THE BREATH OF LIFE 



ganic world. Bodies still have their laws or condi- 

 tions of activity, but they are elastic and variable. 

 Among living things we have in a measure escaped 

 from the iron necessity that holds the world of dead 

 matter in its grip. Dead matter ever tends to a 

 static equilibrium ; living matter to a dynamic poise, 

 or a balance between the intake and the output of 

 energy. Life is a peculiar activity in matter. If the 

 bicyclist stops, his wheel falls down; no mechanical 

 contrivance could be devised that could take his 

 place on the wheel, and no combination of purely 

 chemical and physical forces can alone do with 

 matter what life does with it. The analogy here 

 hinted at is only tentative. I would not imply that 

 the relation of life to matter is merely mechanical 

 and external, like that of the rider to his wheel. In 

 life, the rider and his wheel are one, but when life 

 vanishes, the wheel falls down. The chemical and 

 physical activity of matter is perpetual ; with a high- 

 power microscope we may see the Brunonian move- 

 ment in liquids and gases any time and at all times, 

 but the movement we call vitality dominates these 

 and turns them to new ends. I suppose the nature 

 of the activity of the bombarding molecules of gases 

 and liquids is the same in our bodies as out; that 

 turmoil of the particles goes on forever; it is, in itself, 

 blind, fateful, purposeless; but life furnishes, or is, 

 an organizing principle that brings order and pur- 

 pose out of this chaos. It does not annul any of the 



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