To a.n.a.lyse the cla.s.ses of life we have to consider two very different kinds of phenomena: the one embraced under the collective name-Inorganic chemistry-the other under the collective name-Organic chemistry, or the chemistry of hydro-carbons. These divisions are made because of the peculiar properties of the elements chiefly involved in the second cla.s.s.

The properties of matter are so distributed among the elements that three of them-Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Carbon-possess an ensemble of unique characteristics. The number of reactions in inorganic chemistry are relatively few, but in organic chemistry-in the chemistry of these three elements the number of different compounds is practically unlimited. Up to 1910, we knew of more than 79 elements of which the whole number of reactions amounted to only a few hundreds, but among the remaining three elements-Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen-the reactions were known to be practically unlimited in number and possibilities; this fact must have very far reaching consequences. As far as energies are concerned, we have to take them as nature reveals them to us. Here more than ever, mathematical thinking is essential and will help enormously. The reactions in inorganic chemistry always involve the phenomenon of heat, sometimes light, and in some instances an unusual energy is produced called electricity. Until now, the radioactive elements represent a group too insufficiently known for an enlargement here upon this subject.

The organic compounds being unlimited in number and possibilities and with their unique characteristics, represent of course, a different cla.s.s of phenomena, but being, at the same time, _chemical_ they include the basic chemical phenomena involved in all chemical reactions, but being unique in many other respects, they also have an infinitely vast field of unique characteristics. Among the energetic phenomena of organic chemistry, besides the few mentioned above there are NEW AND UNIQUE energetic phenomena occurring in this dimension.

Of these phenomena, mention may be made of the phenomenon "life," the phenomenon of the "instincts" and of the "mind" in general. These energetic phenomena are unique for the unique chemistry of the three unique elements. It is obvious that this "uniqueness" is the reason why these phenomena must be cla.s.sified as belonging to or having a higher dimensionality than belongs to the phenomena of inorganic chemistry just as the uniqueness of the properties of a volume as compared with surface properties depends upon the fact that a volume has a higher dimensionality than a surface. Just as this difference of dimensions makes the whole difference between the geometry of volumes and the geometry of surfaces, the difference between the two chemistries involves a difference of dimensionality.

The higher energies of the chemistries of the higher dimensionality are very difficult to define; my descriptions are no better than the description of life given by Professor Wilhelm Roux, in his _Der Kampf der Teile im Organismus_, Leipzig, 1881, which are equally unsatisfactory. In want of a better, I quote him. He defines a living being as a natural object which possesses the following nine characteristic autonomous activities: Autonomous change, Autonomous excretion, Autonomous ingestion, Autonomous a.s.similation, Autonomous growth, Autonomous movement, Autonomous multiplication, Autonomous transmission of hereditary characteristics and Autonomous development. The words "Autonomous activities" are important because they hint at the dimensional differences of these energies. But a better word should be found to define the dimensional differences between the activities found in inorganic chemistry and those found in organic chemistry. We see it is a mistake to speak about "life" in a crystal, in the same sense in which we use the word life to name the curious AUTONOMOUS phenomenon of ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, WHICH IS OF ANOTHER DIMENSION than the activities in inorganic chemistry.

For the so-called life in the crystals-the _not_ AUTONOMOUS (or anautonomous) activities of crystals-another word than life should be found. In the theory of crystals the term life is purely rhetorical: its use there is very injurious to sound science. These old ideas of "life" in crystals are profoundly unscientific and serve as one of the best examples of the frequent confusion or intermixing of dimensions-a confusion due to unmathematical, logically incorrect ways of thinking. If crystals "live,"

then _volumes are surfaces_, and 125 cubic units=25 square units-absurdities belonging to the "childhood of humanity."

