"FATED TO BE FREE" 



How can we separate the energy that acts within us, 

 giving power to our muscles and all om- movements, 

 that is the source of oiu^ weight and the strength of 

 our hands, from the energy that acts without us, 

 that checks or restrains all our movements? They 

 are both one and the same. We overcome gravity 

 with gravity. We break its pull whenever we lift 

 our feet, or hurl a weight, or raise any object from 

 the ground. The cyclone that Ufts your house from 

 its foundations, and levels forests, and heaps up the 

 waves could do nothing without the weight which 

 gravity imparts to the air. The force that sets the 

 air in motion — thermic or electric, a steep gradient 

 of temperature or an electromagnetic strain — is 

 probably not of gravitational origin. In vegetable 

 life what we used to call a vital force lifts matter up 

 in opposition to gravity — lifts tons of water up 

 into the trees, and tons of lime and potash and other 

 earth salts, but does it by mechanical and chemical 

 means. 



The vital and the physical are inseparably united, 

 and play into each other's hands. In animal life, 

 mechanical and chemical priaciples are equally 

 active in all living bodies. In the higher forms a 

 psychic principle comes into play. The will of man 

 through mechanical means reverses or controls the 

 action of gravitation and directs chemical reactions 

 — Id every instance two contraries work together 

 and make one whole. 



147 



