INTRODUCTORY. 13 



the final separation of the embryo from the body of the 

 parent. Universal and persistent continuity in nature 

 does not exist. There are distinct interruptions, some 

 of which our senses can perceive, while others are only 

 evident to our intellect through reasoning and mature 

 reflection. 



But reason assures us, as we have already pointed 

 out, that if any real distinctions of " kind " exist at all, 

 there must be distinct steps and absolute breaks. For 

 the very essence of a nature or kind, is that it does not 

 admit of *' greater" or "less" — of augmentation or 

 diminution. It absolutely " is " or it absolutely " is not." 

 There is no possibility of any intermediate condition. 

 To assert that there may be a really intermediate con- 

 dition between death and life, or between absolute non- 

 sensitivity and sensuous existence, or between feeling 

 and thought, is covertly to beg the question and cate- 

 gorically to deny the absolute possibility of any dis- 

 tinctions of kind whatever. Just as the atomist writers, 

 before referred to, assert the existence of real material 

 breaks and differences of kind in what appears to our 

 senses to be one existing material whole, so we assert 

 the existence of real dynamic breaks and differences 

 of kind in what appears to our senses to be one 

 evolving dynamic whole. If any one chooses to assert 

 that stones are living things, accidentally prevented by 

 circumstances from showing forth their latent life, and 

 that all plants are sensitive beings, accidentally hin- 

 dered from making their sensitivity manifest, we cannot, 

 of course, refute him ; but we also cannot but regard 

 him as superstitious and credulous. We need not trouble 



