THE "GENERAL MORPHOLOGY" 213 



intermediate stages, are the " persons." Thus a 

 new word is given to what we have hitherto 

 conventionally called an " individual," when we 

 wanted to denote a turtle, a bird, a man, or an 

 higher animal as a whole. To this corresponds 

 in the plant the sprout. The stage above the 

 ^'person" is the "stock." We might also call it 

 the social individual ; in the plant-world it is 

 the tree, in the coral the coral-stock, in the human 

 case the social combination of a number of men 

 for common action. 



We are reminded of Virchow's speech, and how 

 *^ consciousness " was dragged into the debate 

 on the cell-state. What psychological perspectives 

 are opened out by this doctrine of individuality ! 

 Each form-unity, each single individuality in the 

 series, with a soul ! Souls combining for common 

 action, and forming higher psychic unities! There 

 is no detail in Haeckel's whole life-work in which 

 he speaks more boldly and freely and philosophi- 

 cally than he does here. His lucid treatment raises 

 to a higher stage a philosophic question that has 

 occupied thinkers for ages. 



That is the third book. The fourth takes up 

 a different subject. Let us adopt in organic 

 morphology this wonderful theory of individuality, 

 the theory of stages within the form. Then let 

 us turn to consider impartially the vast multi- 

 tude of living forms. How can we now arrange 

 this infinite confusion by merely looking at it ? 

 Artificial classification has attempted it a 

 hundred times, and always without success. On 



