ATTRACTION AND REPULSION 27 



an embarking on a period of unrest, and this is true whether 

 the system in question be living or dead in nature. Every 

 one of our mechanical contrivances exhibits throughout the 

 action of the two universal forces. The matter of which 

 the contrivance consists exists as matter by Force of Attrac- 

 tion, and is shaped, adapted to and performs its work by 

 means of, and in terms of this force and that of Repulsion ; 

 and movement in some form inevitably represents the work 

 done. The same is the case with living organisms, Life 

 being always associated with movement, in which we can 

 clearly recognise the action of one or both of the fundamental 

 forces. 



For example, amoeboid, ciliary, flagellar, and muscular 

 movements, and those of any organism as a whole, are 

 inevitably towards or away from any given point. We 

 ourselves grasp or let go, advance or retire, unite in groups 

 or separate from each other. The ovum is repelled from 

 the ovary, the sperm is attracted to the ovum, the products 

 of cell-growth repel each other in cell-division. And we are 

 conscious of the action of the opposing forces within our- 

 selves. We like or dislike, are pleased or pained, happy 

 or sad ; we affirm or deny ; we unite into families and 

 separate into communities. Our bodies assimilate and also 

 excrete. In fact, a little thought will make it clear that 

 there is nothing which happens which does not do so in 

 terms of Attraction or Repulsion, that these factors rule 

 everywhere in the living and dead worlds, and that they 

 are the fundamental principles of creation. It is our purpose 

 to show that they govern equally the formation of the atom 

 and the origin of species. Furthermore, as everything in 

 Nature exists and acts in terms of the opposing forces, so 

 does everything possess its characters " antithetically," so 

 to speak. There is no quality which has not its opposite 

 quality, or which could exist as one had it not its antithesis. 

 Truly, there could be no pleasure without pain, no content 

 without discontent, no good but for the presence of evil. 

 A line is straight in that it is not bent or crooked, or can 

 only be described as bent because it is not straight. There 

 is no adjective we can think of which has not its antithesis, 

 or which exists except through its antithesis, and this is 

 simply because the fundamental principle which is and rules 



