20 LIFE: ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE 
of the “degradation of energy,” as there is a 
law of its conservation. Dr. Gustav Le Bon 
has gone so far as to assert (in his “Evolu¬ 
tion of forces”) that all energy is ultimately 
being resolved into heat, which is being radiat¬ 
ed into space, and thus ultimately lost, for all 
practical purposes. 
Now life, as we know it, is one of the high¬ 
est and most complex forms of energy known 
to us,—and this, as we have seen, is constantly 
being infused into the world as the population 
increases,—and hence a constant addition is 
being made to the highest form of energy 
known to us. From this it would appear that 
an effort is being made to replenish energy, as 
it is being dissipated or lost, so that the total 
amount of energy is constantly preserved, as 
new life is infused. This significant fact has 
not, so far as I am aware, been emphasized in 
the past; but, if true, it is assuredly a truth of 
no little significance. The tendency of evolu¬ 
tion is, therefore, to increase and improve life 
in all its forms. What is the object of this? 
To what purpose? The answer to this question 
will be briefly discussed in the chapter devoted 
to “Life’s Meaning and Destiny.” 
THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 
Whatever theory we may hold as to the na¬ 
ture of life, it is certainly true that it manifests 
through a physical body, in this physical uni¬ 
verse in which we live. Whether life originates 
within that body, and is merely the product 
of its functional activities,—or whether it is 
some principle which manifests through it,— 
