40 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



This foundation is none the less firm because 

 it is now realized that these indivisible atoms 

 uncreatable and indestructible, which Newton 

 supposed to be turned out completely formed 

 by the Creator in the beginning of things, 

 are themselves composed of thousands of 

 smaller particles. It is only necessary for 

 the atomic basis to our chemistry to realize 

 that the atom, just like the chemical molecule 

 at a different stage, or the fixed organic 

 species of the biologist, is a point of stable 

 equilibrium in upward evolution. Between 

 each two such points there lies a region of 

 unstable equilibrium, and as matter becomes 

 more charged with energy, surgings and 

 transformations occur, and in the greater 

 number of cases when the cycle is complete, 

 the matter drops back again to its stable 

 point. But occasionally when a supply of 

 energy at high-potential, or concentration, 

 is available, there is a huge wave of uplifting 

 which carries the matter involved over a hill 

 crest into a higher hollow of stable equilibrium, 

 and a new type of matter becomes evolved 

 at the expense of kinetic energy passing 

 over into latent energy or potentia. The 

 process may be reversed, of course, and here, 

 matter at a higher elemental level may be 

 decomposed, setting free energy, as in radio- 



