THE BREATH OF LIFE 



chemistry, if you prefer, a force, but a force differ- 

 ing in kind from the physical forces. 



The forces of life are constructive forces, and work 

 in a world of disintegrating or destructive forces 

 which oppose them and which they overcome. The 

 mechanical and the chemical forces of dead matter 

 are the enemies of the forces of life till life over- 

 comes and uses them; as much so as gravity, fire, 

 frost, water are man's enemies till he has learned 

 how to subdue and use them. 



IV 



It is a significant fact that the four chief elements 

 which in various combinations make up living 

 bodies are by their extreme mobility well suited to 

 their purpose. Three of these are gaseous; only the 

 carbon is a solid. This renders them facile and 

 adaptive in the ever-changing conditions of organic 

 evolution. The solid carbon forms the vessel in 

 which the precious essence of life is carried. With- 

 out carbon we should evaporate or flow away and 

 escape. Much of the oxygen and hydrogen enters 

 into living bodies as water; nine tenths of the human 

 body is water; a little nitrogen and a few mineral 

 salts make up the rest. So that our life in its final 

 elements is little more than a stream of water hold- 

 ing in solution carbonaceous and other matter and 

 flowing, forever flowing, a stream of fluid and solid 

 matter plus something else that scientific analysis 



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