THE BREATH OF LIFE 



plied, it was life, and not mere matter and motion 

 — something that lifts matter and motion to a 

 new plane. 



Under the influence of the life impulse, the old 

 routine of matter — from compound to compound, 

 from solid to fluid, from fluid to gaseous, from rock 

 to soil, the cycle always ending where it began — is 

 broken into, and cycles of a new order are instituted. 

 From the stable equilibrium which dead matter is 

 always seeking, the same matter in the vital circuit 

 is always seeking the state of unstable equilibrium, 

 or rather is forever passing between the two, and 

 evolving the myriad forms of life in the passage. 

 It is hard to think of the process as the work of the 

 physical and chemical forces of inorganic nature, 

 without supplementing them with a new and differ- 

 ent force. 



The forces of life are constructive forces, and they 

 are operative in a world of destructive or disinte- 

 grating forces which oppose them and which they 

 overcome. The physical and chemical forces of 

 dead matter are at war with the forces of life, till 

 life overcomes and uses them. 



The mechanical forces go on repeating or dividing 

 through the same cycles forever and ever, seeking a 

 stable condition, but the vital force is inventive and 

 creative and constantly breaks the repose that or- 

 ganic nature seeks to impose upon it. 



External forces may modify a body, but they can- 



7 