"Crystals can grow in a proper solution, and can regenerate their form in such a solution when broken or injured; it is even possible to prevent or r.e.t.a.r.d the formation of crystals in a supersaturated solution by preventing 'germs' in the air from getting into the solution, an observation which was later utilized by Schroeder and Pasteur in their experiments on spontaneous generation. However, the a.n.a.logies between a living organism and a crystal are merely superficial and it is by pointing out the fundamental differences between the behavior of crystals and that of living organisms that we can best understand the specific difference between non-living and living matter. It is true that a crystal can grow, but it will do so only in a supersaturated solution of its own substance. Just the reverse is true for living organisms. In order to make bacteria or the cells of our body grow, solutions of the split products of the substances composing them and not the substances themselves must be available to the cells; second, these solutions must not be supersaturated, on the contrary, they must be dilute; and third, growth leads in living organisms to cell division as soon as the ma.s.s of the cell reaches a certain limit. This process of cell division can not be claimed even metaphorically to exist in a crystal. A correct appreciation of these facts will give us an insight into the specific difference between non-living and living matter. The formation of living matter consists in the synthesis of the proteins, nucleins, fats, and carbohydrates of the cells, from split products....

"The essential difference between living and non-living matter consists then in this: the living cell synthesizes its own complicated specific material from indifferent or non-specific simple compounds of the surrounding medium, while the crystal simply adds the molecules found in its supersaturated solution.

This synthetic power of transforming small 'building stones' into the complicated compounds specific for each organism is the 'secret of life' or rather one of the secrets of life." (_The Organism as a Whole_, by Jacques Loeb.)

It will be explained later that one of the energetic phenomena of organic chemistry-the "mind," which is one of the energies characteristic of this cla.s.s of phenomena, is "autonomous," is "self-propelling" and true to its dimensionality. If we a.n.a.lyse the cla.s.ses of life, we readily find that there are three cardinal cla.s.ses which are radically distinct in function.

A short a.n.a.lysis will disclose to us that, though minerals have various activities, they are not "living." The plants have a very definite and well known function-the transformation of solar energy into organic chemical energy. They are a cla.s.s of life which appropriates one kind of energy, converts it into another kind and stores it up; in that sense they are a kind of storage battery for the solar energy; and so I define THE PLANTS AS THE CHEMISTRY-BINDING cla.s.s of life.

The animals use the highly dynamic products of the _chemistry-binding_ cla.s.s-the plants-as food, and those products-the results of plant-transformation-undergo in animals a further transformation into yet higher forms; and the animals are correspondingly a more dynamic cla.s.s of life; their energy is kinetic; they have a remarkable freedom and power which the plants do not possess-I mean the freedom and faculty to move about in _s.p.a.ce_; and so I define ANIMALS AS THE s.p.a.cE-BINDING CLa.s.s OF LIFE.

And now what shall we say of _human_ beings? What is to be our definition of Man? Like the animals, human beings do indeed possess the _s.p.a.ce-binding_ capacity but, over and above that, human beings possess a most remarkable capacity which is entirely peculiar to them-I mean the capacity to summarise, digest and appropriate the labors and experiences of the past; I mean the capacity to use the fruits of past labors and experiences as intellectual or spiritual capital for developments in the present; I mean the capacity to employ as instruments of increasing power the acc.u.mulated achievements of the all-precious lives of the past generations spent in trial and error, trial and success; I mean the capacity of human beings to conduct their lives in the ever increasing light of inherited wisdom; I mean the capacity in virtue of which man is at once the heritor of the by-gone ages and the trustee of posterity. And because humanity is just this magnificent natural agency by which the past lives in the present and the present for the future, I define HUMANITY, in the universal tongue of mathematics and mechanics, to be the TIME-BINDING CLa.s.s OF LIFE.

These definitions of the cardinal cla.s.ses of life are, it will be noted, obtained from direct observation; they are so simple and so important that I cannot over-emphasize the necessity of grasping them and most especially the definition of Man. For these simple definitions and especially that of Humanity will profoundly transform the whole conception of human life in every field of interest and activity; and, what is more important than all, the definition of Man will give us a starting point for discovering the _natural_ laws of human nature-of the human cla.s.s of life. The definitions of the cla.s.ses of life represent the different cla.s.ses as distinct in respect to dimensionality; and this is extremely important for no measure or rule of one cla.s.s can be applied to the other, _without making grave mistakes_. For example, to treat a human being as an animal-as a mere s.p.a.ce-binder-because humans have certain animal propensities, is an error of the same type and grossness as to treat a cube as a surface because it has surface properties. It is absolutely essential to grasp that fact if we are ever to have a science of human nature.

We can represent the different cla.s.ses of life in three life coordinates.

