[82] We have dwelt on this point in a former work. See the Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience, Paris, 1889, pp. 155-160.
[83] Op. cit. chaps. i. and ii. passim.
[84] Cf. especially the profound studies of M. Ed. Le Roy in the Revue de métaph. et de morale.
[85] Matière et mémoire, chapters iii. and iv.
[86] See in particular, Phys., iv. 215 a 2; v. 230 b 12; viii. 255 a 2; and De Caelo, iv. 1-5; ii. 296 b 27; iv. 308 a 34.
[87] De Caelo, iv. 310 a 34 το δ εις τον αυτου τοπον φερεθαι εκαοτον το εις το αυτου ειδος εστι φερεσθαι.
[88] On these differences of quality see the work of Duhem, L'Évolution de la mécanique, Paris, 1905, pp. 197 ff.
[89] Boltzmann, Vorlesungen über Gastheorie, Leipzig, 1898, pp. 253 ff.
[90] In a book rich in facts and in ideas (La Dissolution opposée a l'évolution, Paris, 1899), M. André Lalande shows us everything going towards death, in spite of the momentary resistance which organisms seem to oppose.—But, even from the side of unorganized matter, have we the right to extend to the entire universe considerations drawn from the present state of our solar system? Beside the worlds which are dying, there are without doubt worlds that are being born. On the other hand, in the organized world, the death of individuals does not seem at all like a diminution of "life in general," or like a necessity which life submits to reluctantly. As has been more than once remarked, life has never made an effort to prolong indefinitely the existence of the individual, although on so many other points it has made so many successful efforts. Everything is as if this death had been willed, or at least accepted, for the greater progress of life in general.
[91] We have dwelt on this point in an article entitled "Introduction à la métaphysique" (Revue de métaphysique et de morale, January, 1903, pp. 1-25).