THE BREATH OF LIFE 



chemistry, if you prefer, a force, but a force differ- 

 ing in kind from the physical forces. 



The forces of life are constructive forces, and work 

 in a world of disintegrating or destructive forces 

 which oppose them and which they overcome. The 

 mechanical and the chemical forces of dead matter \ 

 are the enemies of the forces of life till life over- 

 comes and uses them; as much so as gravity, fire, 

 frost, water are man's enemies till he has learned 

 how to subdue and use them. 



IV 



It is a significant fact that the four chief elements 

 which in various combinations make up living 

 bodies are by their extreme mobility well suited to 

 their purpose. Three of these are gaseous; only the 

 carbon is a solid. This renders them facile and 

 adaptive in the ever-changing conditions of organic 

 evolution. The solid carbon forms the vessel in 

 which the precious essence of life is carried. With- 

 out carbon we should evaporate or flow away and 

 escape. Much of the oxygen and hydrogen enters 

 into living bodies as water; nine tenths of the human 

 body is water; a little nitrogen and a few mineral 

 salts make up the rest. So that our life in its final 

 elements is little more than a stream of water hold- 

 ing in solution carbonaceous and other matter and 

 flowing, forever flowing, a stream of fluid and solid 

 matter plus something else that scientific analysis 

 38 