The minerals, with their inorganic activities would be the Zero (0) dimension of "life"-that is the _lifeless_ cla.s.s-here represented by the point _M_.

The plants, with their "autonomous" growth, to be represented by the ONE DIMENSIONAL line _MP_.

The animals, with their "autonomous" capacity to grow and to be active in s.p.a.ce by the TWO DIMENSIONAL plane _PAM_.

The humans, with their "autonomous" capacity to grow, to be active in s.p.a.ce AND TO BE ACTIVE IN TIME, by the THREE DIMENSIONAL region _MAPH_.

[ A drawing, like labeling the axes of a three-dimensional s.p.a.ce. At the center is "(Minerals) M". At the top of the Z axis is "H (Humans)". At the end of the X axis is "P (Plants)". At the end of the Y axis is "A (Animals)". ]

Such diagrammatic ill.u.s.trations must not be taken too literally; they are like figures of speech-helpful if understood-harmful if not understood.

The reader should reflect upon the simple idea of dimensions until he sees clearly that the idea is not merely a thing of interest or of convenience, but is absolutely essential as a means of discriminating the cardinal cla.s.ses of life from one another and of conceiving each cla.s.s to be what it is instead of mixing it confusedly with something radically different.

It will greatly help the reader if he will retire to the quiet of his cloister and there meditate about as follows. A line has one dimension; a plane has two; a plane contains lines and so it has line properties-_one_-dimensional properties-but it has other properties-_two_-dimensional properties-and it is these that are peculiar to it, give it its own character, and make it what it is-a plane and not a line. So animals have some plant properties-they grow, for example-but animals have other properties-autonomous mobility, for example,-properties of higher dimensionality or type-and it is these that make animals _animals_ and not plants. Just so, human beings have certain animal properties-autonomous mobility, for example, or physical appet.i.tes-but humans have other properties or propensities-ethical sense, for example, logical sense, inventiveness, progressiveness-properties or propensities of higher dimensionality, level, or type-and it is these propensities and powers that make human beings _human_ and _not_ animal. When and only when this fact is clearly seen and keenly realized, there will begin the _science of man_-the science and art of _human nature_-for then and only then we shall begin to escape from the age-long untold immeasurable evils that come from regarding and treating human beings as animals, as mere binders of s.p.a.ce, and we may look forward to an ethics, a jurisprudence and economics, a governance-a science and art of human life and society-based upon the laws of human nature because based upon the just conception of humanity as the time-binding cla.s.s of life, creators and improvers of good, destined to endless advancement, in accord with the potencies of Human Nature.(9)

Humanity is still in its childhood; we have "bound" so little time in the course of the centuries, which are so brief in the scheme of the universe.

At the bottom of every human activity, historical fact or trend of civilization, there lies some doctrine or conception of so-called "truth."

Apples had fallen from trees for ages, but without any important results in the economy of humanity. The fact that a fallen apple hit Newton, led to the discovery of the theory of gravitation; this changed our whole world conception, our sciences and our activities; it powerfully stimulated the development of all the branches of natural and technological knowledge. Even in the event of the Newtonian laws being proved to be not quite correct, they have served a great purpose in enabling us to understand natural phenomena in a sufficiently approximate way to make it possible to build up modern technology and to develop our physical science to the point where it was necessary and possible to make a correction of the Newtonian laws.

A similar organic change in our conception of human life and its phenomena is involved in the foregoing definitions of the cla.s.ses of life; they will replace basic errors with scientific truths of fundamental importance; they will form the basis for scientific development of a permanent civilization in place of the periodically convulsive so-called civilizations of the past and present. To know the cause of evil and error is to find the cure.

Chapter IV. What Is Man?

