CHAP, iv.] Metamorphosis and of the Spiral Theory. 177 



The sentences here quoted to show Braun's philosophical 

 position still give no idea of the way in which the principles 

 embodied in them influence the whole manner of presenting 

 the facts in the arrangement of his empirical material, but to 

 give a clear idea of this is impossible in so brief a notice as the 

 present. His conception of his subject is shown still more 

 distinctly in a treatise which- appeared three years later, entitled 

 ' Das Individuum der Pflanze in seinem Verhaltniss zur Species, 

 Generationsfolge, Generationswechsel und Generationstheilung 

 der Pflanze ' (1852-3). The definition of the word individual 

 is here sought, as that of rejuvenescence was in the previous 

 work, a really difficult task, if we consider how many 

 meanings have been assigned to this word in the course of 

 time ; in the individuals or atoms of Epicurus, the individuals 

 or monads of Leibnitz, the atoms of modern chemistry, the 

 speculations of the schoolmen on the ' principium individua- 

 tionis ' as opposed to the reality which they assigned to universal 

 conceptions, and in the customary application of the word in 

 every-day language, in which a man or a single tree is called 

 an individual, we have the general views of various centuries, 

 showing how the sense and meaning of old words become 

 changed, not unfrequently into their exact opposites. From 

 the nominalist position of modern natural science this is 

 of little importance, because this treats words and ideas as 

 mere instruments for mutual understanding, and seeks no 

 meaning in either which has not been previously and purposely 

 assigned to them. Braun's mode of proceeding is quite differ- 

 ent ; by comparison of very various phenomena of vegetation, 

 and by examining former views on the subject of the individual 

 plant, he seeks to demonstrate a deeper meaning which must 

 be connected with the word. 



Moreover, he makes the enquiry into the individual only a 

 thread on which to string his own reflections, in the course of 

 which he once more explains the principles of the ideological 

 nature-philosophy, and points out its opposition to modern 



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