COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



that under certain conditions, most completely 

 realized by organic bodies, certain secondary 

 but equally important phenomena of structural 

 rearrangement may be expected to accompany 

 this fundamental process ; we must next show 

 what these secondary phenomena are. 



The exposition will be rendered clearer by 

 the preliminary explanation of four technical 

 terms, which will continually recur, and which 

 must be thoroughly understood before any fur- 

 ther step can be taken toward comprehending 

 the Law of Evolution. These terms are neither 

 obscure in themselves, nor newly coined, but 

 because we shall henceforth employ them in a 

 strict and special sense, they require careful de- 

 finition. 



I. An object is said to be homogeneous when 

 each of its parts is like every other part. An 

 illustration is not easy to find, since perfect 

 homogeneity is not known to exist. But there 

 is such a thing as relative homogeneity ; and 

 we say that a piece of gold is homogeneous 

 as compared with a piece of wood ; or that a 

 wooden ball is homogeneous as compared with 

 an orange. 



II. An object is said to be heterogeneous when 

 its parts do not all resemble one another. All 

 known objects are more or less heterogeneous. 

 But, relatively speaking, a tree is said to be 

 heterogeneous as compared with the seed from 



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