268 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



is, in fact, as we have seen, nothing else than the outer, 

 organic aspect of that Life. From which it is evident 

 that the difference between organic and inorganic mat- 

 ter is merely one of degree. Thus the theory of Abio- 

 genesis, the theory that life may come from the not-liv- 

 ing, is itself but a special aspect of Biogenesis in the 

 wider sense of the latter term. 



There is, then, nothing contradictory in the thought 

 that organisms not only arose, but are forever arising, out 

 of "inorganic" matter. For inorganic matter itself, 

 when seen in its vital relation within the Universe as 

 a whole, consists of nothing else than the more element- 

 ary of the infinitely manifold thought-forms constituting 

 the Universe. Looked at in this way, it is evident that 

 nature tends inevitably to unfold into the more adequate 

 thought-forms which we know as organisms. Thus we 

 arrive at what may be called an organic view of nature 

 as constituting the elementary phase of the vital, and, 

 in its total range, forever self-equal process of creation. 

 Whence it would seem that the transition of inorganic 

 into organic matter is itself a ceaseless aspect of the eternal 

 process -of Creation. Doubtless in the evolution of each 

 planet, where the conditions rendering life possible are 

 reached at all, there is a definite moment * of transition 

 from not-living matter to living matter; while at the same 

 time, in the creative process as a whole, that " moment " 

 is eternalized in the ceaseless evolution of worlds. 



Instead, therefore, of resenting the work of such men 

 as Spencer, and Darwin and Haeckel, and angrily declar- 

 ing them to be undermining all grounds of faith while 



* The " moment " being continuous so long as the conditions favorable 

 to such transition continue to be the same anywhere on the given planet. 



