THE BREATH OF LIFE 



ited in time, limited in space; present in some 

 worlds, absent from others; breaking up the old 

 routine of the material forces, and instituting new 

 currents, new tendencies; departing from the linear 

 activities of the inorganic, and setting up the circu- 

 lar activities of living currents; replacing change by 

 metamorphosis, revolution by evolution, accretion 

 by secretion, crystallization by cell-formation, ag- 

 gregation by growth; and, finally, introducing a 

 new power into the world — the mind and soul of 

 man — this wonderful, and apparently transcen- 

 dental something which we call life — how baffling 

 and yet how fascinating is the inquiry into its na- 

 ture and origin ! Are we to regard it as Tyndall did, 

 and as others before and since his time did and do, 

 as potential in the constitution of matter, and self- 

 evolved, like the chemical compounds that are in- 

 volved in its processes? 



As mechanical energy is latent in coal, and in all 

 combustible bodies, is vital energy latent in carbon, 

 hydrogen, oxygen, and so forth, needing only the 

 right conditions to bring it out? Mechanical energy 

 is convertible into electrical energy, and vice versa. 

 Indeed, the circle of the physical forces is easily 

 traced, easily broken into, but when or how these 

 forces merge into the vital and psychic forces, or 

 support them, or become them — there is the puz- 

 zle. If we limit the natural to the inorganic order, 

 then are living bodies supernatural? Super-mechan- 



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