170 CREATIVE EVOLUTION CHAP. 



then from this natural logic, in its turn, has sprung 

 scientific geometry, which extends further and further 

 the knowledge of the external properties of solids. 1 

 Geometry and logic are strictly applicable to matter ; 

 in it they are at home, and in it they can proceed quite 

 alone. But, outside this domain, pure reasoning 

 needs to be supervised by common sense, which is an 

 altogether different thing. 



Thus, all the elementary forces of the intellect tend 

 to transform matter into an instrument of action, that 

 is, in the etymological sense of the word, into an organ. 

 Life, not content with producing organisms, would fain 

 give them as an appendage inorganic matter itself, 

 converted into an immense organ by the industry of 

 the living being. Such is the initial task it assigns to 

 intelligence. That is why the intellect always behaves 

 as if it were fascinated by the contemplation of inert 

 matter. It is life looking outward, putting itself out 

 side itself, adopting the ways of unorganized nature 

 in principle, in order to direct them in fact. Hence 

 its bewilderment when it turns to the living and is 

 confronted with organization. It does what it can, 

 it resolves the organized into the unorganized, for 

 it cannot, without reversing its natural direction and 

 twisting about on itself, think true continuity, real 

 mobility, reciprocal penetration, in a word, that creative 

 evolution which is life. 



Consider continuity. The aspect of life that is 

 accessible to our intellect as indeed to our senses, 

 of which our intellect is the extension -is that which 

 offers a hold to our action. Now, to modify an 

 object, we have to perceive it as divisible and dis 

 continuous. From the point of view of positive 



1 We shall return to these points in the next chapter. 



