192 SYMB100ENES1S 



be regarded as due to a symbiogenetic process serving much 

 the same purposes in the inorganic as in the organic world, 

 viz., the amplification and the increase of the powers of life. 



We must remember that the distinction between colloid 

 and crystalloid cannot always be sharply drawn, and that it is 

 thus not so very difficult to see in these two varying phases of 

 matter the evolution of a wholesome antagonism, i.e., a 

 diversification, a mutual specialisation for the purposes of 

 symbiogenesis : progressive synthesis in keeping with the new 

 values ever arising in the world of life (in the widest sense of 

 the word). Moreover, it is not all bodies that are capable of 

 forming colloidal masses, which would again seem to indicate 

 that this property depends on the previous evolution of definite 

 affinities, such as those classed by me under the head of 

 "reciprocal differentiation." 



It is noteworthy in this connection to have Prof. H. E. 

 Armstrong expressing the following view before the British 

 Association in Australia: "The variable valency of certain 

 elements is another difficulty ; the variation seems to be deter- 

 mined by some reciprocal relationship between the interacting 

 elements, valency being a dependent- variable and not an 

 absolute property." (Italics mine.) 



In the light of these considerations, we may say that the 

 character of a substance represents a kind of (variable) 

 specialisation for work frequently mutual, symbiotic and 

 vicarious a kind of individualisation participating in and 

 subserving cosmic evolution. 



Though we can still admit, broadly speaking, the truth of 

 Spencer's contention that the properties of a compound are 

 resultants of the properties of its components, we are now in a 

 position to amplify it by stating that the properties of 

 substances are the resultants of the charges of energy they 

 convey, both on the surface and within, as a consequence of 

 their structure and position, as well as in virtue of the past 

 symbiogenetic evolution of their component elements. 



We also have in the so-called catalysers : enzymes, 



