XVI 



THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 



Inorganic and organic evolution — Biogenesis and cosmogenesis — 

 Mechanical evolution — Mechanics of phylogenesis — ^Theory 

 of selection — Theory of idioplasm — Phyletic vital force — 

 Theory of germ-plasm — Progressive heredity — Comparative 

 morphology — Germ-plasm and hereditary matter — Theory 

 of mutation — Zoological and botanical transformism — 

 Neo-Lamarckism and Neo-Darwinism — Mechanics of onto- 

 genesis — Biogenetic law — Tectogenetic ontogeny — Experi- 

 mental evolution — Monism and biogeny. 



I FULLY explained in my General Morphology (1866) 

 the profound importance of the science of evolution 

 in relation to our monistic philosophy. A popular synop- 

 sis of this is given in my History of Creation, and is 

 briefly repeated in the thirteenth chapter of the Riddle. 

 I must refer the reader to these works, especially the 

 latter, and confine myself here to a consideration of 

 some of the principal general questions of evolution in 

 the light of modern science. The first thing to do is to 

 compare the conflicting views on the nature and signifi- 

 cance of biogenesis which still face each other at the 

 beginning of the twentieth century. 



The essential unity of inorganic and organic nature, 

 which I endeavored to establish in the second book of 

 the General Morphology, and the significance of which I 

 explained in the fourteenth chapter of the Riddle, is 

 found through the whole course of its development, in 

 the causes of phenomena and their laws. Hence, in 



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