ABSTRACT
The scala naturae has led us from energy to matter, from elementary particle to atom, from atom to molecule and thence to the crystal. At the next stage, that of life, the unit of auturgic, dynamic wholeness is the cell. Here is Sir Charles Sherrington's description :
‘The cell is a unit life…. The cell is not a polyphasic chemico-physical system merely. Many a mere drop of complex jelly could be that. The cell is a polyphasic chemical system which is in-tegratively organized. Hence there comes about that it can answer to what is described as “life”….
‘It is dynamic. It is energy-cycles, suites of oxidation and reduction, concatination of ferment-actions…. We seem to watch battalions of specific catalysts, like Maxwell's “demons”, lined up, each waiting, stop-watch in hand, for its moment to play the part assigned to it. Yet each step is understandable chemistry.’ 1
This description in a manner sums up all we have said in the last two chapters about life, its distinction from the non-living and the transition between them. Here we have self-enfoldment upon self-enfoldment; complex molecules compounded into polypeptide and polynucleotide chains forming and reforming, reacting with other similarly extravagant and convoluted molecules, shedding and absorbing energy at the bidding of an array of varied and intensely specific catalysts. Here we have a bewildering advance in complexi-fication resulting in fantastic new properties and propensities.