ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 273 



ations of attracting and repelling centres, or of linked 

 vortex rings, is already so formidable that much cannot 

 be expected in that direction. These intermediate units, 

 vastly more complex than the most complex chemical 

 molecules, and vastly more minute than the smallest 

 visible grain of protoplasm, must therefore for a long 

 time to come lie in the region of hypothesis, unattainable 

 for the eye or the calculus ; an indication rather than 

 a real guide for our scientific researches. Seeing, then, 

 that the study of forms the morphological view of 

 natural objects in the case of organic beings, where to 

 the naive contemplation of things these forms seemed full 

 of so much significance, indicative of so much meaning, 

 possessed of so much beauty and striking suggestiveness 

 has led to no comprehension of the essence of vital 

 phenomena, and hardly even afforded a safe criterion for 

 classification, it is intelligible how the scientific interest 52. 



Change of 



has moved away from the consideration of the fixed forms ?cientmc 



* interests. 



and structures to that of the variation and continued 

 change of these forms. This alteration in the scientific 

 way of looking at the actual forms of nature, goes hand 

 in hand with the tendency we had occasion to notice 

 when dealing with the abstract sciences. Many things 

 which once seemed at rest, or possessed of very simple 

 rectilinear motion, have revealed themselves to the mind's 

 eye as complex states of motion. Colours are exceedingly 

 minute and rapid but well defined vibrations ; the dead 

 pressure of gases is the impact of numberless quickly- 

 moving particles ; and the wonderful properties of the 

 whirling vortex ring have made us familiar with what 

 has been termed the dynamical or moving equilibrium, the 

 VOL. II. s 



