222 From Matter to Man. 



President, said : — " Life is the action of an unknown 

 force on ordinary matter." " What is the mysterious 

 impulse which is able to strike across the ordinary 

 laws of matter and twist them for a moment from 

 their path ? " This view, we may assume, is the 

 current notion of life, and perhaps it is the only one 

 consistent with received data. But our readers should 

 now be so familiar with the effects of the automatic 

 laws and the bases of the New Materialism that they 

 ought to see no mystery in it. 



In the first place, as already explained, life is not 

 an " unknown force," for no force is more familiar 

 than magnetism ; and, secondly, it is no " impulse " 

 different from the " ordinary laws of matter," but one 

 of the most ordinary laws known. 



We here associate animal energy with animal life, 

 for both, as in the lower kingdoms, are virtually alike. 

 In animals, however, as well as in vegetals, the energy 

 or life is dual, and results from the separate con- 

 ditions of the component substance. 



Thus, the constituents of an animal viewed simply 

 as elementary constituents, are, as repeatedly said, 

 magnets, hence an animal as a mere mass of con- 

 joined magnets would, like a. bar of iron, be a com- 

 bined magnet with an individual polarity. It has 

 thus the energy or magnetism resulting from mass, 

 and manifests gravity, attraction, and repulsion. But, 

 as also a machine containing a virtual magnetic battery 

 in its stomach, as already described, it has a special 

 energy as a magnetic machine. 



