THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



cal principles, it is something more than chemistry 

 and mechanics? 



We are something more than machines, though 

 every principle of mechanics be operative in our 

 bodies. We are something more than bundles of in- 

 stincts and reflexes and automatic adjustments, 

 though all these things play a part in our lives. We 

 are something more than mere animals, though we 

 are assuredly of animal origin. The vital principle, 

 even the psychic principle, may not be separable 

 from matter, not even in thought, and yet it is not 

 matter, because the matter with which it is identi- 

 fied behaves so differently from the matter with 

 which it is not identified. Organic matter behaves 

 so differently from inorganic, though subject to the 

 same physical laws. A stone may rot or disinte- 

 grate, but it will never ferment, because fermenta- 

 tion is a process of life. There is no life without 

 chemical reactions, and yet chemical reaction is not 

 life; there is no life without what biologists call the 

 colloid state, and yet the colloid state is not life. 

 Life is confined to a certain scale of temperature — 

 beyond a certain degree up and down the scale life 

 disappears, and yet life is not heat or motion, or 

 moisture or chemical affinity, though inseparable 

 from these things. 



The biological view of our animal origin is an un- 

 congenial fact, and we may struggle against it, but 

 we cannot escape it. Science has fixed this brand 

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