CONTINUITY OF VITAL PROCESSES 39 



realm of Nature so to present them from a standpoint 

 which at once enables us to see unity where there 

 was once diversity and to grasp the meaning of 

 that one grand principle which underlies all such 

 phenomena in the evolution of Matter whether living 

 or dead. 



That in fact the division of all Nature into biological 

 and a-biological is, strictly speaking, not correct, and 

 that just as in the organic it has long been perceived 

 that the inorganic plays a most important part, though 

 that part should ever remain a closed book to us in 

 its highest forms, so also in the inorganic are the same 

 or similar processes to be found though in a more 

 simplified and in a less marked degree. 



That progress, as we say, is not chimerical but in a 

 strict sense real, and has enabled us to bridge somehow 

 over the gap that has so long and so wearily con- 

 cealed the unity that exists between them. It is new, 

 strictly speaking, and yet in a loose sense old, because 

 the deep-rooted conviction that there is unity in organic 

 and in inorganic matter has existed in certain minds 

 for many ages past ; it is new because the evidence 

 for it has hitherto been insufficient, and because the 

 evidence so long absent is now beginning to dawn 

 upon the unweary worker in this day of progress. 



There are three stages that every science must pass 

 through, the Empirical, the Classificatory and the 

 Theoretical. In the Empirical stage everything is 

 higgledy-piggledy and the seeker for truth is merely 

 groping in the dark. He sees many things, he knows 

 their properties, he can relate their life history, he can 



