THE BIOCOSMOS CELLULAR. 



lifeless, non-cellular. The unit of the Biocos- 

 mos is not, therefore, an atom or molecule, 

 but a cell with its minute vital process. This 

 cell, however, as distinct from the atom has 

 reached the point at which it can divide itself, 

 and so self-genesis enters with Life. Still let 

 us remember, that the cell persists not, but 

 dies at last through its own inner division 

 which it cannot control but which ultimately 

 controls it as a thing of Nature. The inher- 

 ent dialectic of its separation is that it must 

 finally separate from itself, and perish. 



Now this negative of Life, or Death, be- 

 longs to the great totality, is a phase or stage 

 thereof. The living individual through his 

 self-negative act perpetuates himself in an- 

 other individual. Life continues through its 

 own cessation. So the law runs that still in 

 Nature, Death is properly the death of Death, 

 the negation of the negative, the separation 

 from separation. The highest attainment of 

 Nature is Life, the Death of Life must be 

 accordingly the conclusion of Nature, which 

 as a whole is the stage of separation in the 

 Universe. 



If, therefore, we wish to reach back to the 

 primal force which drives the cell to its repro- 

 ductive division (which is such a marvel to 

 the biologist), we cannot stop till we come 

 to the conception of the universe as psychical 



