LIFE: ITS ORIGIN AND NATURE 19 
which are at work all at once. Osborn has 
contended that there are four evolutions pro¬ 
ceeding simultaneously, which are somehow 
adjusted to one another. He says:- 
“In the process of the origin and early 
evolution of life, complexes of four greater 
and lesser energy-groups arise, namely: In¬ 
organic environment ,—the energy content in 
the sun, the earth, the water, and the air; or¬ 
ganisms: —the energy of the individual, devel¬ 
oping and changing the cells and tissues of the 
body, including that part of the germ which 
enters every cell; heredity-germ :—the energies 
of the heredity-substance (heredity-chromatin) 
concentrated in the reproductive cells of con¬ 
tinuous and successive generations, as well as in 
the cells and tissues of the organism; and life 
environment: —beginning with the monads and 
algae and ascending in a developing scale 
of plants and animals.” 
Evolution assures us that the quality of life 
is constantly improving. Is the quantity of life 
commensurately increasing? We know that it 
must be, in view of the fact that the number 
of living creatures upon the earth is continually 
increasing, as they multiply by reproduction. 
Life, both in quantity and quality, is, therefore 
continually expanding. This fact gives rise to 
a very significant thought. Although the law 
of the Conservation of Energy is probably true, 
it is also true that all modes of energy are not 
of equal value; some of them are higher than 
others, and the lower cannot readily be convert¬ 
ed into the higher, although the higher give 
rise to the lower. There is, therefore, a law 
