146 LIFE IN NATURE. 



this demand can be satisfied in two ways : Either 

 the material world is dead and life does not spring 

 from it ; or, if life springs from 'it, then it is not dead. 

 If it be proved that the forces and laws of the 

 inorganic world constitute all that is to be found 

 of physical power or principle in organic life, then 

 does not the conclusion follow that the apparently 

 inorganic world is truly living too ? 



This is no paradox. It is not even a novelty. 

 That Nature is universally living is a position that 

 has often been maintained ; but evidence of its truth 

 could not be given until various physiological pro- 

 blems had been at least approximately solved. Let 

 us first conceive the case hypothetically. That which 

 constitutes matter living, in the ordinary sense, is a 

 certain arrangement of its elements, in relations op- 

 posed, more or less, to their chemical tendencies. 

 This arrangement of the elements gives rise to a 

 substance in which there exists a tendency to de- 

 compose the organic substance. This substance, 

 moulded into adapted structures, constitutes an or- 

 ganic body. The conditions essential to organic life 

 are, then, these two : an opposition to chemical affi- 



