274 THE WORLD-ENERGY 



manifestation of the Life of the total World-Energy. 

 Looked at in its merely physical aspects, this is doubtless 

 a purely mechanical view of nature;* while, on the other 

 hand, we are equally justified in saying that "in our 

 study of natural objects we are approaching the thoughts 

 of the Creator, reading his conceptions, interpreting a 

 system that is his and not ours."t 



The following further suggestions are added as possible 

 clews to the more precise interpretation of organic evolu- 

 tion. The first suggestion is: That wherever the environ- 

 ment or complex of natural conditions is the same it could 

 hardly be but that the same organic type should be 

 developed. And this not merely on one planet, but on 

 any planet, whatever its location in space. So also, on 

 the other hand, wherever the conditions vary, the organic 

 type developed must vary in corresponding degree. And 

 since the World-Energy can be conceived only as in- 

 finitely rich in its Method, it is evident that Creation 

 must be inexhaustible in the variety of forms through 

 which that Method is forever unfolded into its infinitely 

 rich actuality. But, again, for any particular sphere, as 

 'our own world, the conditions that is, the special 

 aspects of the World-Energy constituting the environ- 

 ment cannot but present a limited range in so far as 

 they are productive of- special physical forms which are 

 organic to Life. In other words, the types of organisms 

 cannot but be limited in number and in variability. At 

 the same time, with the increasing specialization of the 



* " Die Erkenntniss 1st beendigt, wenn es als die nothwendige Folge be- 

 stimmter Ursacheii sich nachweisen lasst. Dieses ursachliche Erkenuen 

 uennenwirim Gebiete des Stofflichen auch ein mechanistisches, etc." Nae- 

 geli: " Mechardsch-physiologische Theorie der Abstammungslehre." S. 8. 



t Agassiz. " Methods of Study in Natural History.'' 1 llth ed. p. 14. 



