verses of Genesis. It is the broad scientific generalization of the
opposition between Ertia, or Energy, and Inertia, or Absence of Energy;
and since, for the reasons just given, Ertia cannot go against itself,
the only thing that can stop it is Inertia.

Now the components of the human body are simply various chemical
elements--so much carbon, so much hydrogen, etc., as any textbook on the
subject will tell you; and although, of course, every sort of substance
is the abode of ceaseless _atomic_ energy, we all recognize that merely
atomic energy is not that of the powers of thought, will, and
perception, which make us organized mentalities instead of a mere
aggregation of the various substances exposed to view in a biological
museum, as constituting the human body--you might take all these
substances in their proper proportions, and shake them up together, but
you would not make an intelligent man of them. We are therefore safe in
saying that the physiological body represents the principle of inertia
in us, while the something that thinks in us represents the principle of
Ertia.

The balance of power between the Life Principle in us and the Death
Principle, is then, necessarily, a question of the balance between these
two, the spirit and the flesh, or ertia and inertia.

Why then does the balance preponderate to the life-side for a certain
length of time, and then go over to the opposite side?

Now this brings us to the distinction which the old writers drew,
between the "Vital Soul" of any living thing and the Spirit. Their
conception of the "Vital Soul" was very much the same as I have set
forth in the chapter on "The Soul of the Subject." It is the