250 Dr. T. Sterry Hunt on the 



tion. It aims, in the language of Stallo, to describe "the 

 genetic evolution of the material world — therefore also its 

 first origin in naught, and its subsequent development up to 

 its limit, man, who is a complex of all preceding forms, in- 

 cludes all particular developments, and is, as it were, the focus 



where all the various tendencies of nature converge In 



man all external activities, all divine ideas are gathered;" and 

 thus it is that, in the words of the poet, he is enabled " to think 

 again the great thought of the creation "*. 



§ 29. The origin of matter itself, Hylogeny, belongs to 

 Pneumatophilosophy. The genetic process in the primal un- 

 differentiated matter, with which Physiophilosophy first con- 

 cerns itself, is by Oken considered under the two heads of 

 Ontology and Biology. The successive steps in the ontolo- 

 gical process are : — first, Cosmogony, or the fashioning of the 

 heavenly bodies from the previously formed matter ; followed 

 by the genesis therefrom of the chemical elements — Stoichio- 

 geny. These elements give rise to mineral species, which 

 together make up the earth — Geogeny. Biology, which has 

 for its object the study of the organic world, is by Oken 

 divided into Organogeny with its subdivisions, and Phyto- 

 sophy and Zoosophy, treating respectively of the development 

 of plants and animals. In the organism we have a " combi- 

 nation of all the activities of the universe in a single indivi- 

 dual body." The inorganic and the organic worlds are not 

 only in harmony with each other, but are one in kind. Man, 

 in whom self-consciousness or spirit manifests itself, repre- 

 sents the whole universe in miniature f. 



§ 30. The Physiophilosophy of Oken, of which we have 

 given an outline, is thus identical in its aim and its plan with 

 the earlier attempts of the Greek philosophers to which the 



* " Schon ist, Mutter Natur, deiner Erfindung Pracht 

 Auf die Fluren verstreut ; schoner ein frok Gesicbt 

 Das den grossen Gedanken 

 Deiner Schopfung nocli einmal denkt." 



Klopstock, Ode; Der Ziirchersee. 

 Compare this with the language of Schelling, cited by Hegel : " Ueber 

 die Natur philosophireu heisst die Natur schaffen." 



f Lorenz Oken, 'Physiophilosophy/ Introduction, pp. 1-3, of Tulk's 

 translation, published by the Ray Society, London, 1847. See also an 

 excellent analysis of the system by J. B. Stallo, in his ' Philosophy of 

 Nature] (Boston, 1848), pp. 221-330, from which we have quoted above. 

 Errors in detail, and defects and obscurities, are to be found in the system 

 of Oken, which even novices in science can today point out and criticise ; 

 but it must not be forgotten that his Physiophilosophy has been a most 

 potent influence in shaping and directing the scientific thought of the last 

 two generations. Oken has been the inspirer and the teacher of the 

 teachers of science. 



