Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/270

264 be taken too seriously. In the light of the results of modern investigation, however, it surely appears that this view must be given careful consideration.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of living organisms lies in the fact that they are composed of a unified aggregate of elements, which are so related in a system that no element can be modified without the production of some modification in all the other elements, and in the system as a whole; and so related that the system as a whole can only be modified through the modification of its elements.

Now we have reason to believe that mere physical elements within the universe are so related together that they form systems of various degrees of complexity, and of this very same nature; that is, that elements within the physical universe are bound together in systems of greater or less complexity; in which systems the elements are so related that no one of them can be modified without the production of some measure of modification in all other elements of the system, and in the system as a whole; and so related that the system as a whole can only be modified through the modification in some measure of each of its component elements. It thus appears that systems which by a slight stretch of language we may speak of as quasi organic may exist in aggregates of physical elements winch are usually spoken of as inanimate and inorganic.

If then an organism can be said to exist in any aggregate of physical elements whenever there exists a reciprocity of reaction between the elements of the aggregate; and if there is a thoroughgoing correspondence between psychic forms and transfers of physical energy, then there must be some type of consciousnesses corresponding with the types of inanimate systems above depicted. These consciousnesses must indeed be of forms very different from human consciousness as we know it; and, in most cases likely to be considered, must be of forms which we would be likely to consider as of a very low degree of 'integration' in comparison with human consciousness.

If now we consider the universe as a whole, as inclusive of all of what we usually speak of as organic, and as inorganic; and if we look upon it in a broad way, we perceive that it as a whole must be looked upon as a vast organic system. In it are various parts which are more or less complex systems within systems; and, broadly speaking, all parts of this vast system are in some measure related by a direct or derivative contiguity, and are subject to reciprocity of reaction, so that no element can react without in some measure affecting the activities of all the other parts of the vast organic system, and so that the reaction of any element is affected necessarily by the reactions of each and every one of the other innumerable parts of the whole vast system of the whole universe.