I] IDEA OF INDIVIDUALITY 27 



One word more on continuance. The continuance 

 of the working of a species as we have defined it 

 would preclude change ; but change and the idea of 

 evolution are at the base of all modern thought in 

 science and philosophy alike. As a matter of fact, 

 the resemblance of the working of one individual to 

 its result, the working of a descendant individual, is 

 never absolute : and so, since working and structure 

 are inter-dependent, no two individuals are ever 

 exactly alike in appearance and architecture. Given 

 this fundamental fact of variation, nothing is im- 

 possible: and to-day few would be found to deny 

 that all the battalions of living organisms are de- 

 scended from one primeval type. That is the logical 

 outcome of the doctrine of Evolution. Evolution is a 

 word glibly used, but often without thought of its full 

 meaning. If Evolution has taken place, then species 

 are no more constant or permanent than individuals. 

 We know what we mean when we use the words child 

 and man, and we know that at puberty comes the 

 crisis which transforms the one into the other; but 

 the whole process is continuous. So we know what 

 we mean by a species ; probably, too, there are crises 

 when the species becomes unstable and in a short 

 time we can say, "here is a new species." None the 

 less the one species, if we accept the idea of Evolution, 

 is continuous with the other by the most obvious 

 continuity, that of its substance. As individual 



