Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-11-11
What is Lifeq Thomas A. Edison.

In reply to the question, "What is life, +"
Thomas A. Edison, the great electrician and
prolific inventor, as reported in the N. Y.
Herald, says
SIT is my belief, that every atom of mat
ter is intelligent, deriving energy from the
primordial germ. The intelligence of man
is, take it, the sum of the intelligencies of
the atoms of which he is composed. Every
atom has an intelligent power of selection
and is always striving to get into harmoni-
GUS relation with other atoms. The human
body, think, is maintained in Its integrity
by the intelligent persistence of its atoms,
or rather by an agreement between the
atoms 80 to persist. When the harmonious
adjustment is destroyed the man dies, and
the atoms seek other relations.
I cannot regard the odor of decay but as
the result of the efforts of the atoms to- dis
sociate themselves; they want to get away
and make new combinations. Man, there
fore, may be regarded in some sort as q
microcosm of atoms agreeing to constitute
his life as long as order and discipline can
be maintained. But of course, there is dis.
affection, rebellion and anarchy, leading
eventually to death, and through death to
new forms of life. For life l regard as in
destructible. That is. if matter is indestruc-
tible.
LIFE IN MATTER.
ssAll matter lives and everything that
lives possesses intelligence. Consider grow
ing corn, for example. An atom of oxygen
comes flying along the air. 1t seeks COM
binatiOn with other atoms and goes to the
corn, not by chance, but by intention. 1t is
seized by other atoms that need oxygen and
is packed away in the corn where it can do |
its work. Nov carbon, hydrogen and oxy-
gen enter into the composition of every or
ganic substance in one form of ARRANGE.
ment OR another. The formula CHIC, in |
fact, is almost universal.
"Very we'll, then; why does free atom
of carbon select any particular one out of |
fifty thousand or more possible positions
unless it wants to? I cannot see how we
can deny Intelligence to this act of volition
en- the part of the atom. To say that one
atom has an affinity for another is simply to
use big word. The atom is conscious if |
man is conscious, is intelligent if man is in
tel!igent, exercises will power if man does,
is, in it's own little way, all that man is. We
are told by biologists that in the earliest
periods no form of life could exist on the
earth.
elbow do they know that? A crystal is
devoid of this vital principle they say, and
yet certain kinds of atoms invariably arrange
themselves in particular way to form q
crystal. They did that in geological periods
the appearance of any form Of
life and have been doing it ever since in
precisely the same way. Some crystals form
in branches like fern. Why is there not
life in the growth of crystal? Was the |
vital principle specially created at some
particular period of the earth's history, or
did it exist and control every atom of mat
ter when the earth was motion? I cannot |
avoid the conclusion that all matter is conf |
posed Of intelligent atoms and that life and |
mind are merely synonymes for the aggre- |
cation Of atomic intelligence.
"Of course there is a source of energy. |
Nature is perpetual motion machine, and
perpetual motion implies a sustaining and
impellng force" l