Man has ever been the greatest puzzle to man. There are many and important reasons for this fact. As the subject of this book is not a theoretical, academic study of man, of which too many have already been written, I will not recount the reasons, but will confine myself to the more pressing matters of the task in hand, which is that of pointing the way to the science and art of Human Engineering. The two facts which have to be dealt with first, are the two which have most r.e.t.a.r.ded human progress: (1) there has never been a true definition of man nor a just conception of his role in the curious drama of the world; in consequence of which there has never been a proper principle or starting point for a science of humanity. It has never been realized that man is a being of a dimension or type different from that of animals and the characteristic nature of man has not been understood; (2) man has always been regarded either as an animal or as a supernatural phenomenon. The facts are that man is not _super_natural but is literally a part of nature and that human beings are not animals. We have seen that the animals are truly characterized by their autonomous mobility-their s.p.a.ce-binding capacity-animals are s.p.a.ce-binders. We have seen that human beings are characterized by their creative power, by the power to make the past live in the present and the present for the future, by their capacity to bind time-human beings are time-binders. These concepts are basic and impersonal; arrived at mathematically, they are mathematically correct.

It does not matter at all _how_ the first man, the first time-binder, was produced; the fact remains that he was somewhere, somehow produced. To know anything that is to-day of fundamental interest about man, we have to a.n.a.lyse man in three coordinates-in three capacities; namely, his chemistry, his activities in s.p.a.ce, and especially his activities in time; whereas in the study of animals we have to consider only two factors: their chemistry and their activities in s.p.a.ce.

Let us imagine that the aboriginal-original human specimen was one of two brother apes, _A_ and _B_; they were alike in every respect; both were animal s.p.a.ce-binders; but something strange happened to _B_; he became the first time-binder, a human. No matter how, this "something" made the change in him that lifted him to a higher dimension; it is enough that in some-wise, over and above his animal capacity for binding s.p.a.ce, there was superadded the marvelous new capacity for binding-time. He had thus a new faculty, he belonged to a new dimension; but, of course, he did not realize it; and because he had this new capacity he was able to a.n.a.lyze his brother "_A_"; he observed "_A_ is my brother; he is an animal; but he is my brother; therefore, _I_ AM AN ANIMAL." This fatal first conclusion, reached by false a.n.a.logy, by neglecting a fact, has been the chief source of human woe for half a million years and it still survives. The time-binding capacity, first manifest in _B_, increased more and more, with the days and each generation, until in the course of centuries man felt himself increasingly somehow different from the animal, but he could not explain. He said to himself, "If I am an animal there is also in me something higher, a spark of some thing _super_natural."

With this conclusion he estranged himself, as something apart from nature, and formulated the impa.s.se, which put him in a cul-de-sac of a double life. He was neither true to the "supernatural" which he could not know and therefore, could not emulate, nor was he true to the "animal" which he scorned. Having put himself outside the "natural laws," he was not really true to any law and condemned himself to a life of hypocrisy, and established speculative, artificial, unnatural laws.

"How blind our familiar a.s.sumptions make us! Among the animals, man, at least, has long been wont to regard himself as a being quite apart from and not as part of the cosmos round about him. From this he has detached himself in thought, he has estranged and objectified the world, and lost the sense that he is of it. And this age-long habit and point of view, which has fashioned his life and controlled his thought, lending its characteristic mark and color to his whole philosophy and art and learning, is still maintained, partly because of its convenience, no doubt, and partly by force of inertia and sheer conservatism, in the very teeth of the strongest probabilities of biological science. Probably no other single hypothesis has less to recommend it, and yet no other so completely dominates the human mind." (Ca.s.sius J. Keyser, loc. cit.) And this monstrous conception is current to-day: millions still look upon man as a mixture of animal and something supernatural.

There is no doubt that the engineering of human society is a difficult and complicated problem of tremendous ethical responsibility, for it involves the welfare of mankind throughout an unending succession of generations.

The science of Human Engineering can not be built upon false conceptions of human nature. It can not be built on the conception of man as a kind of animal; it can not be built on the conception of man as a mixture of natural and supernatural. It must be built upon the conception of man as being at once natural and higher in dimensionality than the animals. It must be built upon the scientific conception of mankind as characterized by their time-binding capacity and function. This conception radically alters our whole view of human life, human society, and the world.

