b THE PHENOMENON OF 



the aim of the formative activity of the Plant. With it is 

 closed the series of structures, in the graduated production 

 of which the plant runs through its metamorphoses ; in it 

 vegetable life comes to a peaceful conclusion, yet without 

 the internal vital movement stopping at the same time with 

 the cessation of external growth, for it is not so inde- 

 pendent and permanent in any other part of the plant as 

 in the ripening fruit. At this stage of development, 

 therefore, in comparison with the preceding process, rest 

 comes at the end, but at the same time, according to the 

 relation to a higher sphere of life, the activity lying in 

 the destination of the final form. 



If we compare the structures of the earlier stages of life 

 with the condition of the final forms, we see that in them 

 also exists a pause, an efibrt at conclusion, which, however, 

 has to be renounced before the development can advance 

 towards its term. In opposition to such fixation at 

 subordinate stages, which would become arrests of 

 development, comes the active power of Rejuvenescence, 

 spinning onward the threads of development with new 

 lengths. Thus it is in every single creature which has a 

 development at all, that is in every living thing. But 

 we may give this reflection a wider expansion. 



The term reached by the individual, is not the last term 

 of development for the greater complex of the whole, nay 

 the individual itself indicates this totality in its depen- 

 dance. The individual existences of Nature are links 

 in the development of that Kingdom of Nature to which 

 they belong, and in the widest sense, links in the develop- 

 ment of the totahty of natural life. Hence the phenomena 

 of Rejuvenescence present themselves not only in the 

 individual existence, but connect themselves again on all 

 hands with the term of the individual existence, going 

 beyond this, constantly renewing living Nature in her 

 individual members, and thus bearing up and carrying 

 her onwards to her final purpose. To the fricit adjoins 

 itself the seed as the commencement of a new individual 

 course of development, just as the production of future 



