ABSTRACT
The whole universe is resolvable into motion, that is, into action; it is dynamic, and no ‘being,’ no static existence, is discoverable. There is in this respect no distinction between the inorganic and the organic, the living and the non-living, the animate and the inanimate. The reactions of inorganic objects take place in a manner which is so rigidly invariable that it is mathematically calculable when the physical circumstances are known. The reactions of living beings, on the other hand, are very much more variable than those of inorganic objects. The fact is that the teleological character which we introduce into all our descriptions of organic reactions is not a fundamental, original and innate character of the reactions of life. The movements of the inorganic world are said to ‘obey ’ certain physical and chemical ‘ laws.’ The expression is, of course, highly metaphorical.
