TEEVIRANUS ON SOLIDARITY. 95 



causal connection between all members and parts of the 

 universe — is further shown, among others, by the following 

 remarks in his Biology : — " The living individual is depen- 

 dent upon the species, the species upon the fauna, the fauna 

 upon the whole of animate nature, and the latter upon the 

 organism of the earth. The individual possesses indeed a 

 peculiar life, and so far forms its own world. But just 

 because its life is limited it constitutes at the same time an 

 organ in the general organism. Every living body exists in 

 consequence of the universe, but the universe, on the other 

 hand, exists in consequence of it." 



It is self-evident that so profound and clear a thinker as 

 Treviranus, in accordance with this grand mechanical con- 

 ception of the universe, could not admit for man a privileged 

 and exceptional position in nature, but assumed his gradual 

 development from lower animal forms. And it is equally 

 self-evident, on the other hand, that he did not admit a 

 chasm between organic and inorganic nature, but main- 

 tained the absolute unity of the organization of the whole 

 universe. This is specially attested by the following 

 sentence : — " Every inquiry into the influence of the whole 

 of nature on the living world must start from the principle, 

 that all living forms are products of physical influences, 

 which are acting even now, and are changed only in degree, 

 or in their direction." Hereby, as Treviranus himself says, 

 " The fundamental problem of biology is solved," and we 

 add, solved in a purely mechanical or monistic sense. 



Neither Treviranus nor Goethe is commonly considered 

 the most eminent of the German nature-philosophers, but 

 Lorenz Oken, who, in establishing the vertebral theory of the 

 skull, came forward as a rival to Goethe, and did not 



