EARTH-LIFE. 39 



these hundred million of years. In such a 

 view the earliest vital mass (Protobioticon) 

 started with a given amount which it has been 

 evolving ever since into higher and higher or- 

 ganisms, measured by a standard which can 

 only be psychical. The quantity of Life has 

 then not increased since its first launching as 

 a little speck in the ocean of its gigantic en- 

 emy; but its quality has improved instead. 

 Thus the Earth-life, conceived as all vitality 

 embodied in a single shape, has had the func- 

 tion to evolve itself from its primordial stuff 

 through individuation toward the perfect or- 

 ganism, which is now considered to be man's 

 body. 



Such, then, is the outer struggle between 

 the Organic and the Inorganic in the develop- 

 ment of Earth-life, but this has also what 

 may be deemed its inner struggle. Each sin- 

 gle living thing in the reproduction of itself 

 must draw on the contents of the reservoir 

 of Life, which holds a limited quantity ac- 

 cording to supposition. Well-known is the 

 ability of a pair of rabbits through propaga- 

 tion to monopolize the Earth-life of a given 

 territory, unless vigorously suppressed by 

 other vital forms, including man. There are 

 protozoa capable of multiplying at such a 

 rate that all living existence would turn back 

 to protozoan unless the increase be stopped 



