300 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



and a great part of the history of mankind. And lastly, 

 there is a rather complicated kind of sequence of which the 

 " history " has actually been written. History can refer to 

 bodies which are in no direct relation with one another, 

 but which are each the effect of another body that belongs 

 to a consecutive series of body-units showing periodicity. 

 This sounds rather complicated ; but it is only the strict 

 expression of what is perfectly familiar to you all. Our 

 sentence indeed is simply part of the definition of a 

 history of art or of literature for instance or, say, of 

 a phylogenetic history of the nests of birds. The 

 single pictures are the subjects of the history of art, and 

 nobody would deny that these pictures are the effects of 

 their painters, and that the painters are individuals of 

 mankind that is, that they are bodies belonging to a 

 consecutive series of body-units showing periodicity. Of 

 course, it is only improperly that we speak of a history 

 of pictures or of books or of nests. In fact, we are dealing 

 with painters, and with men of letters or of science, and 

 with certain birds, and therefore the third type of history 

 may be reduced to the second. But it was not without 

 value to pursue our logical discrimination as far as 

 possible. 



So far we have always spoken of history as being more 

 than a mere enumeration, but we have not ascertained 

 what this " more " signifies. It is not very difficult to do 

 so : in fact, there are three different types of history, 

 each of a different degree of importance with respect to 

 the understanding of reality. 



In the first place, history may start as a mere enumera- 

 tion at the beginning, and at the end, in spite of all further 



