VITALITY. 51 



seem to whisper their secret to their comrades that 

 arrive, and thus, while the Non-ego shifts, the Ego re- 

 mains the same. Constancy of form in the grouping 

 of the molecules, and not constancy of the molecules 

 themselves, is the correlative of this constancy of per- 

 ception. Life is a wave which in no two consecutive 

 moments of its existence is composed of the same 

 particles. 



Supposing, then, the molecules of the human hody, 

 instead of replacing others, and thus renewing a pre- 

 existing form, to he gathered first hand from nature 

 and put together in the same relative positions as 

 those which they occupy in the body. Supposing them 

 to have the selfsame forces and distribution of forces, 

 the selfsame motions and distribution of motions 

 would this organised concourse of molecules stand 

 before us as a sentient thinking being? There seems 

 no valid reason to believe that it would not. Or, sup- 

 posing a planet carved from the sun, set spinning 

 round an axis, and revolving round the sun at a dis- 

 tance from him equal to that of our earth, would one 

 of the consequences of its refrigeration be the develop- 

 ment of organic forms? I lean to the affirmative. 

 Structural forces are certainly in the mass, whether or 

 not those forces reach to the extent of forming a plant 

 or an animal. In an amorphous drop of water lie 

 latent all the marvels of crystalline force; and who 

 will set limits to the possible play of molecules in a 

 cooling planet? If these statements startle, it is be- 

 cause matter has been defined and maligned by philos- 

 ophers and theologians, who were equally unaware 

 that it is, at bottom, essentially mystical and transcen- 

 dental. 



Questions such as these derive their present interest 

 in great part from their audacity, which is sure, in due 



