g2 THE BIOCOSMOS PRELIMINARY. 



tion of the individual life (Homogenesis) of 

 Nature. 



At this point we are to note another stage 

 of the vital act which lies intermediate be- 

 tween the foregoing extremes. It is this : the 

 individual does not produce his like wholly, 

 but always with some change ; no child is quite 

 the same as the parent, even if similar. The 

 great diversity of species is brought about 

 by slight differences ever increasing through 

 heredity. This is the fact so strongly en- 

 forced by Darwin in accounting for the origin 

 of species. The like, therefore, does not pro- 

 duce the like or the unlike altogether, but 

 what may be called the similar, which grows 

 more and more toward the different. No 

 name has been given by science, as far as we 

 are aware, to this important kind of genesis, 

 but we may call it in correspondence with the 

 other two designations Homoio genesis, or 

 genesis through the similar. The term re- 

 calls the dispute in the early Church regard- 

 ing the nature of Christ, when the two theo- 

 logical parties were respectively named 

 Homoousian and Homoiousian. To the Dar- 

 winists particularly the conception of Homo- 

 iogenesis is much more significant than either 

 of the other two sorts of genesis, being really 

 the mediating link which connects the unity 

 and variation of species, and upon which Nat- 



