



76 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



f 



■? 



or the power which unites a given all into a ^i^ok' 



^ As given in an unacknowledged translation by Coleridge entitled 

 * Hints towards the Formation of a more Comprehensive Theory of 

 Life/ 1848, p. 42. 



certain range of climate ; every plant to certain zones 

 of latitude and elevation. Of the marine flora and 

 fauna^ each species is found exclusively between such 

 and such depths. Some blind creatures flourish only 

 in dark caves 5 the limpet only where it is alternately 

 covered and uncovered by the tide ; the red-snow aka 

 rarely elsewhere than in the arctic regions or amon^^ 

 alpine peaks/ But having once recognized the im- 

 portance of this action and reaction continually taking 

 place between the organism and its environment, we 

 become the more alive to the shortcomings of those , 

 definitions which do not inckide this fundamental | ^^^-^^^1 ^""^ ^ 

 notion. Though unsatisfactory for other reasons also 

 the definition of De Blainville will be seen to be 

 eminently defective in this respect. He says, ' Life is 



Life of its 0WI1 

 supremacy, m " 



to what we cons 

 ^to the meani 

 word. Allbodi 



■living or li 



of such and si 

 divided into t\ 

 not-living — ace 



1 



the twofold internal movement of composition and I ^rtain qualitie; 

 decomposition, at once general and continuous.' Almost [ ^"^lities are th( 

 the same objection may also be alleged against the de- 

 finition of Richerand, that "^Life is a collection of phe- 

 nomena which succeed each other during a limited time 



D 



in an organized body/ even if it had not been useless 

 as a definition of Life, because the same words would 

 be applicable to the process of decay taking place 

 after death in a previously living body. 



However unsatis 

 °' I-ife, we cannot fa 



»« notable tendenc. 



II 





Sirdach (' Tra 

 ;• '49) says, ' Effec 



„ ^^'' ^^e we ac 



°'^P''on that tL ' 

 tells n. *" 



^ the , 



V the b 



