The first thing

The most illustrious distinction between living and lifeless things is that the former maintain them by restitution. A stone when struck resist. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into lesser bits. Never does the stone effort to react in such a way that it may uphold itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a causal ,g to its own sustained action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to rotate the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggle to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses beam, air, damp, and the fabric of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own protection. As long as it is rising, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than salaried for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing procedure through action upon the surroundings.