92 Evolution of Life and Form. 



next step of evolution as well as the present, in 

 order that they may co-operate with nature by them- 

 selves taking that step, thus quickening the possi- 

 bility of similar taking for all mankind. 



Now with regard to life in its relation to forms, 

 a change at the present time is coming over the 

 thought of western Science. I pause on this for a 

 moment in order to substantiate that assertion, for 

 it is important in the search for the means of draw- 

 ing together the two kinds of science, ancient and 

 modern, to notice how much the position of the 

 leading scientists of the West has been modified 

 with regard to life and form during the last ten 

 years. I take as a declaration on this subject of 

 life, issued some years ago, the article on Biology 

 in the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 

 written, as all the articles in that Cyclopczdia are 

 written, by a prominent man in the scientific world. 

 In dealing then with life, the writer of the article 

 in question distinctly states that " a mass of living 

 protoplasm is simply a molecular machine of great 

 complexity, the total results of the working of 

 which, or its vital phenomena, depend, on the one 

 hand, upon its construction, and on the other, upon 

 the energy supplied to it ; and to speak of ' vitality ' 

 as anything but the name of a series of operations 

 is as if any one should talk of the ' horologity ' of 



