ABSTRACT
This chapter discriminates between the term "vitality" and the term "life"; to use the former as signifying a union or relation between the body and something else, and the latter to denote the unknown entity which by interaction with material particles is responsible for their vitality. The first simple and important truth that must be insisted on is the commonplace but often ignored and even denied fact, that there is nothing immortal or persistent about the material instrument of our present senses, except the atoms of which it is composed. The ancient aphorism of the inspired Heraclitus makes a statement about existence which is vitally and comprehensively true; and it is a truth which sounds the keynote of Evolution. The distinction between what is transitory and what is permanent is quite clear. Evanescence is to be stated concerning every kind of "system" and aggregation and grouping. A crowd assembles, and then it disperses: it is a crowd no more.
