PROXIMATE DEFINITION OF LIFE. 71 



this same qualification the motions of the Solar System are 

 excluded ; as are also those of a watch and a steam-engine. 

 It is true, moreover, that while, in virtue of their heteroge 

 neity, the actions going on in a cloud, in a volcano, in a 

 glacier, fulfil the definition ; they fall short of it in lacking 

 definiteness of combination. It is further true that this 

 definiteness of combination, distinguishes the changes taking 

 place in an organism during life, from those which commence 

 at death. And beyond all this it is true that, as well as 

 serving to mark oft , more or less clearly, organic actions from 

 inorganic actions, each member of the definition serves to 

 mark off the actions constituting high vitality from those 

 constituting low vitality ; seeing that life is high in propor 

 tion to the number of successive changes occurring between 

 birth and death ; in proportion to the number of simultaneous 

 changes ; in proportion to the heterogeneity of the changes ; 

 in proportion to the combination subsisting among the 

 changes ; and in proportion to the definiteness of their com 

 bination. Nevertheless, answering though it does to so 

 many requirements, this definition is essentially defective. 

 It does not convey a complete idea of the thing contem 

 plated. The definite combination of heterogeneous changes, 

 IjotTi simultaneous and successive, is a formula which fails to 

 call up an adequate conception. And it fails from omitting 

 the most distinctive peculiarity the peculiarity of which we 

 have the most familiar experience, and with which our notion 

 of Life is, more than with any other, associated. It remains 

 now to supplement the definition by the addition of this 

 peculiarity. 



