20 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



All this is due to the old form of metaphysic, 

 which accepted as real phenomena what are only 

 mental representations. In these cases, says 

 Bosnier, physiology and psychology do not keep 

 step, and the result is that philosophy falsifies 

 itself. Giving due weight to all that is real and 

 positive in Nature, we see that from the inorganic 

 to the most transcendental there is only a change 

 in the rhythm of the science of energy ; that one 

 form of energy always transforms itself into an- 

 other form of energy ; that the organisation with its 

 forms and structures is a unity rooted in the bowels 

 of the universe, and ending, as we now know, 

 in the intelligence of man. Light, colours, sounds 

 are distinct modes of vibration, parts of this 

 rhythm, this universal harmony which rises from 

 the inorganic world to a state of consciousness in 

 our brains. The energy which regulates adapta- 

 tion in live beings, like all the factors of evolution, 

 does not originate in the same organic substance, 

 for this energy is derived from the great principles 

 of general mechanics. The initial impulse which 

 obliges biological evolution to transform itself into 

 beings which progress from the simple to the com- 

 plex, from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous, 

 is not an essential force peculiar to organic sub- 

 stance, for this force would not exist if the earth 

 did not form an integral part of the cosmos. 



