CHAPTER VI 

 DEVELOPMENT AND HARMONY 



i. WE may obtain some fresh light on the movement 

 towards harmony by starting anew from the conception of 

 development, and asking in general terms what development 

 is. What is meant when, comparing two individuals or 

 two types, we say that one is more developed, more mature, 

 more highly evolved ; the other relatively crude, unde- 

 veloped, rudimentary? (i) We may use the expression 

 with reference to some assignable character and its pre- 

 sumed genesis. Here, e.g. is a given organ of a given 

 animal. It has such and such a structure and function, 

 definite and clearly marked. By the aid of embryology 

 we can trace it back through successive stages to a certain 

 portion of a layer of undifferentiated cellular tissue. It 

 begins, that is to say, by being something generic, to all 

 appearance like other cellular tissue of the same individual, 

 and not only of the same individual, but of embryos 

 generally at that stage of their growth. From this it 

 differentiates out, acquiring by a continuous process a 

 character which is more and more distinct. The develop- 

 ment of such an organ then has a perfectly clear meaning. 

 It is a name for the continuous process of modification by 

 which an object of distinct and well-marked character 

 comes to attain that character. (2) Thus, when we speak 

 of the development of something definite, there is no 

 particular difficulty about the import of the term. It 

 is when we speak of development in general and oppose 

 it to arrest or decay that the question of meaning arises. 

 When the animal dies and the organ that has been in 



