298 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



ing to some principle of unity. This is, there- 

 fore, peculiarly the field of organic separ- 

 ation of the animal body, which may be taken 

 as sort of workshop or laboratory with a 

 vast diversification and refinement of appara- 

 tus. Still the unitary principle of the huge 

 establishment must at least be striven for, 

 and perchance we may glimpse the process 

 of the whole and of its leading parts. 



Evidently the Form of Life in order to 

 keep itself alive must take and appropriate 

 what is different from itself; it has to tackle 

 the external world, and in its way conquer 

 the same. Here then, enters the stage of dif- 

 ference, of conflict the separative stage of 

 Animal life, which we call Assimilation in its 

 widest sense. 



The Animal assails Nature in her three 

 kingdoms inorganic, vegetable and animal, 

 making them over into its own self as or- 

 ganism, which thus gets the power of main- 

 taining its ever-flowing circuit of bodily re- 

 production. The Animal assimilates the ele- 

 ments air, water and some earth; but its 

 chief food is the Plant, thus assimilating 

 what has been already once assimilated and 

 transformed from the elements into life. Still 

 further, the Animal assimilates the Animal 

 often, thus feeding upon a double previous as- 

 similation, that of both Plant and Animal. 



