AND ITS SELF-CONSERVATION. 263 



sion of the organism means death in whole or in part, 

 occur only in the less complex forms of life, where the 

 life-principle itself is still diffuse, and hence presents the 

 characteristic of externality in so marked a degree that 

 division of the form does not of necessity result in the 

 destruction of vitality in either of the separated parts. 

 Different from this in degree, rather than in kind, is the 

 separation of the germ, as well as of the offspring, from 

 the parent in the higher forms of life. 



Again, the internality of life is, as we have indicated, 

 in the first place mere impulse. The specialized living 

 being is a limited unit. It is therefore dependent, and 

 stands in necessary relations with the specialized objects 

 of the external world, in the midst of which it exists. 

 But as itself a process, and as at the same time dependent 

 upon the world-process surrounding and including it, 

 the living unit must constantly adjust itself to its envi- 

 ronment. And its impulse toward such adjustment is 

 the phase of spontaneity or subjectivity which it has 

 unfolded. 



At the same time, this characteristic of spontaneity 

 presents also a passive phase. It is the relatively auto- 

 matic response which the living being makes to the 

 exertion upon it, in any way, of force from without. 

 This is the quality of "sensitiveness" or "irritability," 

 which is exhibited in self-preservation the struggle for 

 immediate existence on the part of the individual and 

 in reproduction, whereby the existence of the species is 

 secured. The degree in which the life of even the 

 higher orders of animals is limited to these relatively 

 mechanical aspects, is far beyond what seems commonly 

 supposed. It can hardly be doubted, by one who carefully 