It must be obvious to any one that time-binding is the only natural criterion and standard for the time-binding cla.s.s of life. This mighty term-time-binding-when comprehended, will be found to embrace the WHOLE of the natural laws, the natural ethics, the natural philosophy, the natural sociology, the natural economics, the natural governance, to be brought into the education of time-binders; then really peaceful and progressive civilization, without periodical collapses and violent readjustments, will commence; not before. Everything which is really "time-binding" _is in_ the HUMAN DIMENSION; therefore, it will represent every quality that is implied in such words as-_good_, _just_, _right_, _beautiful_; while everything that is merely s.p.a.ce-binding will be cla.s.sified as "animal" and be thus a.s.sessed at its proper value. Those ignorant "masters of our destinies" who regard humans as animals or as monstrous hybrids of natural and supernatural must be dethroned by scientific education.

Humans can be literally poisoned by false ideas and false teachings. Many people have a just horror at the thought of putting poison into tea or coffee, but seem unable to realize that, when they teach false ideas and false doctrines, they are poisoning the time-binding capacity of their fellow men and women. One has to stop and think! There is nothing mystical about the fact that ideas and words are energies which powerfully affect the physico-chemical base of our time-binding activities. Humans are thus made untrue to "human nature." Hypnotism is a known fact. It has been proved that a man can be so hypnotized that in a certain time which has been suggested to him, he will murder or commit arson or theft; that, under hypnotic influence, the personal morale of the individual has only a small influence upon his conduct; the subject obeys the hypnotic suggestions, no matter how immoral they are. The conception of man as a mixture of animal and supernatural has for ages kept human beings under the deadly spell of the suggestion that, animal selfishness and animal greediness are their essential character, and the spell has operated to suppress their REAL HUMAN NATURE and to prevent it from expressing itself naturally and freely.

On the other hand, when human beings are educated to a lively realization that they are by _nature_ time-binding creatures, then they will spontaneously live in accordance with their time-binding nature, which, as I have said, is the source and support of the highest ideals.

What is achieved in blaming a man for being selfish and greedy if he acts under the influence of a social environment and education which teach him that he is an animal and that selfishness and greediness are of the essence of his nature?

Even so eminent a philosopher and psychologist as Spencer tells us: "Of self-evident truths so dealt with, the one which here concerns us is that a creature must live before it can act ... Ethics has to recognize the truth that egoism comes before altruism." This is true for ANIMALS, because animals die out from lack of food when their natural supply of it is insufficient because they have NOT THE CAPACITY TO PRODUCE ARTIFICIALLY. But it is not true for the HUMAN DIMENSION.

Why not? Because humans through their time-binding capacity are first of all _creators_ and so their number is not controlled by the supply of unaided nature, but only by men's artificial productivity, which is THE MATERIALIZATION OF THEIR TIME-BINDING CAPACITY

Man, therefore, by the very intrinsic character of his being, MUST ACT FIRST, IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO LIVE (through the action of parents-or society) which is not the case with animals. The misunderstanding of this simple truth is largely accountable for the evil of our ethical and economic systems or lack of systems. As a matter of fact, if humanity were to live in _complete_ accord with the animal conception of man, artificial production-time-binding production-would cease and ninety per cent of mankind would perish by starvation. It is just because human beings are not animals but are time-binders-not mere finders but creators of food and shelter-that they are able to live in such vast numbers.

Here even the blind must see the effect of higher dimensionality, and this effect becomes in turn the cause of other effects which produce still others, and so on in an endless chain. WE LIVE BECAUSE WE PRODUCE, BECAUSE WE ARE ACTING IN TIME AND ARE NOT MERELY ACTING IN s.p.a.cE-BECAUSE MAN IS NOT A KIND OF ANIMAL. It is all so simple, if only we apply a little sound logic in our thinking about human nature and human affairs. If human ethics are to be human, are to be in the human dimension, the postulates of ethics must be changed; FOR HUMANITY IN ORDER TO LIVE MUST ACT FIRST; the laws of ethics-the laws of right living-are _natural_ laws-laws of human nature-laws having their whole source and sanction in the time-binding capacity and time-binding activity peculiar to man. Human excellence is excellence in time-binding, and must be measured and rewarded by time-binding standards of worth.

Humanity, in order to live, must produce creatively and therefore must be guided by applied science, by technology; and this means that the so-called social sciences of ethics, jurisprudence, psychology, economics, sociology, politics, and government must be emanc.i.p.ated from medieval metaphysics; they must be made scientific; they must be _technologized_; they must be made to progress and to function in the proper dimension-the human dimension and not that of animals: they must be made time-binding sciences.

