TREVIRANUS ON SOLIDARITY. 95 
causal connection between all members and parts of the 
universe—is further shown, among others, by the following 
remarks in his Biology :—“ The living individual is depen- 
dent upon the species, the species upon the fauna, the fauna 
upon the whole of animate nature, and the latter upon the 
organism of the earth. The individual possesses indeed a 
peculiar life, and. so far forms its own world. But just 
because its life is limited it constitutes at the same time an 
organ in the general organism. Every living body exists in 
consequence of the universe, but the universe, on the other 
hand, exists in consequence of it.” 
It is self-evident that so profound and clear a thinker as 
Treviranus, in accordance with this grand mechanical con- 
ception of the universe, could not admit for man a privileged 
and exceptional position in nature, but assumed his gradual 
development from lower animal forms. And it is equally 
self-evident, on the other hand, that he did not admit a 
chasm between organic and inorganic nature, but main- 
tained the absolute unity of the organization of the whole 
universe. This is specially attested by the following 
sentence :—“ Every inquiry into the influence of the whole 
of nature on the living world must start from the principle, 
that all living forms are products of physical influences, 
which are acting even now, and are changed only in degree, 
or in their direction.” Hereby, as Treviranus himself says, 
“The fundamental problem of biology is solved,’ and we 
add, solved in a purely mechanical or monistic sense. 
Neither Treviranus nor Goethe is commonly considered 
the most eminent of the German nature-philosophers, but 
Lorenz Oken, who, in establishing the vertebral theory of the 
skull, came forward as a rival to Goethe, and did not 
