354 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



as " thou must," so long as they are based on the compulsion 

 of the developed biological organisation, and all super- 

 mechanical invasions as a " thou shalt," proceeding from an 

 impulse-system. 



This way of considering things permits us to say of the 

 impulse-systems that they are " imperative " in respect of 

 form, which they always relate to the development or main- 

 tenance of the individual. This individual is always a subject, 

 because it always forms a new world-centre. Everything 

 that happens, happens for the individual only in so far as 

 the phenomenon becomes a new indication within it. The 

 indications are, so to speak, the lighthouses of the individual, 

 from which it gets glimpses of the world. Each individual 

 has only so much world as is subjectively accessible to it. 



Objectively considered, each individual, whether large 

 or small, is an element in the framework of the whole, into 

 which it fits by pegs and sockets. 



Accordingly the impulse-system, to the imperative of 

 which the individual owes its development, must, from one 

 aspect, be described as a subject, because it creates a world- 

 centre. But from the other aspect, it is arranged as an 

 objective factor in the plan of the world as a whole, in order 

 that the new world-centre may become part of the framework 

 of the whole. 



We get a survey of these difficult and complicated re- 

 lations most easily, if we proceed from a universal conformity 

 with plan, in which the subjective impulse-systems are woven 

 in as objective factors along with the other objective factors 

 of Nature. For the conformity with plan of life embraces 

 both inorganic and organic forces, even if it directly influences 

 only the organic shaping. 



The impulse-systems continually form in the individuals 

 fresh world-centres, large and small ; the worlds belonging 

 to these centres mutually embrace and cut across one 