Can this be done? I have no doubt that it can. For what is human life after all?

To a general in the battlefield, human life is a factor which, if properly used, can destroy the enemy. To an engineer human life is an equivalent to energy, or a capacity to do work, mental or muscular, and the moment something is found to be a source of energy and to have the capacity of doing work, the first thing to do, from the engineer's point of view, is to a.n.a.lyse the generator with a view to discovering how best to conserve it, to improve it, and bring it to the level of maximum productivity.

Human beings are very complicated energy-producing batteries differing widely in quality and magnitude of productive power. Experience has shown that these batteries are, first of all, chemical batteries producing a mysterious energy. If these batteries are not supplied periodically with a more or less constant quant.i.ty of some chemical elements called food and air, the batteries will cease to function-they will die. In the examination of the structure of these batteries we find that the chemical base is very much accentuated all through the structure. This chemical generator is divided into branches each of which has a very different role which it must perform in harmony with all the others. The mechanical parts of the structure are built in conformity to the rules of mechanics and are automatically furnished with lubrication and with chemical supplies for automatically renewing worn-out parts. The chemical processes not only deposit particles of ma.s.s for the structure of the generator but produce some very powerful unknown kinds of energies or vibrations which make all the chemical parts function; we find also a mysterious apparatus with a complex of wires which we call brain glands, and nerves; and, finally, these human batteries have the remarkable capacity of reproduction.

These functions are familiar to everybody. From the knowledge of other physical, mechanical and chemical phenomena of nature, we must come to the conclusion, that this human battery is the most perfect example of a complex engine; it has all the peculiarities of a chemical battery combined with a generator of a peculiar energy called life; above all, it has mental or spiritual capacities; it is thus equipped with both mental and mechanical means for producing work. The parts and functions of this marvelous engine have been the subject of a vast amount of research in various special branches of science. A very noteworthy fact is that both the physical work and the mental work of this human engine are always accompanied by both physical and chemical changes in the structure of its machinery-corresponding to the wear and tear of non-living engines. It also presents certain s.e.xual and spiritual phenomena that have a striking likeness to certain phenomena, especially wireless phenomena, to electricity and to radium. This human engine-battery is of unusual strength, durability and perfection; and yet it is very liable to damage and even wreckage, if not properly used. The controlling factors are very delicate and so the engine is very capricious. Very special training and understanding are necessary for its control.

The reader may wish to ask: What is the essence of the time-binding power of Man? Talk of essences is metaphysical-it is not scientific. Let me explain by an example.

What is electricity? The scientific answer is: electricity is that which exhibits such and such phenomena. Electricity means nothing but a certain group of phenomena called electric. We are studying electricity when we are studying those phenomena. Thus it is in physics-there is no talk of essences. So, too, in Human Engineering-we shall not talk of the _essence_ of time-binding but only of the phenomena and the laws thereof. What has led to the development of electric appliances is knowledge of electrical phenomena-not metaphysical talk about the electrical essence. And what will lead to the science and art of Human Engineering is knowledge of time-binding phenomena-not vain babble about an essence of time-binding power. There is no mystery about the word time-binding. Some descriptive term was necessary to indicate that human capacity which discriminates human beings from animals and marks man as man. For that use-the appropriateness of the term time-binding becomes more and more manifest upon reflection.

What are the conditions of life upon this earth? Is there war or peace in daily life? All living beings require food; they multiply in a geometrical ratio; and so the _natural_ productivity of the soil becomes increasingly inadequate. The tendency to increase in geometrical ratio is true of all life-vegetable, animal and human, but the tendency is checked by various counteracting influences, natural and artificial. A short time ago these checks had so operated to annul the law of increase as almost to stop the growth of human population. It is only by the time-binding capacity of man-by scientific progress and technological invention-that the checks have been overcome. And so in the last century the population of Europe increased more than it had increased in several centuries before.

Impoverished soil, excessive heat or cold, excessive moisture, the lack of rain-fall, and many other factors are hostile to life. It is evident, therefore, that human life must especially struggle for existence; it must carry on a perpetual contest for self preservation. It seems obvious that, if there is perpetual war in every-day life, war methods must be applied.