128 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



US that this is so, we become entitled to affirm that 

 the inherent tendency to differentiation possessed by 

 living matter is an inherent tendency to become 'or- 

 ganized/ however much these processes of organization 

 may be influenced, and in part determined, by the 

 concurrent operation of varying extrinsic forces i. 



Just as surely, therefore, as the form of any particular 

 Crystal is the result of the polarities of its aggregating 

 molecules (inherent tendencies) under the influence of 

 the conditions amidst which aggregation takes place- 

 so is the more slowly-evolved form and structure of 

 the Organism attributable to the inherent tendencies 

 (molecular polarities) of its component matter and 

 the forces operative upon it 2. Changes in the ex- 

 ternal forces or ^conditions' may in each case pro- 

 duce more or less variation in the form which presents 



^ This affirmation of the existence of an inherent tendency in living 

 matter to become organized has frequently been made, by De Maillet, 

 Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck and others— althoiij^h different writers 

 have varied much in the amount of influence which they have been 

 inclined to attribute to it. (See Spencer's ' Principles of Biology/ vol. i. 

 pp. 402-410.) Some, indeed, have thought that the tendency had a 

 natural, whilst others have referred it to a supernatural origin, and have 

 considered (like Professor Owen) that it took effect under the super- 

 vision or predestination of an intelligent "designer. The existence of the 

 tendency has, however, been altogether denied by Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 (loc. cit., p. 430), although we venture to think that this denial is incon- 

 sistent with the general principles of Evolution which he has so admi- 

 rably enunciated. 



According to Miiller, a doctrine somewhat similar to this seems to 

 have been put forth by Reil nearly forty years ago, in the * Archiv fuf 

 Physiologic,' Bd. I. 



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