THE BREATH OF LIFE 



that give us art and literature and philosophy and 

 modern civilization. What prompted the elements 

 to this new and extraordinary behavior? Science 

 is dumb before such a question. 



Living bodies are immersed in physical conditions 

 as in a sea. External agencies — light, moisture, 

 air, gravity, mechanical and chemical influences — 

 cause great changes in them; but their power to 

 adapt themselves to these changes, and profit by 

 them, remains unexplained. Are morphological 

 processes identical with chemical ones? 



In the inorganic world we everywhere see me- 

 chanical adjustment, repose, stability, equilibrium, 

 through the action and interaction of outward phys- 

 ical forces; a natural bridge is a striking example 

 of the action of blind mechanical forces among the 

 rocks. In the organic world we see living adaptation 

 which involves a non-mechanical principle. An ad- 

 justment is an outward fitting together of parts; 

 an adaptation implies something flowing, unstable, 

 plastic, compromising; it is a moulding process; 

 passivity on one side, and activity on the other. Liv- 

 ing things struggle; they struggle up as well as down; 

 they struggle all round the circle, while the pull of 

 dead matter is down only. 



Behold what a good chemist a plant is! With 

 what skill it analyzes the carbonic acid in the air, 

 retaining the carbon and returning the oxygen to 

 the atmosphere! Then the plant can do what no 



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