The Unification of Knowledge Impossible. 2 1 



the lowest forms cannot be, with certainty, classified, 

 does not prove that they are not separated by any 

 real difference into animal or vegetal, but only 

 that science is not able to bring the difference to 

 light, and that our classification is no more than 

 a rough approximation to reality. To affirm that 

 there are no discriminating marks, because we can- 

 not discover them, is to assume, against all expe- 

 rience, that science succeeds in tracing the lines of 

 demarcation in nature wherever such lines exist. 

 Every living germ is a witness to the contrary. The 

 primal forms of the higher species cannot be sorted 

 by science. 



(4). The vegetal kingdom forms another vast group 

 of organisms, separated on the one side from inorganic 

 matter, and on the other, from organisms endowed 

 with sensibility. The differences on either side must 

 be accounted for before unification is complete. The 

 origin of organization lies and seems as if it would 

 for ever lie a mystery to science. No attempt to 

 trace the process of change from the inorganic to the 

 organic has succeeded, or has come near success. It 

 still remains an unsolved problem to find an operative 

 principle adequate to the task of bringing organic 

 and inorganic processes together in a real oneness. 

 We shall have to look more closely at this point in 

 another part of the discussion. 



(5). Nor is it possible to unify knowledge even 

 within the compass o inorganic matter. The laws 



