I3 2 WHAT AM I? 



the subject has obviously experienced the same difficulty, 

 though comparatively few have confessed that they have 

 experienced any difficulty at all. The truth seems to be 

 that the meaning of " living," as applied to man, cannot be 

 accurately explained until the meaning of the same word, as 

 applied to less complex living beings, has been conclusively 

 determined. The enquirer, therefore, before he attempts to 

 answer the first question, discovers that he must somehow 

 gain very extensive preliminary knowledge. And as he 

 pursues the enquiry new enquiries are suggested at each 

 step, and so he proceeds until, at last, he finds himself 

 trying to discover what is meant by the statement that 

 a mere speck of colourless, structureless matter " lives" 

 The particle is so very small that in order to be seen it must 

 be made to appear two or three thousand times larger than 

 it really is. It is therefore not surprising that very great 

 minds should look upon the question with contempt, and 

 endeavour to persuade people that minute living particles 

 are beneath the notice of philosophers, and ought to be 

 ignored in philosophy. 



However this may be, I believe that the living particle 

 forms the real and only true starting point of the enquiry. 

 Before I can hope to get a correct answer to the question 

 " What am I ?" I think I must have a correct knowledge 

 of the phenomena which are comprised under the term 

 " living," as applied to some living thing less complex than 

 my living body even the simplest particle of matter that 

 can be discovered, and certainly existing in the peculiar 

 state thus qualified, and to be distinguished from matter in 

 every other known state. 



These remarks will, I doubt not, provoke derision, and, if 



