THE NEW LEVIATHAN 379 



is roundabout. And when we attempt to follow up 

 these vital processes within the body, they break up 

 into countless larger and smaller ones, mingling in- 

 extricably the living and the dead; into organs, cells, 

 and molecules, each a system in itself, and yet inter- 

 locking with all the others in a common give and 

 take, with merely nominal, or purely arbitrary bound- 

 aries between them, like different departments in one 

 department store. And when the chemist, or biolo- 

 gist turns his sharpest scrutiny on the most vital frag- 

 ments of life, the dead and the living appear not less 

 mingled than before. Precisely what parts are 

 "dead" and what "alive" does not appear. Only this 

 is sure: what once was dead is now a part of life; and 

 what was once a part of life, is now a part of things 

 called "dead." 



And the separating spaces between all these living 

 bodily parts, down to their ultimate elements, appear 

 to be no less real, and no more, in one case than the 

 other, though the dimensions are smaller than those 

 which separate the physical and organic elements in, 

 for example, a great railroad system. But in both 

 cases the action flowing out from all these discon- 

 nected, heterogeneous elements is continuous and self- 

 sustaining, merging into larger common currents, and 

 into unified, purposeful action. 



What then is essential among all these apparently 

 unessential, or equally essential, things? Evidently, 

 it is the self-sustaining unity of the various systems of 

 give and take; the measure of order, mutual service, 

 and right constructive action within each minor sys- 

 tem, and that which ties them all together into larger 

 and larger systems of cooperative systems, which in 



