276 THE WORLD-ENEBGY 



a complex of conditions focusing itself into, and unfold- 

 ing as, that given unit; just as an image on a screen is 

 not something else than the light, but just the light itself 

 developed in one particular mode. 



The conception, then, of the variation of organic 

 species in nature even to the development of more 

 from less complex species so far from being in conflict 

 with the highest conception of a divine order of the 

 world, would seem to be itself a necessary aspect of any 

 really consistent view we can form of a divine or rational 

 World-Order. It is demanded by the very principle of 

 Continuity itself, and cannot be got rid of, as it seems 

 to me, in any other way than by renouncing all claim 

 that the world is a world of established order, rather 

 than a world of chance ; that is, by admitting that the 

 world whose order is one we are persistently endeavoring 

 to think out is really a world in which thought is not 

 only superfluous, but impossible. 



At the same time, it is to be carefully noted that the 

 " variation " is something which takes place on the part 

 of individuals within a given type, while tjie type in 

 its largest significance is itself invariable. Nor can the 

 variation of any individual or series of individuals within 

 a type ever carry such individual or individuals beyond 

 the type. The truth discovered by von Baer, that all 

 animals originate from eggs which at first are identical 

 in substance and structure, is of utmost importance; for 

 it points distinctly to a genuine simplest grade of organic 

 matter, a proto-plasm, out of which all types of animals 

 primarily arose. So also, as Agassiz insists, it is of the 

 utmost significance that " each egg has such tenacity of 

 its individual principle of life that no egg was ever 



