i OUTSIDES AND INSIDES 47 



The diversities of those creatures, again, 

 however multitudinous in character, may 

 they not all be pictured as analogous 

 with the varying sizes into which water 

 sifts and sorts the sizes of rolled stones ? 

 But presently we see in another form 

 the work of " natural selection" by a 

 mind deliberately divesting itself of its 

 own higher faculties, and choosing in 

 consequence to exert only those which 

 are simple and almost infantile. The 

 question naturally arises what is the 

 most universal peculiarity and distinction 

 of organic forms ? When we get rid of 

 ourselves, when we stand outside of our 

 own anthropocentric position and consult 

 only the faculties which are most purely 

 physical, we shall be compelled to reply 

 that the great speciality of organic forms 

 is the "differentiation of their outside 

 from their inside." 1 They have all an 

 1 P. 755- 



