THE BREATH OF LIFE 



began. Chance is a man lost in the woods; he never 

 arrives; he wanders aimlessly. If evolution pur- 

 sued a course equally fortuitous, would it not still 

 be wandering in the wilderness of the chaotic 

 nebulae? 



in 



A vastly different and much more stimulating 

 view of life is given by Henri Bergson in his "Crea- 

 tive Evolution." Though based upon biological sci- 

 ence, it is a philosophical rather than a scientific 

 view, and appeals to our intuitional and imagina- 

 tive nature more than to our constructive reason. 

 M. Bergson interprets the phenomena of life in 

 terms of spirit, rather than in terms of matter as 

 does Professor Loeb. The word "creative" is the 

 key-word to his view. Life is a creative impulse or 

 current which arose in matter at a certain time and 

 place, and flows through it from form to form, from 

 generation to generation, augmenting in force as it 

 advances. It is one with spirit, and is incessant cre- 

 ation; the whole organic world is filled, from bottom 

 to top, with one tremendous effort. It was long ago 

 felicitously stated by Whitman in his "Leaves of 

 Grass," "Urge and urge, always the procreant urge 

 of the world." 



This conception of the nature and genesis of life 

 is bound to be challenged by modern physical sci- 

 ence, which, for the most part, sees in biology only 



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