Association a Cosmic Principle 305 



the significance of one of the most general laws 

 of the universe, — the law of progress and the 

 intensification of life through association. 



Association is a universal fact of Nature. From 

 the highest form of life, the human body, with its 

 thousands of billions of cells, down to the lowest 

 forms of life, we find organisms created by the 

 association of many small units. Even a chemical 

 body is an embryonic association. In every rock 

 and crystal of the mountains, in every drop of 

 water in the sea, molecules have united in systems ; 

 and in the molecules themselves we find an assem- 

 blage of atoms more or less similar, held together 

 by cohesion and forming a system in equilibrium, 

 stable or unstable. The earth itself is a member 

 of the solar system, held together by gravitation in 

 a cosmic association. Nor is the phenomenon of 

 mutual attraction limited to our system. It is 

 found in many systems of double or triple stars 

 moving about each other or around their common 

 center. It may be traced back to the spiral streams 

 of nebulae, in which we can see the movement 

 starting, with gravitation drawing them slowly 

 together and globing them into new suns and solar 

 systems. So does this law of attraction and union 

 take various forms and pervade the entire uni- 

 verse. It is a cosmic principle. 



But it is in the domain of biology that this 

 law of association assumes its full power and 

 undergoes an enormous extension. Life and as- 

 sociation are synonymous terms. The simplest 



< 



