26 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



What we see born or new is a transition. What we 

 see die is a transition also. 1 



Molecules, built up of atoms, group themselves by their 

 inherent powers, and the aggregate constitutes u mass." 

 And so we call that which is tangible " a mass of atoms 

 or matter." So clear and simple is it, that it is a 

 marvel any other view could possibly exist. For if 

 matter were capable of being destroyed by the powers 

 existing, the sum total or mass would speedily shrink 

 in volume, or if matter were capable of being created, 

 our world would increase in size very quickly. 



And thus we arrive at these fundamental truths : 

 SPACE is INFINITE. MATTER EXISTS IN SPACE. ALL 

 EXISTS IN ETERNITY. TIME is A MEASUREMENT OF 

 TERRESTRIAL MOTION. A.LL MATTER is IN A STATE 

 OF FLUX ETERNAL CHANGE. And we shall presently 

 see, THE factor by which molecules are formed and 

 resolved is the motion of a fluid called Ether. 



1 "Bernhard Telesius (1568) says :' The corporeal matter is the 

 same in all things, and ever remains the same ; the inert matter can 

 be neither increased nor diminished.' And, finally, Giordano Bruno 

 (who was burnt in Rome, 1600) says : ' What first was seed, becomes 

 grass, then an ear, then bread, chyle, blood, semen, embryo, man, a 

 corpse ; then again earth, stone, or some other mass, and so forth. 

 Here we perceive something which changes in all these things, and 

 ever remains the same. Thus there really seems nothing constant, 

 eternal, and worthy of the name of a principle but matter alone. 

 Matter, considered absolutely, comprises all forms and dimensions. 

 But the variety of forms which it assumes is not received from 

 without, but is produced and engendered from within. When we 

 say something dies, it is merely a transition to a new life, a dissolution 

 of one combination and the commencement of another.' ' ("Force 

 and Matter," Dr. Louis Buchner, 1864, p. 14.) 



