FOUR QUESTIONS REGARDING LIFE 5 



of action, reaction, and interaction — to use the terms of ther- 

 modynamics — between those chemical elements which may be 

 as old as the cosmos itself, unless they prove to represent an 

 evolution from still simpler elements. 



Such evolution, we repeat with emphasis, is not like that 

 of the chemical elements or of the stars; the evolutionary proc- 

 ess now takes an entirely new and different direction. Al- 

 though it may arise through combinations of pre-existing ener- 

 gies, it is essentially constructive and apparently though not 

 actually creative;^ it is continually giving birth to an infinite 

 variety of new forms and functions which never appeared in 

 the universe before. It is a continuous creation or creative 

 evolution. Although this creative power is something new 

 derived from the old, it presents the first of the numerous con- 

 trasts between the living and the lifeless world. 



Our third great question, however, relates to the continua- 

 tion of the same physicochemical laws in living as in lifeless 

 matter, and puts the second question in another aspect. Is 

 there a creation in the strict sense of the term, namely, that 

 some new form of energy arises? No, so far as we observe, 

 the process is still evolutionary ratlier than creative, because all 

 the new characters and forms of life appear to arise out of new 

 combinations of pre-existing matter. In other words, the old 

 forms of energy transformations appear to be taking a new 

 direction. 



I shall attempt to show that since in their simple forms 

 living processes are known to be physicochemical and are 



1 Creation (L. creatio, crcarc, pp. crcaliis; akin to Gr. Kpalveiv, complete; Sanskrit, 

 i/kar, make), in contradistinction to evolution, is the production of something new out 

 of nothing, the act of producing both the material and the form of that which is made. 

 Evolution is the production of something new out of the building-up and recombination 

 of something which already exists. 



