EARTH-LIFE IN GENERAL. 357 



perpetually moving from the Inorganic to 

 the Organic, and from the Organic back 

 to the Organic. The quantity of Life com- 

 pared to the Unlife of our globe is very small, 

 and there is an incessant fight between them ; 

 the original struggle for existence is not 

 merely that between living individuals, but it 

 goes back to the struggle of Earth-life itself 

 against its own inorganic elements, which are 

 always seeking to snuff it out. If we conceive 

 total Earth-life, or all living matter to be a 

 small globe lying in another globe of non- 

 living matter ten million times larger, we 

 have the quantitative relation between the 

 two according to a well-known estimate, which 

 probably is intended not to be precise, but 

 only suggestive. 



It should also be noted that Earth-life as 

 organic has its round between two impassable 

 barriers, or as yet unpassed: between non- 

 vital matter and consciousness. The trans- 

 formation of Unlife into Life without the me- 

 diating germ or egg has not yet taken place- 

 spontaneous generation is still disclaimed by 

 science, even if it has to be postulated in 

 Earth-life. On the other hand, the transi- 

 tion from the living body to the conscious 

 Ego has not been scientifically made. So the 

 little globe of Life before mentioned hangs 

 in the air, being isolated from what goes be- 



