The following striking quotations will set
forth his views:

Life, he maintains, is no more a function of matter "than the wind is a
function of the leaves which dance under its influence."[8]

"If it were true that vital energy turned into, or was anyhow
convertible into, inorganic energy, if it were true that a dead body
had more inorganic energy than a live one, if it were true that 'these
inorganic energies' always, or ever, 'reappear on the dissolution of
life,' then, undoubtedly, _cadit quaestio_, life would immediately be
proved to be a form of energy, and would enter into the scheme of
physics. But, inasmuch as all this is untrue--the direct contrary of
the truth--I maintain that life is not a form of {83} energy, that it
is not included in our present physical categories, that its
explanation is still to seek."

"It appears to me to belong to a separate order of existence, which
interacts with this material frame of things, and, while there, exerts
guidance and control on the energy which already exists."[9]

"Life does not add to the stock of any human form of energy, nor does
death affect the sum of energy in any known way."[10]

"Life can generate no trace of energy, it can only guide its
transmutations."[11]

"My contention then is--and in this contention I am practically
speaking for my brother physicists--that whereas life or mind can
neither generate energy nor directly exert force, yet it can cause
matter to exercise force on matter, and so can exercise guidance and
control; it can so prepare any scene of activity, by arranging the
position of existing material, and timing the liberation of existing
energy, as to produce results concordant with an idea or scheme or
intention; it can, in short, 'aim' and 'fire.'"[12]

"It is impossible to explain all this fully by the laws of mechanics
alone."[13]

"On a stagnant and inactive world life would be {84} powerless: it
could only make dry bones stir in such a world if it were itself a form
of energy. It is only potent where inorganic energy is mechanically
'available'--to use Lord Kelvin's term--that is to say, is either
potentially or actually in process of transfer and transformation. In
other words, life can generate no trace of energy, it can only guide
its transformation."[14]

"Life possesses the power of vitalising the complex material aggregates
which exist on this planet, and of utilising their energies for a time
to display itself a