468 NATUKE OF INDIVIDUALITY. 



guage may be with propriety used, the consequences of the action of nat- 

 ural agents do not remain as a barren idea in the creative mind, but are 

 presented as a material and tangible result. 



Such a mathematical conception of the relations of the various forms 

 around us obliterates at once the line of demarcation which natural his- 

 tory has thus far vainly attempted to define with correctness between 

 the organic and inorganic worlds. In the system of creation no such 

 boundary exists ; neither does one exist between the vegetable and ani- 

 mal groups. On every form, all existing influences have exerted their 

 sway: gravitation, heat, electricity; the result is the issue of their action. 

 The shape of any great mountain is thus the record of every thing that 

 has affected its mass since it was first uplifted. Its ancient peaks are 

 the register of every summer's sun, every frost, every falling rain, every 

 lightning stroke. It is what it is because of them ; and so also of the 

 lichen which unfolds itself on some favorable spot on the rock. "Would 

 it be there at all, or would it have the special aspect it presents, if there 

 was not a due proportion of sunshine, a proper supply of moisture, a 

 suitable temperature ? It is such conditions which have called it forth. 

 It is what it is because of them. In this respect, between the inorganic 

 and organic, there is no difference. 



The preceding elementary examination of the circumstances under 

 Correction of which plants grow has led us to the inference that in their 

 _ f germ there resides a plastic power whose function it is to 

 model the organic matter, as it is furnished by the sunlight, 

 into definite shapes or organs. We now proceed to correct the concep- 

 tion we have thus formed, and to show that it is more philosophical to 

 decline the idea of an agent and to accept that of a condition. 



Perhaps the most simple method of illustrating this idea is from con- 

 siderations connected with the individuality of the organisms which have 

 thus arisen. Directing their attention to plants', botanists have occupied 

 themselves in endeavoring to determine what is the attitude in which 

 Considerations they stand. They have tried to find out wherein the indi- 

 iSviduaiit he "^duality of a plant consists, for this question of individual- 

 of a plant. ity lies truly at the basis of the position which those struc- 

 tures occupy. There are oaks that have lasted a thousand years, but are 

 they to be regarded as individuals that are a thousand years old ? Is 

 not such a tree rather like a nation, a collection or colony of individuals, 

 the individuality belonging to each bud, to each leaf it has borne ; for 

 there is a close analogy, if not an absolute identity, between the process 

 of development of a seed in the ground and of a bud upon a branch ; 

 both have their infantile, both their aerial life. The leaves of the oak, 

 which expand in the spring, fall in the autumn. Their origin and du- 

 ties are connected with astronomical events. Each annual generation, 



