i88i.] 
The Organisation of Matter. 
197 
the drop of water. It is a collection around a centre of 
attraction of all the substance which that attraction is 
capable of condensing. The same thing may be said of a 
crystal. It is a centripetal aggregation assuming a definite 
shape around a centre of formation. We may even say the 
same of a colloid mass, a single animal cell, or a single- 
celled animal. It is a centripetal aggregation of smaller 
molecules around a centre of attraction, precisely as the 
chemical molecules are aggregations of atoms definitely 
arranged about a centripetal attraction. 
We may even pursue this thought further. What is a 
many-celled animal but an aggregation of colloid molecules 
around a centre of organisation, a centripetal force which 
controls and arranges them into a definite and self-limited 
mass. Thus we perceive the conditions of organisation of 
the smallest aggregates of matter reappearing, in an advanced 
stage of development, in the highest aggregates. Each is a 
unit of organisation around a centre of force, and is limited 
in its dimensions by the vigour of this force. The principle 
that governs the simplest aggregate of matter thus governs 
the most complex. Each self-limited aggregation around a 
centre of force, from the atom to the man, is a unit of 
nature, analogous in constitution to all the other units. 
These units resemble each other in another particular. 
They are all polar in force. The atom, as we have argued, 
is a rotating sphere or ring of matter, with its axis of rota- 
tion and its poles, these possibly displaying the magnetic 
energy. Every molecule has probably one or more axes. 
Every rotating liquid sphere has its axis and its poles. A 
complex polar organisation exists in crystals. Finally, a 
polar organisation is observable in single-celled animals and 
plants, and undoubtedly exists in the highest organisms. 
The tendency of every colloid mass, whether simple or 
compound, is to become globules. But its material is influ- 
enced by exterior forces as well as by the centripetal force. 
It therefore becomes variously irregular in response to these 
exterior relations. Such irregularities become permanent 
since they arise from permanent conditions of exterior force. 
The plant, for instance, tends to the axial form, since exten- 
sion into earth and air is necessary to its existence in any 
advanced condition. There are undoubtedly attractive influ- 
ences which aCt to produce this form. The animal tends to 
the globular form. Its attractions are central, not axial, as 
in the plant. Its divergences from the globe, therefore, do 
not arise from attraction, but from pressure, and from the 
necessity of conformity to other exterior conditions. In the 
