30 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



tinct gases, Oxygen and Hydrogen, with their specific 

 molecules. So that the cycle here is atomic Attraction — 

 Repulsion — Attraction. 



What must be noted here is that in its true sense the 

 word " cycle " always indicates the cycle of a state, or one 

 leading to the reproduction, not of an actual entity, but of 

 a manifestation or state of matter ; not of actual particles, 

 but of given particulate states. This, in our belief, is the 

 law of reproduction in all creation, and we regard all cyclic 

 development, whether of molecular systems or living Indi- 

 viduals, in this light. The sexual element of the son is 

 living matter in the same state (we may say) as was 

 manifested by the sexual element of the father ; it is 

 obviously not the paternal element re-associated after dis- 

 sociation. Similarly, when a Leyden jar discharges its 

 electricity and is recharged to an exactly similar extent, 

 there is reproduction, but not of the actual original charge 

 of electricity. 



In the dead world we cannot predict how the reproduction 

 of the lost identity of a substance will come about ; we 

 can foretell the results of given equations, but we cannot 

 as a rule predict the terms of the equations. But the 

 outstanding feature of the living growth-cycle is that though 

 its real mechanism is unknown to us we can recognise it 

 on the whole as a vast series of reactions which must end 

 in the reproduction of a lost initial state along a definite 

 road. 



While Life is not a matter of chemical reactions and 

 inter-reactions in the ordinary sense, it is highly probable 

 that, fundamentally, chemical and vital processes are the 

 same. Life, we might say, is super-chemistry. When one 

 considers that the world which evolved Life was once a 

 molten inorganic mass, it seems clear that living matter 

 is only a manifestation of special results produced by the 

 laws governing the inorganic world along (it may be added) 

 with everything. 1 There is no satisfactory definition of 

 what Life is, but it can truthfully be said that Life is self- 

 sustained perpetual disequilibrium ; self-sustained, that is, 

 with the help of Environment. The paradox is that this 



1 The probable evolution of living from inorganic matter is dealt with 

 on a later page. 



