THE BREATH OF LIFE 



not develop it unless there is something in the body 

 waiting to be developed, craving development, as it 

 were. The warmth and moisture in the soil act alike 

 upon the grains of sand and upon the seed-germs; 

 the germ changes into something else, the sand does 

 not. These agents liberate a force in the germ that 

 is not in the grain of sand. The warmth of the 

 brooding fowl does not spend itself upon mere pas- 

 sive, inert matter (unless there is a china egg in the 

 nest) , but upon matter straining upon its leash, and 

 in a state of expectancy. We do not know how the 

 activity of the molecules of the egg differs from 

 the activity of the molecules of the pebble, under 

 the influence of warmth, but we know there must 

 be a difference between the interior movements 

 of organized and unorganized matter. 



Life lifts inert matter up into a thousand varied 

 and beautiful forms and holds it there for a season, 

 — holds it against gravity and chemical affinity, 

 though you may say, if you please, not without their 

 aid, — and then in due course lets go of it, or aban- 

 dons it, and lets it fall back into the great sea of the 

 inorganic. Its constant tendency is to fall back; in- 

 deed, in animal life it does fall back every moment; 

 it rises on the one hand, serves its purpose of life, 

 and falls back on the other. In going through the 

 cycle of life the mineral elements experience some 

 change that chemical analysis does not disclose — 

 they are the more readily absorbed again by life. It 



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