198 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



not only depends upon the worm that elaborates it, 

 but on the mulberry tree that serves as its nutriment ; 

 if this tree disappeared, the said worm would dis- 

 appear, and with it the silk and its industry, and 

 ladies' dresses would be less attractive. If the 

 earth approached nearer to the sun, or, on the 

 other hand, went further away, man would at once 

 be changed, as well as all earthly organisms, those 

 only surviving that were able to adapt themselves 

 to the new conditions ; organisation then perhaps 

 would immediately reproduce the new forms 

 peculiar to the new conditions of the medium. 

 Heredity and adaptation are one and the same 

 thing ; in each generation the same organisation is 

 inherited, because the adaptation to the medium is 

 the same, and both existences are similar, because 

 they reproduce organic rhythms that serve them as 

 guide and master. 



To regard heredity, selection, or adaptation as 

 one and the same essential phenomenon, brings 

 about a simplification and better understanding of 

 biological phenomena. 



All the organisation cannot be formed by a 

 single being, constituting a single conglomeration, 

 just because it obeys natural laws, and rhythm 

 is an essential condition of force. Thus, as each 

 colour or musical note represents a fixed number 

 of vibrations, without which the sound would not 



