LIFE AND CHANCE 



if we consider tlie fortuitous and the accidental, not 

 as they occur in a world of mechanical movements, 

 but as they occur in a world of chemical reactions. 

 The fortuitous among chemical bodies is quite a dif- 

 ferent thing from the fortuitous among ponderable 

 bodies. We might shake together the parts of a watch 

 for all eternity and not get that adjustment of the 

 wheels and springs that makes a watch. If a thou- 

 sand of brick are dumped upon the ground, is there 

 any probability that they will take the form of a 

 house? Or if the letters of the alphabet are shaken 

 up together in a bag, is there the slightest chance 

 that they will arrange themselves into words and 

 that the words will arrange themselves into intelli- 

 gent sentences? In all these things the parts have 

 no attraction for one another, but among chemical 

 compounds, out of which living bodies are built up, 

 there rules the selective force of chemical affinity. 

 The elements select their partners. It is a marriage 

 in which two literally become one. Chemistry is on 

 the road to life; chemical transformations lead up 

 to the transformations we call vital. The physical 

 forces transport and transpose and seek a state of 

 rest; they sort and sift the sands and gravels and 

 clays of the soil, depositing them in a regular series, 

 but they never get beyond the realm of mere chance. 

 The clouds are ever changing, but they never change 

 into living forms. The waves shift and pile the 

 sands endlessly upon the shore, but the shore is 



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