Hypothesis Concerning Life 137 



essential existence is continuous and per- 

 manent, though its interactions with matter 

 are discontinuous and temporary ; and I 

 conjecture that it is subject to a law of 

 evolution that a linear advance is open to 

 it whether it be in its phenomenal or in 

 its occult state. 



It may be well to indicate what I mean by 

 conceiving of the possibility that life has an 

 existence apart from its material manifesto 

 tions as we know them at present. (Re- 

 member note on p. 40.) It is easy to imagine 

 that such a view is a mere surmise, having 

 no intelligible meaning, and that it is merely 

 an attempt to clutch at human immortality 

 in an emotional and unscientific spirit. 

 To this, however, I in no way plead guilty. 

 My ideas about life may be quite wrong, 

 but they are as cold-blooded and free from 

 bias as possible ; moreover, they apply not to 

 human life alone, but to all life to that of 

 all animals, and even of plants ; and they are 

 held by me as a working hypothesis, the 

 only one which enables me to fit the known 



