258 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



compound is constituted, and at once the compound is 

 reduced, and another and different one is formed. 



Thus the internality exhibited in affinity is still char- 

 acterized by externality. The two phases seem ever to be 

 held asunder whence internality is found to be thus far 

 external to externality. And we have seen that the truth 

 of internality is in its own continuous unfolding of itself 

 into externality. The internal is to become external, not 

 by being violently held in isolation from the external, but 

 through its own free, ceaseless self-evolution into external 

 forms. 



But this fusion of the internal and the external in a 

 continuous process is life. The object possessing life 

 exhibits centrality and also affinity; but both these are 

 definitely subordinated in the life-process constituting 

 the living object itself. 



More precisely, centrality, in the very process of its 

 subordination, undergoes development into higher form; 

 for it now appears not so much as an abstract " within " 

 respecting the mere space-relations of the "body" 

 through which life is manifested, but rather as the spon- 

 taneity or inner impulse which appears in each and every 

 part of every living body. And this impulse, as the 

 spontaneous effort toward self-preservation, is manifestly 

 also affinity., now appearing under the form of a contin- 

 uous process. Even here it is worth noticing that the 

 term " affinity " no longer suffices. The more complex 

 aspect of the process requires its own special category; 

 and the one here appropriate is the familiar name, 

 "assimilation." Whence centrality and affinity prove 

 not merely to belong to the dead externality of "mere 

 matter," but also to have their place in the realm of life 



