Life and Energy 133 



the truth I maintain that life is not a form 

 of energy, that it is not included in our 

 present physical categories, that its explana- 

 tion is still to seek. And I have further 

 stated though there I do not dogmatise 

 that it appears to me to belong to a separate 

 order of existence, which interacts with 

 this material frame of things, and, while 

 there, exerts guidance and control on the 

 energy which already here exists (cf. p. 24) ; 

 for, though they alter the quantity of energy 

 no whit, and though they merely utilise 

 available energy like any other machine, 

 live things are able to direct inorganic 

 terrestrial energy along new and special 

 paths, so as to achieve results which without 

 such living agency could not have occurred 

 e.g. forests, ant-hills, birds' nests, Forth 

 bridge, sonatas, cathedrals. 



I have never taught, nor for a moment 

 thought, that " vital force is akin to 

 physical force, but that it needs guidance " 

 (p. 747) ; the phrase sounds to me nonsense. 

 I perceive, not as a theory, but as a fact, 



