524 



THE CAT. 



fCHAP. XV. 



13. It may be said that we even see the fresh starting forth of 

 life itself. In many plants, the ovule (after developing to that extent 

 which is its condition in the fully formed seed) ceases to be active. 

 The seed is shed and dies. But on the occurrence of the requisite con- 

 ditions, it lives again and comes rapidly to manifest a new psychical 

 principle of individuation altogether different from that which informed 

 the same matter when it was a developing seed. It may, perhaps, 

 be objected by some persons that : " if the seed is not actually living 

 during its period of quiescence, the result shows that it has neverthe- 

 less been potentially alive." But it is impossible to understand how 

 anything can be really " alive " when all vital activity is really 

 absent, and no such activity can be affirmed to exist during the long 

 periods * in which dry seeds may be preserved without decomposi- 

 tion. The " vital activity " of a seed is " germination." 



As to " potential life/' its existence may be freely conceded ; but 

 potential "life" is actual "death." The " potentiality " is not in the 

 seed merely, but in the environing conditions and external stimuli 

 also, yet "life" is not to be predicated of such "conditions " and 

 " stimuli." The dead seed is but a piece of matter so appropriately 

 formed that if it and other matters are brought together under certain 

 conditions, a new living being results from the conjunction. This is 

 but a case of that genetic activity which all persons who believe that 

 life first arose spontaneously in the world, must admit to have once 

 existed, and if " once," why not " always ? " 



14. But how are all the changes of development in the cat, and 

 in all animals and plants, carried on ? Is it by a number of fortuitous 



I 



cent chrysalis. It may be asked then : 

 How can a new "form " suddenly arise, 

 when the body it informs arises gradu- 

 ally ? But are not a piece of oak, and 

 woodashes, different substances ? Yet 

 does not fire gradually effect the trans- 

 formation of the former into the latter ? 



Our organs of sense are indeed so con- 

 structed and so act that they are in- 

 capable of positively seeing any absolute 

 commencement whatever. When we seem 

 to perceive such a thing (as, e.g., in the 

 explosion of gunpowder), the apparent 

 absolute suddenness is but due to the fact 

 that the gradual changes which really 

 take place are too minute and too rapid 

 for our sense-organs to follow. There 

 can be no doubt but that if our powers 

 of sense were in these respects greatly 

 augmented, an explosion of gunpowder 

 would then be seen by us to be a gradual 

 process. 



But the emergence of a new psychical 

 principle of individuation is a thing 

 which is and must ever remain essentially 

 imperceptible to our senses, however much 

 their powers might be augmented. Each 

 such psychical principle can as we 

 know by our own personal experience 



continue to inform a body while that 

 body undergoes various changes and 

 gradual modifications within certain 

 limits ; but will cease so to exist when 

 once those limits are passed. The actual 

 amount of change which the body of a 

 developing animal can undergo while 

 informed by any one principle, and the 

 physical conditions which determine the 

 lapse into potentiality of that principle 

 and the advent of another, may ever 

 remain a matter of speculation only. 

 There appears, however, to be evidence 

 that such changes actually take place, 

 and the gradual preparation of the living 

 matter for their occurrence is a phenome- 

 non which harmonizes with our experience 

 as to the only psychical principle of in- 

 dividuation of which we have any 

 thorough knowledge our own. 



* Mr. Carruthers, F.E.S., has kindly 

 informed me that seeds of Nelumbium 

 (a beautiful aquatic plant belonging to 

 the Lotus group) have germinated after 

 having been preserved in the British 

 Museum for upwards of a hundred years. 

 In this case it is manifest that all vital 

 activity was for a very long time really 

 absent. 



