

THE VITAL ORDER 



drawn into the life circuit from what they did be- 

 fore. Carbon, for instance, enters into hundreds of 

 new compounds in the organic world that are un- 

 known in the inorganic world. I am thus speaking 

 of life as if it were something, some force or agent, 

 that antedates its material manifestations, whereas 

 in the eyes of science there is no separation of the 

 one from the other. In an explosion there is usually 

 something anterior to, or apart from, the explosive 

 compound, that pulls the trigger, or touches the 

 match, or completes the circuit, but in the slow 

 and gentle explosions that keep the life machinery 

 going, we cannot make such a distinction. The 

 spark and the powder are one; the gun primes and 

 fires itself; the battery is perpetually self -charged; 

 the lamp is self-trimmed and self -lit. 



Sir Oliver Lodge is apparently so impressed with 

 some such considerations that he spiritualizes life, 

 and makes it some mysterious entity in itself, exist- 

 ing apart from the matter which it animates and 

 uses; not a source of energy but a timer and releaser 

 of energy. Henri Bergson, in his "Creative Evolu- 

 tion," expounds a similar philosophy of life. Life 

 is a current in opposition to matter which it enters 

 into, and organizes into the myriads of living forms. 



I confess that it is easier for me to think of life in 



these terms than in terms of physical science. The 



view falls in better with our anthropomorphic 



tendencies. It appeals to the imagination and to 



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