vi] RELATION TO MATTER 153 



any one in any grade being able to combine with 

 others like itself or with others unlike itself to form 

 the beginnings of a new system, a new individual. 

 Moreover, within each grade there may exist indi- 

 viduals of every degree of perfection. At the bottom, 

 a Gonium-colony is but a possibility of an individual ; 

 the individual formed by the inter-relation in food- 

 matters of plants and animals is so vague as scarce 

 to deserve the name. At the top, Man astounds 

 by his harmonies, his purposeful completeness, and 

 power over nature ; but none are perfect. Thus we 

 must not expect any hard-and-fast rule; there are 

 many grades, many degrees, and many kinds of 

 individuality, and each individual must be judged on 

 its merits, as something really new. 



Finally we have learnt to appreciate the historical 

 point of view, and through it to be brought to admire 

 the seemingly infinite changeableness of life. On the 

 one hand we have seen many structures and many 

 habits of animals that can only be made fully in- 

 telligible through their history. Each new species 

 must go through its period of storm and stress while 

 striving to come into harmony with its environment ; 



" And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 

 Ancestral voices ! " 



the forms and patterns of its forefathers rise up 

 and will not be denied, forcing themselves into the 



