The Metaphysics of a Naturalist 
35 
the universal life it will be imperishable. Maimed and crippled 
it may be, we crawl over the threshold of one world into the fresh 
glory of another, but if the life be really there, it will have no 
difficulty in assimilating to itself a body fit for its use, as the 
acorn finds its own body in the crevices of the rock and builds 
it forth in strict accordance with the pattern set on the peculiari- 
ties of its own vital equilibrium. 
We need not look for pangens, biophores, gemmules, micella, 
and the like, in our study of heredity, or if we find them, w^e shall 
regard them as visible manifestations in some temporary form of 
types of equilibrated energy, vortices of specialized activity, 
specific in its form. The newt will grow a new leg. It is possible 
that the leg might grow a new newt if we were able to keep the 
conditions favorable, just as a branch may grow a new tree. 
There is nothing so violently incongruous as might appear in the 
childish planting of nail parings in the hope of raising a crop 
of men. 22 
The most essential element of consciousness is its focal charac- 
ter. This is precisely an individualizing moment. Our point 
of reference about which we construct the locus formula of our 
life may be continually changing, but it is precisely the 
of consciousness and cannot be diffuse or extended. It is the 
intrinsic, self-reflected, epicyclic character of consciousness 
that creates individuals. It is the one and only individualizing 
moment. The self-point of consciousness is in essence unchange- 
able in so far as it is a point of ultimate reference, the standard 
of all realizing. Doubtless our activities might form part in a 
greater or social whole which might have its consciousness of a 
higher order (its more intricate equilibrium) ; but I do not see 
that it would follow that our consciousness would be involved 
in it or that the higher consciousness would be felt in ours. 
It would only be in so far as our activities entered into reaction 
with all, that we should approximate to a consciousness of the 
Cf. W\ E. Ritter, American Naturalist, November, 1903, in which it is stated that 
Miss Sarah P, Monks has succeeded with the Starfish (Phatria or Linckia fascialis) 
in regenerating the body from simple rays. Cf. Haeckel, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool Bd. 
30, 1878. Cf. Herrick, Journal Comparative Neurology, vol. 8, no. 1, 1898, pp. 26-27. 
(Cf . also the posthumous article by Professor Herrick, “Application of Dynamic Theory 
to Physiological Problems, ’’ Journal Comparative Neurology and Psychology, vol. 16, 
no. 5, 1906.) 
