VITAL ACTION VS. NATURE-ACTION 197 



will briefly consider some of those more pertinent to 

 our discussion. Many inorganic things, crystals, for 

 example, grow by accretion, or by the addition of suc- 

 cessive layers, rows, or chains, of similar molecules 

 to a relatively fixed outer surface, like the addition of 

 bricks in regular sequence to a wall. The resultant 

 form of the wall, or the crystal whether or no it 

 be flat, rod-like, polygonal, or spherical will depend, 

 among other things, on the initial form of the struc- 

 tural elements, the points and angles of their placement, 

 and the degree of their stability. 



A physical body like a sun, or a planet, may grow 

 in volume, mass, and diversity, by capturing, in its 

 movements through space, other cosmic bodies, or par- 

 ticles, which then become the architectural elements 

 of itself. They may form relatively fixed parts on 

 its outer surface, or they may be digested by chemical 

 and physical agencies, distributed by circulatory move- 

 ments, and their elements finally rearranged in graded, 

 concentric layers, according to their respe-ctive attri- 

 butes, the developmental stage of the celestial body, and 

 the cosmic environment in which it is growing. 



These so-called "dead bodies" and all their con- 

 stituent parts are held to their orbits, or in their respec- 

 tive places, by overpowering, interlocking forces, both 

 within and without. The very conditions which give 

 them their peculiar architectural stability, prohibit 

 their labile organization, or at least prevent the profit- 

 able usage of their own powers as in an animal or 

 plant. 



Thus a crystal may grow in size by accretion, or by 

 the superficial addition of other individualities to it- 

 self, cnly when other powers outside itself bring the 



