1 



l//^£_ 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



77 



But Schelling, in reality, in spite of the actual wording 

 lively j)g,' of his definition 1, looked upon the words 'life' and 

 ■^tures flo ■' ' quality ' as conveying to the mind almost identically 



k A_\ •! All j1'__ j1 r - 



?re it i 



j the red 



IS alter. 



the same ideas. All things, therefore, possessing 

 qualities — that is everything in the universe — has a 

 Life of its own ^^ varying though it may in rank and 

 supremacy, in the case of things ordinarily spoken of as 

 non-living or living respectively -^ And this brings us 

 on inuajj; X.Q what we consider to be the true conception of Life 

 ts environni:: - 



•SDCl 

 Oil; 





to the meaning which ought to be attached to the 



ortcomings o! 



word. 



Natu 



c this funfc ties— they are in fact known to us only as aggregates 



■ other re» of such and such properties, 

 vill be seei: divided into two great classes 



Bodies are, however, 

 —the living and the 



He says,'L 



not-living 



according as they do or do not possess 



of compoifc ^e^tain qualities or properties. These differentiating 

 ontinuous.' \ ^"^^i^i^s ^^e those which are generalized and included 



ed against ^- i However unsatisfactory Schelling's formula may be as a definition 

 collection^ ^^ ^^^^' "^^ cannot fail to recognize that it is an expression of one of the 



most notable tendencies of life in all its higher manifestations. 



2 Burdach ('Traits de Physiologie/ Trad, par Jourdan, 1837, t. iv. 



a 



uring a 



limiti!' 



^A tint beeO^* P- H9) says, ' Effectivement nous rencontrons des traces de vie dans 



,e same ffori 



toute existence quelconque.' 



Thus are we again brought face to face with the old philosophic 



^^rlV taki^s conception that there exists a 'soul' in all things, or, as Wordsworth 



ody 



na 



n ^ 



r>/^ {^' 



II into 



V 



tion 



bvCo 



lerii' 



i 



Comp 



rebeo^^ 



Ive 



ff 



tells us, an all-pervading Power: 



' Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 

 And the round ocean and the living air, 

 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 

 A motion and a spirit that impels 

 All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 

 And rolls through all things/ 



