HEREDITY 183 



and air, we cannot doubt its mutual relationship, 

 any more than we can doubt the relation of the 

 cosmic medium, in which all rhythms vibrate, in its 

 relation to organic substance. Organised beings 

 reproduce the rhythms of indefinite mechanics, as 

 the sand reproduces the air rhythms as it glides 

 over the sea. From the infinitely small to man, is 

 constituted the crescendo of a rhythm. 



Our senses unfortunately cannot register all 

 movements. Thus the sight can perceive only 

 colours the vibrations of which are capable of being 

 felt, such as those that come from the red to the 

 violet, forming part of a great scale of forces, 

 vibrations, or rhythms that keep increasing from 

 the red, that represents the heavy waves, to the 

 violet, that presents the maximum of vibrations 

 perceptible by actual beings. Beyond the red and 

 the violet follow other rhythms, which are also 

 energies, and would be, perhaps, so many other 

 colours if our sight could perceive them. The 

 cathode rays represent a rhythm of such rapidity 

 that it crosses the majority of bodies without being 

 reflected, and the colours are perceptible, because 

 their light is reflected. 



There exist, then, an infinite number of rhythms 

 that man cannot directly perceive, although subject 

 to them. Man, as an apparatus or receiver of 

 natural energies, has a very limited field of action, 



