THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 95 



names of Laplace and Herschel, has, under correc- 

 tions furnished by modern physics, common accept- 

 ance among us. Then, as shown in the following 

 extract, Kant foresees the theory of the development 

 of life from formless stuff to the highest types : " It 

 is desirable to examine the great domain of organized 

 beings by means of a methodical comparative anato- 

 my, in order to discover whether we may not find 

 in them something resembling a system, and that 

 too in connection with their mode of generation, so 

 that we may not be compelled to stop short with a 

 mere consideration of forms as they are which gives 

 no insight into their generation and need not des- 

 pair of gaining a full insight into this department of 

 Nature. The agreement of so many kinds of animals 

 in a certain common plan of structure, which seems 

 to be visible not only in their skeletons, but also in 

 the arrangement of the other parts so that a won- 

 derfully simple typical form, by the shortening or 

 lengthening of some parts, and by the suppression 

 and development of others, might be able to produce 

 an immense variety of species gives us a ray of 

 hope, though feeble, that here perhaps some results 

 may be obtained, by the application of the principle 

 of the mechanism of Nature; without which, in fact, 

 no science can exist. This analogy of forms (in so 

 far as they seem to have been produced in accordance 

 with a common prototype, notwithstanding their 

 great variety) strengthens the supposition that they 

 have an actual blood-relationship, due to derivation 



