I06 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



animal is perfected." But in Man, as the highest animal, 

 the. whole animal world is contained; he is the actual 

 Microcosm. 



If Natural Philosophy be the expression and logical 

 connection of all well-observed facts, we could not now 

 designate as Natural Philosophy, Oken's well-rounded 

 system, laid down in 3562 propositions, with their in- 

 ferential conceits of Position, Negation, and Polarity, 

 the absolutely meaningless formula of -f- o — without 

 any real penetration of the subject-matter. Various and 

 important incitements to research were nevertheless sup- 

 plied by it, and we have been the more anxious to call 

 attention to this system, as it implies at least as much 

 as the vague formulae and ideas of " intrinsic develop- 

 ment," the " principle of progress," the " conversion of 

 the lower into the higher," and the whole litany of inde- 

 cision and indistinctness. 



In this chapter we shall not adhere to chronological 

 succession, but merely characterize various theories of 

 organic nature; and we may therefore now revert to 

 Goethe, who in Haeckel's opinion forestalled his age on 

 the great question which forms the subject of this book, 

 and deserves to be honoured as the independent founder 

 of the theory of descent in Germany.''' We cannot as- 

 cribe this importance to Goethe, for we must deny the 

 very cardinal-point on which Haeckel lays most weight, — 

 that Goethe regards species not merely as modified phe- 

 nomena of the variable idea of the genus, but as the 

 sum of bodies modifiable in the concrete. What prin- 

 cipally induces us to make detailed mention of Goethe 

 is his penetration of the idea of type, which since the 

 time of Buffon had been for two generations the lodestar 



