CHAPTER XIII 



LIFE IS THE RESULT OF STRUGGLE BETWEEN TWO 



FACTORS 



A FUNCTION, that is, in the language which we have adopted 

 the activity of an organism at a given moment, may be 

 represented by the symbolic formula : 



A x B. 



The life of an individual being the succession of functions 

 thus defined, we are obliged to say that, at each instant, 

 life depends on two factors, one of which is the sum total of 

 surrounding circumstances, the other the individual's actual 

 structural state. In other words, no being bears life within 

 itself. It transports with itself, wherever circumstances 

 lead it, one of the factors of life, the factor A ; it meets every 

 instant and everywhere the complementary factor B which 

 determines in it, at each instant, the corresponding activity 

 (A x B). Its consequent state naturally depends on its 

 antecedent state and on the phenomena of which it has 

 since been the seat, that is, its state A 2 depends on A! and 

 on (A! x B t ). 



Thus B intervenes every instant to modify A ; the series 

 of factors B determines the evolution A 1? A 2 , A 3 . . . . But, 

 while A is modified under the influence of B, B is also 

 modified under the influence of A which, for example, con- 

 sumes its oxygen, absorbs its radiations, and so on. Only, 

 as B is not a living being its evolution B l5 B 2 , B 3 . . . does 



75 



