THE BREATH OF LIFE 



which makes an oak an oak, and a pine a pine, is a 

 nonentity. That which makes a sheep a sheep, and 

 an ox an ox, is to science a nonentity. To physical 

 science the soul is a nonentity. 



There is something in the cells of the muscles that 

 makes them contract, and in the cells of the heart 

 that makes it beat; that something is not active in 

 the other cells of the body. But it is a nonentity. 

 The body is a machine and a laboratory combined, 

 but that which coordinates them and makes them 

 work together — what is that? Another nonentity. 

 That which distinguishes a living machine from a 

 dead machine, science has no name for, except 

 molecular attraction and repulsion, and these are 

 names merely; they are nonentities. Is there not 

 molecular attraction and repulsion in a steam-en- 

 gine also? And yet it is not alive. What has to sup- 

 plement the mechanical and the chemical to make 

 matter alive? We have no name for it but the vital, 

 be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no name 

 for a flash of lightning but electricity, be it an entity 

 or a nonentity. We have no name for that which 

 distinguishes a man from a brute, but mind, soul, 

 be it an entity or a nonentity. We have no name 

 for that which distinguishes the organic from the 

 inorganic but vitality, be it an entity or a nonen- 

 tity. 



100 



