Life

In general, all animated existence; specifically, either vital force, which is the supposed cause of all organic life, or the complex functions involved in the organization of living beings, whether animal or vegetable.-In Biology, the organizing principle or power, in matter or material forces. The activity of life is manifested by the operation of the material forces, but the morphology and the reaction of these forces in adaptation to the circumstances and stimuli of the environment are determined by life, as educated by experience in special ways. Development is to be explained as a series of intelligent reactions of life, expre ed in gradually evolved structures under circumstances that call forth the series. See EPIGENESIS.