(ZIEL). It must only be remembered, Raer stated, that the 

 final end (ZIEL) is achieved not by intelligent will, but 

 by means of necessity. 



"In the elucidation of how life in nature is formed 

 from necessities, leading to a definite final end 

 (ZIELSTREBICE NOTWENDIGKEITEN), and from the directed 

 processes conditioned by necessity (NOTWENDIG VERFOLGTEN 

 ZIELEN), it seems to me the true task of the study of 

 nature is concluded. "41 



"If the old wisdom," Baer states, "which recognizes 

 expediency and greatness in the activities of nature, must 

 be rejected, after it has been explained that the opinions 

 on which it is based are too intimately connected with human 

 behavior, this does not give one the right to assert that 

 in nature the necessities act alone, devoid of direction 

 (ZIEL). It is absolutely clear that nothing takes place 

 without basis; however, indirected forces of nature cannot 

 build any regulated thing, not even a mathematically 

 defined form and even less a complicated organism; they 

 can only destroy. "42 



Mentioning many examples of expediency (corresponding 

 to necessity) of organization of living creatures and 

 indistinctly forming the idea of progressive evolution, 

 whose crown is considered the wise man, Baer cited his 

 statement of thirty-three years earlier, invested in ideal- 

 istic form: "The earthly body is only a bed, on which the 

 hereditary spiritual resplendence of man develops. The 

 history of nature is only a history of the progressive 

 victory of the spirit over matter. "43 After Baer's state- 

 ment of theoretical opinions about the phenomenon of 

 individual development, it is permissible to posit a 

 question about the essence of his outlook. 



It is decidedly necessary to mark off Baer's opinions 

 from the reactionary idealism of Stolzle, Kelmersen, and 

 others who insisted on the identity of Baer's ideas with 



41. Ibid ., p. 73. 



42. Ibid ., p. 88. 



43. Baer, "Das allgemeinste Gesetz der Natur in aller 

 Entwickelung," REDEN, I, 2nd ed. (1886), pp. 71-72. 



507 



