INTRODUCTORY DISCUSSIONS 149 



identities ; but only in so far as crystallisation is one of the 

 means of inorganic nature employed by entelechy for its 

 purposes. Morphogenesis, however, only uses some features of 

 crystallisation, which, taken by itself, has nothing to do with 

 any organic phenomenon. 



The combined essential bodies called organisms originate, 

 like crystals, with materials delivered from without in the 

 form of oxygen and nourishment. But the starting-point 

 of an organism does not use these substances directly ; it 

 first forms out of them what is to be used, and its manner 

 of employing them is anything but a mere addition : it 

 is a consecutive series of typical differentiations typically 

 placed. 



To build up the organism as a combined body of a typical 

 style is the task of entelechy : entelechy means the faculty 

 of achieving a " forma essentialis " ; being and becoming are 

 united here in a most remarkable manner : time enters into 

 the Timeless, i.e. into the " idea " in the sense of Plato. 



Even elementary physiology teaches its student that the 

 organic form is " forma essentialis " in yet another sense of 

 the word. The form of the organism is not only built up 

 typically, but is also kept in its normal state, in spite of a 

 permanent change of material, by metabolism in the widest 

 sense. Some authors have spoken of this feature as 

 " dynamical equilibrium." The expression is a harmless one, 

 if it is to denote nothing but the mere permanency of form 

 in spite of material changes ; but nothing is " explained " at 

 all by such terminology, and still less does it reduce anything 

 to the inorganic sphere, as uncritical physiologists have some- 

 times asserted. 



