EARTH-LIFE IN GENERAL. 



origin of the first living thing which could 

 reproduce itself. The problem is not simply 

 whence came just this single vital shape 'be- 

 fore us, but whence came it with its power 

 of self-propagation? It was born immedi- 

 ately of a parent who again had a parent; 

 but who or what individuated the first parent 

 with its parenthood, though it be only a cell? 

 Here we reach back to the source of all indi- 

 vidual life on our planet, the giver of just this 

 individuation ; it must be a kind of universal 

 self-creative life which imparts itself to each 

 tiny bit of living matter. So we rise to the 

 conception of Earth-life, which, however, has 

 to keep on individuating itself as universal 

 and self-generative, in order to be the uni- 

 versal life of the Earth, of which every indi- 

 vidual living thing has to partake in order 

 to live. From this each Plant or Animal gets 

 its special vital share, namely from the whole 

 of vitality of our planet, and as far as we 

 know, of the universe. Every day in our 

 food we appropriate a bit for our renewal; 

 then finally our organisms are plunged back 

 into this reservoir of total Earth-life for some 

 sort of re-creation. If we look back at the 

 generative Process, vegetal as well as animal, 

 we find that it reproduces individuals after a 

 S'iven norm. It therefore reveals itself as lim- 

 ited, transmitted, originated; what is its 



