THE BREATH OF LIFE 



the hypothetical atoms are no longer divisible, we 

 may conjecture but may never know. We may 

 fancy the infinitely little going through a cycle of 

 evolution like that of the infinitely great, and solar 

 systems developing and revolving inside of the ul- 

 timate atoms, but the Copernicus or the Laplace 

 of the atomic astronomy has not yet appeared. 

 The atom itself is an invention of science. To get 

 the mystery of vitality reduced to the atom is get- 

 ting it in very close quarters, but it is a very big 

 mystery still. Just how the dead becomes alive, 

 even in the atom, is mystery enough to stagger any 

 scientific mind. It is not the volume of the change; 

 it is the quality or kind. Chemistry and mechanics 

 we have always known, and they always remain 

 chemistry and mechanics. They go into our labora- 

 tories and through our devices chemistry and me- 

 chanics, and they come out chemistry and mechan- 

 ics. They will never come out life, conjure with 

 them as we will, and we can get no other result. 

 We cannot inaugurate the mystic dance among the 

 atoms that will give us the least throb of life. 



The psychic arises out of the organic and the or- 

 ganic arises out of the inorganic, and the inorganic 

 arises out of — what? The relation of each to the 

 other is as intimate as that of the soul to the body; 

 we cannot get between them even in thought, but 

 the difference is one of kind and not of degree. The 

 vital transcends the mechanical, and the psychic 



44 



