f06 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



animal is perfected." But in Man, as the hi^^hest animal, 

 the whole animal world is contained ; he is the actual 

 Microcosm. 



If Natural Philosophy be the expression and logical 

 connr ction of all well-observed facts, we could not now 

 designate as Natural Philosophy, Oken's well-rounded 

 system, laid down in 3562 propositions, with their in- 

 ferential conceits of Position, Negation, and Polarity, 

 the absolutely meaningless formula of + O — without 

 any real penetration of the subject-matter. Various 

 and important incitements to research were nevertheless 

 supplied by it, and we have been the more anxious to 

 call attention to this system, as it implies at least as 

 much as the vague formulae and ideas of " intrinsic de- 

 velopment," the "principle of progress," the "conversion 

 of the lower into the higher," and the whole litany of 

 indecision and indistinctness. 



In this chapter we shall not adhere to chronological 

 succession, but merely characterize various theories of 

 organic nature ; and we may therefore now revert to 

 Goethe, who in Haeckel's opinion forestalled his age on 

 the great question which forms the subject of this book, 

 and deserves to be honoured as the independent founder 

 of the theory of descent in Germany.'*' We cannot 

 ascribe this importance to Goethe, for we must deny 

 the very cardinal-point on which Haeckel lays most 

 weight, — that Goethe regards species not merely as 

 modified phenomena of the variable idea of the genus, 

 but as the sum of bodies modifiable in the concrete. 

 What principally induces us to make detailed mention 

 of Goethe is his penetration of the idea of type, which 

 since the time of Bufifon had been for two eencra- 



