20 NATURE AND LIFE. 
biological energies to compose groups of which the end and 
the reason are found in what we call the individual. The 
differentiations of inorganic matter occur in molecules that 
are specific, in whatever bulk they are regarded. The dif- 
ferentiations of living matter take place only in individuals 
whose build and proportions are strictly determined. An 
iron bar, an iron crystal, and iron-dust, are all still iron. 
An organic substance fitted for life is nothing, whenever 
deprived of connection with an organism. It can display 
energy, can act, in a word, can be, so far as to be a living 
substance, only in virtue of taking place and rank in a 
certain whole, and assuming certain dependencies and con- 
nections with other more or less analogous substances. 
By itself it is not distinguished in essence from dead mat- 
ter. It is raised-to the rank and clothed with the dignity 
of life only from the time of its reception into that gather- 
ing of which the steps all move toward the same.end, which 
is the functional action of the organism, and_the perpetu- 
ation of the species. 
What takes place in the ovule is a miniature image of 
what takes place in the universe. The differentiations oc- 
curring in that mucous drop are a copy of the differentia- 
tions unfolding and expanding in the ocean of the world. 
It is at first a microscopic mass, homogeneous, uniform in 
all its parts, a collection of energies identical with each 
other, and the group of which does not differ perceptibly 
from a drop of gelatine, hanging, hardly seen, from a 
needle’s point. Yet soon a dull motion spontaneously stirs 
these nearly inert atoms, and this motion is expressed by a 
first condensation of the ovular or vitelline substance, which 
is the germinating vesicle. This passes off, but at the same 
time other vibrations arrange the molecules of this shape- 
less, transparent microcosm, in the order of more com- 
plicated groups. The vitelline substance swells toward 
the surface, where it forms the polar globules, while at the 
