FUNCTION. 211 



function takes precedence of structure, seems also implied in 

 the definition of Life. If Life is shown by inner actions so 

 adjusted as to balance outer actions — if the implied energy is 

 the substance of Life while the adjustment of the actions 

 constitutes its form; then may we not say that the actions 

 to be formed must come before that which forms them — 

 that the continuous change which is the basis of function, 

 must come before the structure which brings function into 

 shape ? Or again, since in all phases of Life up to the 



highest, every advance is the effecting of some better adjust- 

 ment of inner to outer actions; and since the accompanying 

 new complexity of structure is simply a means of making 

 possible this better adjustment; it follows that the achieve- 

 ment of function is, throughout' that for which structure 

 arises. Not only is this manifestly true where the modifi- 

 cation of structure results by reaction from modification of 

 function ; but it is also true where a modification of structure 

 otherwise produced, apparently initiates a modification of 

 function. For it is only when such so-called spontaneous 

 modification of structure subserves some advantageous action, 

 that it is permanently established. If it is a structural 

 modification that happens to facilitate the vital activities, 

 " natural selection " retains and increases it ; but if not, it 

 disappears. 



The connexion which we noted between heterogeneity of 

 structure and heterogeneity of function — a connexion made 

 so familiar by experience as to appear scarcely worth specify- 

 ing — is clearly a necessary one. It follows from the general 

 truth that in proportion to the heterogeneity of any aggregate, 

 is the heterogeneity it will produce in any incident force 

 (First Principles, § 156). The energy continually liberated 

 in the organism by decomposition, is here the incident force; 

 the functions are the variously modified forms produced in 

 its divisions by the organs they pass through; and the more 

 multiform the organs the more multiform must be the dif- 

 ferentiations of the force passing through them. 



