CHARACTERS OF LIVING MATTER 11 



stances still baffle the skill of the synthetic chemist ; 

 but it is the compounding of forces belonging equally 

 to the organic and the inorganic world which brings 

 about the evidences of vitality. True it is that the 

 question of identity remains unsolved. The body 

 wastes and it is renewed ; but the identity remains 

 the same ; and, with a Master in Science who gave 

 much time to the consideration of this subject, we 

 may say, " The matter of any period may be all 

 changed, while consciousness exhibits no solution 

 of continuity. Like changing sentinels the oxygen, 

 hydrogen, and carbon that depart seem to whisper 

 their secret to their comrades that arrive, and thus, 

 while the Non-Ego shifts, the Ego remains the same. 

 Constancy of form in the grouping of the molecules, 

 and not constancy of the molecules themselves, is 

 the correlative of this constancy of perception. 

 Life is a wave which in no two consecutive moments 

 of its existence is composed of the same particles." 



