

 similar phenomenon in matter. The rhythmic oscillation 

 becomes the distinguishing mark of the functions of the 

 life-structures. The pulsations, the rhythmic flow of the 

 functions of cells form the law of life, and incidentally 

 become the basis of the new element of music in life; 

 they give to music that primordial fundamental character 

 which takes us back to the very beginnings of life on 

 this globe, and makes music the deep appeal of all the 

 long ages to emotions the most primitive as well as the 

 most highly evolved. The rhythm of equilibrium shows 

 the close linkage between the physical structures and the 

 life-structures. And its music links all life together through 

 all the ages. 



The equilibrium of the life-structure also gives us the 

 origin of the idea of life as the selector, the suspensor and 

 relaxor of the activities of the new structures. In any 

 change in the equilibrium of the physico-chemical structure 

 there is, as we have seen, the distribution of the change 

 over all the component elements; there is the new arrange- 

 ment and alignment of elements and their activities which 

 conduce most effectively to the balance of the whole. This 

 is exactly what happens in the rhythmic change of the life- 

 equilibrium. In the movements of that change, elements 

 are rearranged, functions are readjusted with a view to the 

 conservation and activity of the whole. Selection and 

 direction and control are inherent activities. No extraneous 

 factor does this; no mysterious stranger needs to be intro- 

 duced from some alien world to work the mechanisms. 

 It is the very nature of the equilibrium of the new structure 

 thus to direct and regulate — thus to transpose and distribute 

 the factors of equilibrium among its component elements, 



