114 



gression from a collection of simple cells to a natural body possessing 

 midivided and distinctive characteristics. No one of its states or 

 conditions constitutes species ; neither the perfect insect, nor the pupa, 

 nor the larvae, nor the ovum fulfil in themselves the conception involved 

 in this term, but simply represent the various relations the individual 

 maintains to physical and animated nature, and during the continuance 

 of which its structural biography is written. The perfect being is the 

 temporary expression of a thought or conception involved in the series 

 of actions which constitute in their entirety a special and definite 

 creation, and in this state has reached the acme of its perfectibility, 

 a point beyond which it cannot pass ; but after a variable period its 

 organic part is broken up and resolved again into the simple or primary 

 elements of matter. 



"The species, or the thought, however, does not cease to exist during 

 the process of organic disintegration of the individual, and previously 

 to its disappearance or death it represents its special organism, or 

 rather its species, by means of an ovum in which the organic actions 

 destroyed by the previous representation are recommenced and again 

 carried through a series of changes or states to the point of its previous 

 organic perfection, commencing in the simplest organic state and con- 

 tinually returning to it to renew a series of predetermined special 

 developments. We have in species a cycle of persistent ceaseless 

 actions revolving in their narrow humble orbit with all the indications 

 of design, and with comparatively as much invariability as the great 

 planets observe in their appointed paths. It is a conception, inasmuch 

 as from a structureless body or material is evolved a constant pre- 

 ordained manner, one having a highly complicated arrangement of 

 organs whose actions and functions result in the production of 

 phenomena known as those of life. The ovum in which the organic 

 cycle may be said to have its inception is endowed with no fortuitous 

 or independent impulse of evolution . Up to the period of its maturity 

 it has formed an integral and necessary part of some pre-existing 

 natural body. It is, indeed, a component of the organism quite as 

 much as any other aggregation of specialized cells, and partakes of all 

 its characteristics of growth. To endow it with this impulse not even 

 the procreative act between the male and female organism is absolutely 

 ;. -»' ■ =- orid its specific evolution may be recommenced inde- 

 roptera ; 5. Hymt. ..^traneous aid and continued to the production of a 

 Professor West" 



