ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



289 



physiology and agriculture in the school of Liebig, and 

 the first chapters of meteorology, seemed to favour the 

 idea that the elements and forces of nature were engaged 

 in cyclic movements which return again and again in the 

 same fashion. To the same cyclical view the doctrine of 

 the fixity of species, as well as that of the repetition 

 of various creations, lent further support ; hence it con- 

 tinued up to the middle of our century l to be fre- 



1 In Germany Moleschott's ' Kreis- 

 lauf des Lebens,' a popular exposi- 

 tion of the conceptions developed 

 in the second quarter of the century 

 through chemistry and embryology, 

 represented adequately the cyclic 

 conception of life and development 

 in a catching phrase. Much later 

 we find inter multa alia, in 

 Michael Foster's ' Text-book of 

 Physiology ' a concise description 

 of the process in nature which has 

 always served as a type for the 

 cyclic conception : " When the 

 animal kingdom is surveyed from a 

 broad standpoint it becomes obvious 

 that the ovum, or its correlative 

 the spermatozoon, is the goal of an 

 individual existence ; that life is a 

 cycle beginning in an ovum and 

 coming round to an ovum again. 

 . . . The animal body is in reality a 

 vehicle for ova ; and after the life 

 of the parent has become potentially 

 renewed in the offspring, the body 

 remains as a cast-off envelope whose 

 future is but to die." Another 

 example may be found in Mohr's 

 ' Geschichte der Erde,' where the 

 circulation of different elements in 

 nature is considered. The concep- 

 tion of periodic cycles has found 

 poetical expression in Riickert's 

 beautiful poem, "Chidher," which 

 is evidently the poetical render- 

 ing of an Arabian legend quoted 

 by Lyell (' Principles,' vol. i. p. 

 31): 



VOL. II. 



"Chidher, the ever youthful, spake : 

 I passed a city on my way, 

 A man in a garden fruit did break, 

 I asked how long the town here lay ? 

 He spoke, and broke on as before, 

 ' The town stands ever on this shore, 

 And will thus stand for evermore.' 



And when five hundred years were gone 



I came the same road as anon, 



Then not a mark of the town I met. 



A shepherd on the flute did play, 



The cattle leaf and foliage ate. 



I asked how long is the town away? 



He spake, and piped on as before, 



' One plant is green when the other's o'er, 



This is my pasture for evermore.' 



And when five hundred years were gone 

 I came the same road as anon. 

 Then did I find with waves a lake, 

 A man the net cast in the bay, 

 And when he paused from his heavy take, 

 I asked since when the lake here lay ? 

 He spake, and laughed my question o'er, 

 ' As long as the waves break as of yore 

 One fishes and fishes on this shore.' 



And when five hundred years were gone 

 I came the same way as anon. 

 A wooded place I then did see, 

 And a hermit in a cell did stay ; 

 He felled with an axe a mighty tree. 

 I asked since when the wood here lay ? 

 He spake : ' The wood's a shelter for ever- 

 more, 



I ever lived upon this floor, 

 And the trees will grow on as before.' 



And when five hundred years were gone 



I came the same way as anon, 



But then I found a city tilled 



With markets' clamour shrill and gay. 



I asked how long is the city built, 



Where's wood and sea and shepherd's play ? 



They pondered not my question o'er 



But cried : ' So was it long before, 



And will go on for evermore.' 



And when five hundred years are gone 



I'll go the same way as anon." 



