THE BREATH OF LIFE 



degree understand them; but the forces of life defy 

 our analysis as well as our synthesis. 



Knowing as we do all the elements that make up 

 the body and brain of a man, all the physiological 

 processes, and all the relations and interdependence 

 of his various organs, if, in addition, we knew all 

 his inheritances, his whole ancestry back to the pri- 

 mordial cells from which he sprang, and if we also 

 knew that of every person with whom he comes in 

 contact and who influences his life, could we forecast 

 his future, predict the orbit in which his life would 

 revolve, indicate its eclipses, its perturbations, and 

 the like, as we do that of an astronomic body? or 

 could we foresee his affinities and combinations as 

 we do that of a chemical body? Had we known any 

 of the animal forms in his line of ascent, could we 

 have foretold man as we know him to-day? Could 

 we have foretold the future of any form of life from 

 its remote beginnings? Would our mathematics and 

 our chemistry have been of any avail in our dealing 

 with such a problem? Biology is not in the same 

 category with geology and astronomy. In the inor- 

 ganic world, chemical affinity builds up and pulls 

 down. It integrates the rocks and, under changed 

 conditions, it disintegrates them. In the organic 

 world chemical affinity is equally active, but it plays 

 a subordinate part. It neither builds up nor pulls 

 down. Vital activities, if we must shun the term 

 "vital force," do both. Barring accidents, the life 

 150 



