INTRODUCTION 13 



None other surely than that hitherto they have not 

 been satisfactorily shown to be capable of doing so. 

 If Nature can prove it, surely reason must obey. 



We have argued that the scale of living things 

 varies continuously from the most complex molecular 

 forms even to the simplest molecular and atomic 

 groupings ; and perhaps even the groupings of 

 electrons within the atotn itself. That such 

 dynamically unstable types of aggregations showing 

 metabolism are to be found in a gradually simplify- 

 ing scale from the unit cell of the biologist, through 

 complicated catalytic processes manifested in many 

 chemical reactions, even in luminosity, phosphor- 

 escence and fluorescence, down to the processes of 

 radio-activity taking place within the atom itself; 

 all of which indicate the continuous building up 

 and breaking down of groups of molecules and of 

 atoms. The periods of time being aeons or seconds 

 as the case may be, the greatness or smallness being 

 only relative to our own perceptions ; for truly is 

 there nothing either great or small but thinking 

 makes it so ! 



One of the most remarkable characteristics of 

 these dynamically unstable aggregates is the large 

 amount of energy which is stored up in them and 

 which they give out in breaking up. The amount 

 of this energy increases proportionately as the 

 aggregates become smaller and smaller. The so- 

 called vital energy of living matter is hardly 

 comparable with that stored up in the atom of 

 radium for instance. The compound which appeared 



