This is one of the criteria of life as we commonly think of it. If
oxygen could go wrong and mistake some other gas for hydrogen and thus
learn not to mistake it any more, we should say oxygen was alive. The
older life is, the more unerring it becomes in respect of things about
which it is conversant—the more like, in fact, it becomes to such a thing
as the force of gravity, both as regards unerringness and
unconsciousness.
Is life such a force as gravity in process of formation, and was gravity
once—or rather, were things once liable to make mistakes on such a
subject as gravity?
If any one will tell me what life is I will tell him whether the
inorganic is alive or not.