208 HAECKEL 



vidual. In our artistic illustration the Venus of 

 Milo, as a form-unity, is an aesthetic individuality. 

 When its form is destroyed, its individuality 

 perishes. 



Let us apply this to any one of the higher 

 plants or animals. Take a turtle, for instance. A 

 definite individual embodies the definite form to 

 which I give the name. This form as such is 

 entirely lost if I cut up the turtle until it is un- 

 recognisable. The limit of morphological study 

 seems to be, just as in the case of the Venus of 

 Milo, the integrity of the individual turtle. Yet 

 in the living turtle we find an enormous difference. 



If I grind the Venus of Milo into dust, I am at 

 once in a totally different world with this dust. I 

 am amongst the raw material of nature, untouched 

 by aesthetic influence. From this calcareous powder 

 I can, in reality or imagination, pass on to the 

 world of crystals, molecules, and atoms. In that 

 case I shall have done with aesthetic morphology. 

 I come to the morphology of the inorganic, a very 

 different branch. What do we find in the case of 

 the living turtle ? 



It is true that I can break up the turtle into 

 simple chemical substances. In that case I make 

 the same transition ; I abandon organic morpho- 

 logy, and pass, with the same salto mortale as in 

 the case of the Venus of Milo, to the lower science 

 of inorganic morphology. 



But when I examine the structure of the living 

 individual turtle before me I notice a special 

 feature. Let us suppose that I break up the Venus 



