959. So what is the purpose of answers in terms of weights and measures? If they cannot provide the solution to the greatest question in life: "Who is life?" what is the purpose of their existence? Do they have a purpose at all? Yes, they do, very much so. Their mission or main task is to provoke or give rise to the aforementioned greatest question in existence: "Who is life?" The creation of this great question is the invisible, ultimate goal of all answers in terms of weights and measures, which in turn in "Livets Bog" means all existing expressions of degrees of matter and combinations of matter. It is true that, in the first instance, it is not directly this great question that the being is seeking in its contact with matter. In the first instance, this contact with matter constitutes the instinct for self-preservation. And on this account it is of importance, in fact even a vital necessity, for the being to acquire knowledge of matter and of its surroundings, which are likewise made up of matter, in order to assert itself and to promote the vitally necessary satisfaction of that instinct. The less knowledge a being has of matter and its surroundings, the more it is at the mercy of this matter and these surroundings, the latter being in particular its fellow beings. And the more it is at the mercy of matter and thereby its fellow beings, the more will the satisfaction of its instinct of self-preservation be based on the mercy and the lack of mercy coming from this world of matter. In order to continue to satisfy its instinct of self-preservation the being must therefore, first and foremost, live in a constant, competitive race with other beings to acquire an understanding of matter. Through knowledge A, B and C this understanding becomes automatic functions, abilities and innate talents. The entire appearance and capability of the living beings is therefore in reality answers in terms of weights and measures, that is, abundance of matter transformed into abilities and innate talents. But this great wealth or abundance of understanding in the consciousness of these beings, represented by the answers in terms of weights and measures, is not the ultimate aim of their mission. Among the most advanced beings, in other words those beings that have come furthest in the aforementioned competitive race, and which on Earth consist of terrestrial human beings, we can see that these results are very far from satisfactory. These very results have given the beings the enormous freedom to not only control almost all the fellow beings that exist outside their own race or species, determining their life and death, but they have also enabled them to begin to make themselves masters of the elements. Through the invention of the engine these beings are able to be borne across the globe on the wings of the elements, soaring high through the clouds, sailing across or under the immense surface of the seas and driving across the continents on thousands upon thousands of miles of motorways and railway lines. In this way the answers in terms of weights and measures give the living being exceptionally great power and might in mastering matter and they can in turn use this power to rule over fellow beings with less knowledge. And the old saying "knowledge is power" is thereby shown to be a scientific truth. This power is therefore a factor of absolutely vital importance to every single living being, for no existence can take place without exercising a certain form of power over the matter on which that existence is based. This applies to the existence of the tiny earth worm as much as to that of the highly-developed human being. As this power is in turn based on knowledge, which in principle is the same as answers in terms of weights and measures, even though to a large extent these appear as knowledge C or automatic functions, answers in terms of weights and measures are therefore clearly an essential factor for the life of the living being. And we will therefore express these results as "life substance no. 41", just as we will designate the power based on these results as "life substance no. 42".