94 Evolution of Life and Form. 



in its results, to that of the living organism," and, 

 going on to explain in very technical language the 

 ground on which this view is based, he concludes 

 by saying : " Every purely mechanical explanation 

 of the phenomenon must necessarily fail. I see no 

 escape from the conclusion that at the moment 

 when life first arose a directive force came into play 

 a force precisely of the same character as that 

 which enables the intelligent operator, by the 

 exercise of his will, to select one crystallised 

 enantiomorph and reject its asymmetric opposite." 

 That is the declaration : that with the arising of 

 life there is an arising of consciousness which ex- 

 ercises a directive force in nature, as we see it exer- 

 cising a directive force in the choice exercised by men. 

 Put those two statements side by side, see the entire 

 reversal of the attitude, and then you will be able 

 to measure to some extent the change that has 

 come over western thinking the recognition of life 

 as identical with consciousness, a position which 

 has ever been taken in the hoary Science of the 

 East. 



Now let me, before going into details, suggest 

 to you the path that we are to follow. From the 

 One Existence, that One without a second, arises, 

 as we saw in our first study Ishvara, God in His 

 creative and manifested aspect, Ishvara clothed in 



