THE DIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 333 



sufficiently how very strange this fact is. Why is not 

 the adult formed in the egg by an instantaneous act of 

 entelechy ? You cannot reply to this question : " Because, 

 of course, entelechy can only do one strictly single act at a 

 civen moment " ; for in the differentiation of an harmonious- 



O ' 



equipotential system entelechy does produce, though not the 

 complete, yet a certain composite totality instantaneously/ 

 and we all know that we ourselves are able to produce 

 certain specific individual totalities of a composite character 

 in strictly one element of time e.g., when we strike a chord 

 on the pianoforte. We may even say that on account of 

 this being so, the concept of entelechy was introduced. 

 But again : why are there consecutive stages in ontogeny ? 

 Why does time enter into each manifestation on the part 

 of entelechy ? 



We can only confess that we do not know. Theoretically, 

 it would appear more reasonable if there were no such thing 

 as " ontogeny." But, on the other hand, we all know that 

 a painter, though he conceives or rather imagines the picture 

 strictly as a whole instantaneously, and though he is able 

 to produce certain composite totalities also instantaneously, 

 is yet far from creating the complete whole in one moment. 

 And this may serve us as an analogy ; it may teach us 

 something more about the dependence of entelechian acts 

 not of entelechy itself on non-entelechian factors ; for it 

 is because he is dependent on his organisation and on many 

 other things that a painter cannot paint a whole picture 

 instantaneously. Indeed, only on the basis of some such 

 dependence are we able to understand the existence of 



1 That totality which is produced on the basis of the explicit prospective 

 potency of a certain organ. See vol. i. page 83. 



