THE BIOC08MOS PARTICULARIZED. 



gift of moving itself and of sustaining itself 

 from the outside along with an internal as- 

 similation, and of reproducing itself as indi- 

 vidual. In all three of these basic acts there 

 is some form of self-return, which may be 

 regarded as the characteristic of Life. 



Take yourself as a living thing. A shred 

 of the Cosmos you were in the ancient of 

 days, a streak of nebula such as we still may 

 observe in Orion for instance. Now that cos- 

 mical wisp of tenuous fire-mist began to 

 evolve many hundreds of millions of years 

 ago until it attained Life with the power of 

 self -movement and form having self-sustenta- 

 tion and self generation. Thus you became a 

 member 'of the Biocosmos, doubtless after 

 having had a long cosmical experience 

 (through gravitation for instance) and also 

 a long diacosmical experience (through heat, 

 light, electricity and chemism, for instance). 

 But that was not the end of your evolution: 

 through many a gradation of Life, probably 

 from the cell through uncounted vital shapes, 

 you ascend till you break over the limit of 

 Life into Self- consciousness, truly your goal. 

 Now you can turn back and view Life evolv- 

 ing through its long sequences which act 

 Life itself could not perform. What is it that 

 can in thought re-evolve itself evolving 

 through multi-myriaded millenniums? That 



