394 THE LIFE OF MATTER. 



may be inflicted upon it; a nutritive increase in size at the expense of 

 the mother liipior which constitutes its culture medium; tinall\ , a still 

 more incredible property, all the characteristics of reproduction b}'^ 

 generation. Other curious facts observed by skillful physicists — 

 W. Roberts- Austen, W. Spring, Stead, Osmond, Guillemin, Charpy, 

 Ch. Ed. Guillaume — show that the immutability and inunol)ility of 

 bodies supposed to l)e the most rigid, such as glass, the metals, steel, 

 and brass, are only false appearances. Beneath the surface of the 

 metal that seems to us inert there is struggling a swarming population 

 of molecules that displace each other, move about, and arrange them- 

 selves so as to form dctinite ligures, taking on forms adapted to the 

 conditions of the environment. Sometimes it is 3'ears before the}'' 

 arrive at a state of ultimate and tinal e(]uilil)rium which is that of 

 eternal rest. 



However, in order to understand these facts and their interpreta- 

 tion it is necessary to recall the fundamental characteristics of living 

 beings. These are precisely the ones which it is believed have been 

 found in inanimate matter. 



I. 



UNIVERSAL LIFE— OPINIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS AND P0S:TS. 



1. pmMiTivE beliefs: ideas of the foets. 



The teachings of science regarding the analogies l)etween brute 

 bodies and living bodies accord with the conceptions of the philoso- 

 phers and the fancies of the poets. The ancients conceived that all 

 bodies in nature, l)oth living and inert, were the constituent parts of 

 a universal organism, the macrocosm, which they compared to the 

 human microcosm. They attributed to it a principle of action, the 

 jjsyche^ analogous to the vital principle, which directed phenomena, 

 and an intelligent principle, the iions^ analogous to the soul, which 

 comprehended them. This universal life or this universal soul played 

 an important part in their metaphysical system. It was the same 

 with the poets. Their tendency has always ])een to animate nature 

 for the purpose of l)ringing h(>r into harmony with our thoughts and 

 feelings. They seek to discover the life or soul hidden at the bottom 

 of things. 



List to the voices. Everything has voice. 



\Vinds, waves, and flames, trees, reeds, and roc-ks rejoice. 



They live, indeed, ea(;h thing instinct with soul. 



After making proper allowance for emotional exaggeration, ought 

 we to consider these ideas as the prophetic divination of a truth Avhich 

 science is only just beginning to dimly perceived Not at all. As 

 Kenan has said, this universal animism, instead of being a product of 

 refined reflection, is merely a legacy from the most primitive of men- 

 tal processes, a lenmant of conceptions belonging to the childhood of 



