THE UNITY OF NATURE. 261 



and to the effects of electricity and light. For other 

 vital processes, however, especially for psychic activity 

 and consciousness, such an interpretation is vigorously 

 contested. Yet the modern science of evolution has 

 achieved the task of constructing a bridge between 

 these two apparently irreconcilable provinces. We 

 are now certain that all the phenomena of organic 

 life are subject to the universal law of substance no 

 less than the phenomena of the inorganic universe. 



The unity of nature which necessarily follows, and 

 the demolition of the earlier dualism, are certainly 

 among the most valuable results of modern evolution. 

 Thirt} r -three years ago I made an exhaustive effort to 

 establish this " monism of the cosmos" and the 

 essential unity of organic and inorganic nature by a 

 thorough critical demonstration, and a comparison of 

 the accordance of these two great divisions of nature 

 with regard to matter, form, and force. 1 A short 

 epitome of the result is given in the fifteenth chapter 

 of my Natural History of Creation. The views I put 

 forward are accepted by the majority of modern 

 scientists, but an attempt has been made in many 

 quarters lately to dispute them, and to maintain the 

 old antithesis of the two divisions of nature. The 

 ablest of these efforts is to be found in the recent 

 Welt als That of the botanist Keinke. It defends 

 pwre cosmological dualism with admirable lucidity and 

 consistency, and only goes to prove how utterly 

 untenable the teleological system is that is connected 

 therewith. According to the author, physical and 

 chemical forces alone are at work in the entire field 

 of inorganic nature, while in the organic world we 



1 General Morphology, bk. 2, ch. v. 



