The Message of Science. 19 



which gravitation acts. It is the sway and prevalence of 

 gravitation over ordinary matter which causes the world 

 of matter, as we see it, to appear lifeless and inert. But 

 in protoplasm, pure and unalloyed, we behold a law of 

 matter, find expression, subversive of gravity, prevalent 

 over it and transfiguring ordinary matter to living matter 

 in spite of gravity, so to speak. This may seem a bold 

 statement. Life, indeed, has been held by many biologists 

 to be a corelative of gravitation, a cognate and derivative 

 mode of the universal energy of matter. Cognate, indeed, 

 it no doubt is ; derivative also in the loose sense of being 

 aided and facilitated by it in all the larger forms of ter- 

 restrial life ; for it is assuredly not the intention here to 

 convey the idea that the ordinary functions of animals are 

 carried on contrary to gravity or chemism. The writer 

 ventures, however, to set forth the conception that within 

 a normal " cell " of living matter there is an expression 

 of energy not derived from gravitation, but superior to 

 it ; as if emanating from an inner seat of energy, 

 as if acting upon matter at a different angle or point 

 d'appui. Such an opinion by no means conflicts with 

 the monistic conception of energy. It is meant merely 

 to set forth that life is not the immediate derivative of 

 gravitation, or chemism, which many physical philosophers 

 have been inclined to consider it, but rather a static prop- 

 erty of matter which antedates gravity, and, in the inti- 

 mate composition of matter, outranks it. 



