232 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



unknown elements, and we may ask whether it is more 

 logical to prefer a system which assumes a multitude of 

 unknown elements to a system which assumes only a single 

 one?" 



Mr. Darwin appears, by " Natural Selection," tc destroy 

 the reality of species, and by Pangenesis that of the indi- 

 vidual. Mr. Lewes observes 10 of the individual that " this 

 whole is only a subjective conception which summarizes the 

 parts, and that in point of fact it is the parts which are re- 

 produced." But the parts are also, from the same point of 

 view, merely subjective until we come to the absolute or- 

 ganic atoms. These atoms, on the other hand, are utterly 

 invisible, intangible ; indeed, in the words of Mr. Darwin, 

 inconceivable. Thus, then, it results from the theories in 

 question, that the organic world is reduced to utter unreal- 

 ity as regards all that can be perceived by the senses or 

 distinctly imagined by the mind; while the only reality 

 consists of the invisible, the insensible, the inconceivable. 

 In other words, nothing is known that really is, and only 

 the non-existent can be known. A somewhat paradoxical 

 outcome of the speculations of those who profess to rely 

 exclusively on the testimony of sense. " Les extremes se 

 touchent" and extreme sensationalism shakes hands with 

 the " das seyn ist das nichts " of Hegel. 



Altogether the hypothesis of Pangenesis seems to be 

 little, if at all, superior to anterior hypotheses of a more or 

 less similar nature. 



Apart from the atoms of Democritus, and apart also 

 from the speculations of mediaeval writers, the molecules of 

 Bonnet and of Buffon almost anticipated the hypothesis of 

 Pangenesis. According to the last-named author, 11 organic 



10 Fortnightly Review, New Series, vol. iii., April, 1868, p. 509. 



11 " Histoire Naturelle, generale et particuliere," tome ii., 1749, p. 

 327. " Ces liqueurs seminales sout toutes deux un extrait de toutes les 

 parties du corps," etc. 



