44 PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE. 



in appearance only different; or in absolute contrast with 

 each other. 



In all cases that which, abstractly taken, is the defini- 

 tion of the kind, will, when applied absolutely, or in its 

 fullest sense, be the definition of the highest degree of that 

 kind. If life, in general, be defined vis ab intra, cujus 

 proprium est coadunare plura in rem unicam, quantum est 

 res unica; the unity will be more intense in proportion as 

 it constitutes each particular thing a whole of itself; and 

 yet more, again, in proportion to the number and inter- 

 dependence of the parts, which it unites as a whole. But 

 a whole composed, ab intra, of different parts, so far inter- 

 dependent that each is reciprocally means and end, is an 

 individual, and the individuality is most intense where the 

 greatest dependence of the parts on the whole is combined 

 with the greatest dependence of the whole on its parts ; 

 the first (namely, the dependence of the parts on the 

 whole) being absolute; the second (namely, the depend- 

 ence of the whole on its parts) being proportional to the 

 importance of the relation which the parts have to the 

 whole, that is, as their action extends more or less beyond 

 themselves. For this spirit of the whole is most expressed 

 in that part which derives its importance as an End from 

 its importance as a Mean, relatively to all the parts under 

 the same copula. 



Finally, of individuals, the living power will be most in- 

 tense in that individual which, as a whole, has the greatest 

 number of integral parts presupposed in it; when, moreover, 

 these integral parts, together with a proportional increase 

 of their interdependence, as parts, have themselves most 



