LIFE AS MECHANISM 



rise to anergy. Energy is the tendency to change po- 

 sition and is the result of forces; anergy is its nega- 

 tive and is the tendency to cling to or endure in one 

 position. A world of anergetic things all holding on 

 tightly to positions of mere space would be, indeed, 

 a world where anything might occur. When these 

 esoteric definitions are clearly understood and ac- 

 cepted, anyone will agree that the problem of life is 

 solved. It would be stupid not to understand this 

 lucid explanation of sensory perception: "When a 

 vibration- wave proceeding over a sensory nerve is 

 gradually brought to a stop by the resistance of the 

 synapse, its energy is transformed from a visible and 

 kinetic form to an invisible and potential form. As its 

 velocity passes through the zero phase, its slowness 

 passes through an infinity phase. I ask you to enter- 

 tain the suggestion that this infinity phase of slowness 

 is the common stuff of all sensations. "^^ 



The reader should not Imagine he is reading the 

 abracadabra or spells of a mediaeval necromancer. 

 This is a supposedly scientific explanation from a 

 mechanistic stand-point of the mystery of life and, 

 so far as I can discover, was listened to by the mem- 

 bers of the Aristotelian Society with respect. It is a 

 relief to turn from this phantasmagoria of a disor- 

 dered imagination to the simple faith of a man of pre- 

 eminent scientific achievement. Pasteur wrote to 

 Sainte-Beuve : "Je m'abandonne, par exemple, a celle 



18 Ibid., p. 41. 



C 271 3 



