150 THE INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY. 



from each, other, and a differentiation of the consolidated 

 whole from the environment ; and that in the last as in the 

 first respect, there is a general analogy between the progres- 

 sion of an individual organism, and the progression from the 

 lowest orders of organisms to the highest orders. It 



may be remarked that some kinship seems to exist between 

 these generalizations and the doctrine of Schelling, that Life 

 is the tendency to individuation. For evidently, in becom- 

 ing more distinct from each other, and from their environ- 

 ment, organisms acquire more marked individualities. As 

 far as I can gather from outlines of his philosophy, however, 

 it appears that Schelling entertained this conception in a 

 general and transcendental sense, rather than in a special and 

 scientific one. 



§ 54. The deductive interpretations of these general facts 

 of development, in so far as they are at present possible, must 

 be postponed until w^e arrive at the fourth and fifth divisions of 

 this work ; which will be chiefly occupied with them. There 

 are, however, one or two general aspects of these inductions, 

 which may be here most conveniently dealt with deductively. 



The general law" of development as displayed in organisms, 

 is readily shown to be necessary, if the initial and terminal 

 stages are such as we know them to be. Grant that each 

 organism is at the outset homogeneous, and that when com- 

 plete it is relatively heterogeneous ; and of necessity it fol- 

 lows that development is a change from the homogeneous 

 to the heterogeneous — a change during w^hich there must be 

 gone through all the infinitesimal gradations of heterogeneity 

 that lie between these extremes. If, again, there is at first 

 indefiniteness, and at last definiteness, the transition cannot 

 but be from the one to the other of these, through all intermedi- 

 ate degrees of definiteness. Further, if the parts, originally 

 incoherent or uncombined, eventually become relatively co- 

 herent or combined ; there must be a continuous increase of 

 coherence or combination. Hence the general truth that 



