20 NATURE AND LIFE. 



biological energies to compose groups of which the end and 

 the reason are found in what we call the individual. The 

 differentiations of inorganic matter occur in molecules that 

 are specific, in whatever bulk they are regarded. The dif- 

 ferentiations of living matter take place only in individuals 

 whose build and proportions are strictly determined. An 

 iron bar, an iron crystal, and iron-dust, are all still iron. 

 An organic substance fitted for life is nothing, whenever 

 deprived of connection with an organism. It can display 

 energy, can act, in a word, can be, so far as to be a living 

 substance, only in virtue of taking place and rank in a 

 certain whole, and assuming certain dependencies and con- 

 nections with other more or less analogous substances. 

 By itself it is not distinguished in essence from dead mat- 

 ter. It is raised to the rank and clothed with the dignity 

 of life only from the time of its reception into that gather- 

 ing of which the steps all move toward the same end, which 

 is the functional action of the organism, and the perpetu- 

 ation of the species. 



What takes place in the ovule is a miniature image of 

 what takes place in the universe. The differentiations oc- 

 curring in that mucous drop are a copy of the differentia- 

 tions unfolding and expanding in the ocean of the world. 

 It is at first a microscopic mass, homogeneous, uniform in 

 all its parts, a collection of energies identical with each 

 other, and the group of which does not differ perceptibly 

 from a drop of gelatine, hanging, hardly seen, from a 

 needle's point. Yet soon a dull motion spontaneously stirs 

 these nearly inert atoms, and this motion is expressed by a 

 first condensation of the ovular or vitelline substance, which 

 is the germinating vesicle. This passes off, but at the same 

 time other vibrations arrange the molecules of this shape- 

 less, transparent microcosm, in the order of more com- 

 plicated groups. The vitelline substance swells toward 

 the surface, where it forms the polar globules, while at the 



