THE BREATH OF LIFE 



the philosophers go one way, and the rigid scien- 

 tists the other. It is from this point of view that the 

 philosophy of Henri Bergson, based so largely as it 

 is upon scientific material, has been so bitterly as- 

 sailed from the scientific camp. 



The living cell is a wonderful machine, but if we 

 ask which is first, life or the cell, where are we ? 

 There is the synthetical reaction in the cell, and 

 the analytical or splitting reaction — the organizing, 

 and the disorganizing processes — what keeps up 

 this seesaw and preserves the equilibrium? A life 

 force, said the older scientists; only chemical laws, 

 say the new. A prodigious change in the behavior 

 of matter is wrought by life, and whether we say it 

 is by chemical laws, or by a life force, the mystery 

 remains. 



The whole secret of life centres in the cell, in the 

 plant cell; and this cell does not exceed .005 milli- 

 metres in diameter. An enormous number of chem- 

 ical reactions take place in this minute space. It 

 is a world in little. Here are bodies of different 

 shapes whose service is to absorb carbon dioxide, 

 and form sugar and carbohydrates. Must we go out- 

 side of matter itself, and of chemical reactions, to 

 account for it? Call this unknown factor " vital 

 force," as has so long been done, or name it "biotic 

 energy," as Professor Moore has lately done, and 

 the mystery remains the same. It is a new behavior 

 in matter, call it by what name we will. 



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