28 OF LIFE, AND ITS CONDITIONS. 



such particles from a single Rhizopod, each of them retaining (so far as we 

 have at present the means of knowing) the characteristic endowments of the 

 stock from which it was an offset. 



6. When, on the other hand, we watch the evolution of any of the higher 

 types of Organization, whether Vegetable or Animal, we observe that al- 

 though iu the first instance the primordial cell multiplies itself by dupli- 

 cative subdivision into an aggregation of cells which are apparently but 

 repetitions of itself and of each other, this homogeneous extension has in 

 each case a definite limit, speedily giving place to a structural differentia- 

 tion which becomes more and more decided with the progress of develop- 

 ment; until, in that most heterogeneous of all types the Human Organism 



no two parts are precisely identical, except those which correspond to 

 each other on the opposite sides of the body. With this structural differ- 

 entiation is associated a corresponding differentiation of function ; for whilst 

 in the Life of the most highly-developed and complex organism, we witness 

 no act which is not foreshadowed, however vaguely, in that of the lowest 

 and simplest, yet we observe in it that same "division of labor " which con- 

 stitutes the essential characteristic of the highest grade of Civilization. For 

 in what may be termed the elementary form of Human Society, in which 

 every individual relies upon himself alone for the supply of all his wants, 

 no greater result can be attained by the aggregate action of the entire com- 

 munity, than its mere maintenance ; but as each individual selects a special 

 mode of activity for himself, and aims at improvement in that specialty, he 

 finds himself attaining a higher and yet higher degree of aptitude for it ; 

 and this specialization tends to increase as opportunities arise for new modes 

 of activity, until that complex fabric is evolved which constitutes the most 

 developed form of the Social State, wherein every individual finds the work 



mental or bodily for which he is best fitted, and in which he may reach 

 the highest attainable perfection; while the mutual dependence of the whole 

 (which is the necessary result of this specialization of parts) is such that 

 every individual work?, for the benefit of all his fellows, as well as for his 

 own. As it is only in such a state of Society that the greatest triumphs of 

 Human ability become possible, so it is only in the most differentiated types 

 of Organization that Vital Activity can present its highest manifestations. 

 In the one case as in the other does the result depend upon a process of 

 gradual development, in which, under the influence of agencies whose nature 

 constitutes a proper object of scientific inquiry, that most general form in 

 which the fabric whether Corporeal or Social originates, evolves itself 

 into that most special in which its development culminates. And hence we 

 are distinctly justified in the conclusion, that the special endowments of the 

 several components of the organism, however dissimilar to each other, are 

 nothing else than differentiated and proportionately intensified expressions 

 of those which are common to every part of the originally homogeneous 

 fabric; a conclusion which derives a remarkable confirmation from the in- 

 dication afforded by the phenomenon of "Metastasis of Secretion," that the 

 general structure, even in the most highly-specialized organism, retains 

 somewhat of its primitive community of function. 



7. Thus, then, we may take that mode of Vital Activity which mani- 

 fests itself in the Evolution of the germ into the complete organism repeat- 

 ing the type of its parei t, and in the subsequent maintenance of that or- 

 ganism in its integrity, in both cases at the expense of materials derived 

 from external sources, as the most universal and most fundamental char- 

 ad eristic of Life; and we have now to consider the nature and source of 

 the Force or Power by which that evolution is brought about. The prev- 

 alent opinion has until lately been, that this power is inherent in the 



