The Washington times., 1928-04-10
Mysteries Of Life
ExpOunded By
Philosopher
BY George A. Dorsey,
Ph. D., IL. ID.
CHAPTER so

LIE Is easily QeSLrOySul Jul
the matter Of life is indestructible.
Life easily tires, but the energy
Of life is not lost. Life is dy-
harnic. When struck-as by blow
Of slipper or by q chuck under
the china chemical reaction
takes place that reaction alters
its nature. It is now something
else. The change may be slight;
It may be so great that its very
dynamic nature is altered-the
change endures for life.
Life ID impelled to action be-
cause It is a reacting mechani
certain stimuli innpel it to action.
What life does depend upon what
life is and that, in turn, depends
upon what life does. The life
that climbed up to man never
ceased to recfeate itself on higher
levels. The oftener it reacts, the
greater the ease OF action; prac-
tice makes perfect. But life itself
ID not moved by perfection: with
too much practice It grows
fatigued.
Had life been content with
mere perfection 1t would have
stopped with bacteria and algae.
It essayed more difficult roles and
by greatly daring became man.
IL could not have built up a ma
ture so imperious for power or
30 keen for experience had it
been content to say: desire
nothing more! / am perfect.
Al perfect man is as finished
q product Of nature as a bac-
terium and may be fit Tor Mir.
vana.. but not to rule or to lead
men. For men are of the stock
that moved up out of the slime
and no limit to their desires. They
insist on action because action
"a the nature OF their inheritance.
But they must have. new stimuli
81 they fall asleep with ennti.
we begin our life with q semi
duid body of twenty-odd chem
fcal elements which surrender
their original nature in becoming
welded into q vastly complex ma
cfaine of its original nature, each
eurrendering something Of It's or
iginal nature that we may 1unc-
tion as one individual being. he
energy which drives this machine
a chemical the Impulse Wn als.a
drives the machine 70 secure 80
energy Is inherent IN the Iv1ng
protoplasrn of our body.
Chemical reactions In 9 cneIn.
zeal body. OF some reactions we
are conscious, Of most OF them
we are not conscious. But the
living mind and the living BODY
are inseparabIe and together make
up the individual. We never KNOW
what IS in our mind, Tor the
mind Is the living body which
because Of its nature must react
10 every vital change in its en-
vironnlerlt. We can recall 10
memory only a few OF these re-
actions: those burned in. We
rannot recall countless memories;
we have no machinery or organs
Tor forgetting. Nevertheless. they
have left their mark: each reac-
tion alters the protoplasm Tor
fIIrther reactions: it is never the
sana again. As the universe itself
i ia not made, but is continually
being made, so with man.
This view of universe and man
a repurnart to many: it dfsturbs
the serenity Of their belief in the
! absolute and eternal and the sim.
nlicity of their thought that earth
and man were created, as a ma.
rician centuries goldfish out OF
nothing and rabbits out OF an
Mans chief impulse at each
moment of his existence is for
life: MISREPRESENTATION. At certain
moments food.hunger dominates
the self-preservation impulse, at
other moments sex-hunger dom
mates. But because Of his
capacity to supplement his motor
mechanism with tools. weapons.
and appliances, he was able to
give his biologic impulses ever
Changing outlets. He also de-
ye1oped language into a definite
means of communication, and
thereby further extended the
range Of possible responses to liv.
ing impulses. Thus, on his
repertoire Of animal adjustments
20 vital conditions he super
imposed a repertoire of human
adjustments. The rise, develop
n1ent. spread, and decay of these
parefy human adjustments make
mp the story OF the history OF
human culture.
The culture Of any people,
tribe, race, or nation at any given