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( 123 ) If you say that it is something quite distinct from elements, that is equally wrong to say because in believing it to be quite distinct from elementals the destruction of the number of the elements would be the result. It is also to be noticed whether life is the attribute of each particular element or of all elements combined. It is not the attribute of each particular element separately, because it is not so visible. Every atom does not appear to be endowed with consciousness. If it is in each atom then a man would have a collection of a thousand consciousness of a different kind and it would not bear a single form. But apparently it bears a single form. viz, I see and
I do. Thus the whole body appears to be owned by one. If you believe in the attribute of a collective body it is false as it is not present in each individual atom. What is untrue from each particular point of view cannot be true collectively, for instance, the existence of oil in the individual atoms of sand.