L34 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



perfect living individuals. Moreover, some authorities 

 are of opinion that these individuals do not, in the 

 ordinary course, die. 



Now let us sum up. All matter is built up of atoms 

 which are eternal, indestructible ; each species is 

 eternally endowed with inherent powers. There is 

 gradation in these physical powers. The highest 

 known atomic power is that class of atom which is able 

 to collect to itself atomic matter to form the highest 

 or most complex form of molecule. The highest form 

 of molecule has the power to attract and command the 

 power of other molecules, and thus we have that 

 marvellous mass of molecular matter we call the human 

 being, and the life power of those molecules, its sum, is 

 human life. Thus life is the sum of the activity or 

 energy of molecules built up of atoms, but all is sub- 

 ordinate to the factor of factors Ether, generally 

 called Heat. 1 



1 " Thus, then, we may take that mode of Vital Activity which 

 manifests itself in the Evolution of the germ into the complete 

 organism repeating the type of its parent, and in the subsequent 

 maintenance of that organism in its integrity, in both cases at the 

 expense of materials derived from external sources, as the most 

 universal and the most fundamental characteristic of Life ; and we 

 have now to consider the nature and source of the Force or Power by 

 which that evolution is brought about. The prevalent opinion has 

 until lately been, that this power is inherent in the germ ; which has 

 been supposed to derive from its parent not merely its material sub- 

 stance, but a ... germ force, in virtue of which it builds itself up 

 into the likeness of its parent, and maintains itself in that likeness 

 until the force is exhausted, at the same time imparting a fraction of 

 it to each of its progeny. . . . When we carefully look into the ques- 

 tion, we find that what the germ really supplies is not the force, but 

 the directive agency ; thus rather resembling the control exercised by 

 the superintendent builder who is charged with the working-out the- 



