70 THE REALM OF ORGANISMS CONTRASTED 



move in the sense of locomotion, though it is probably in 

 a violent state of rotational or turbulent motion in its small- 

 est parts; and to that motion its exceeding rigidity is 

 due." Its density must be far greater than that of any form 

 of matter, ^' yet matter moves through it with perfect free- 

 dom, without any friction or viscosity " (1913, p. 33). 



The ether, says Sir J. J. Thomson, ^' is not a fantastic 

 creation of the speculative philosopher ; it is as essential to 

 us as the air we breathe. . . . The study of this all- 

 pervading substance is perhaps the most fascinating and im- 

 portant duty of the physicist." And Sir Oliver Lodge also 

 speaks of the fascination of this portentous entity, material 

 but no matter, '' the great engine of continuity " : — '' Its 

 curiously elusive and intangible character, combined with 

 its universal and unifying permeance, its apparently infinite 

 extent, its definite and perfect properties, make the ether the 

 most fundamental ingredient in the material cosmos." 



We have delayed over these elementary ideas because those 

 who are convinced of the apartness of living creatures are apt 

 to fail in appreciation of the inorganic domain. Even the 

 use of the word ^ inert ' betrays either prejudice or igno- 

 rance, both probably unconscious. 



Professor Enriques rightly objects to the false antithesis 

 involved in opposing the spontaneity and change of every- 

 thing that lives to the inertia and immutability of matter. 

 He uses '' spontaneity " here to mean " activity " or '' pos- 

 sibility of changing through internal conditions," and rejects 

 the idea of '' an absolutely passive matter ". '^ The view 

 seems far more adequate," he says, " which holds that every- 

 thing around us is living and active, save for a difference 

 in degree in the intensity or in the rapidity of the changes, 

 and in the relative importance of the internal and external 



