3i6 
OWEN’S POSITION IN 
I do not for a moment suggest, indeed I can- 
not imagine, that Owen approved of such extra- 
vagances as those which I have cited ; but that he 
was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Oken, 
bringing it, apparently, in his own mind into har- 
mony with that of the English Platonists, and 
especially of Cudworth, is a conclusion which can 
hardly be avoided. The following passages alone 
appear to me to be decisive : — 
‘ Now, besides the ISea, organizing principle, 
vital property, or force, which produces the diver- 
sity of form belonging to living bodies of the same 
materials, which diversity cannot be explained by 
any known properties of matter, there appears also 
to be in counter-operation, during the building-up of 
such bodies, thepolarizing force pervading all space, 
and to the operation of which force, or mode of 
force, the similarity of forms, the repetition of 
parts, the signs of the unity of organisation may 
be mainly ascribed. 
The Platonic iSea, or specific organising prin- 
ciple or force, would seem to be in antagonism 
with the general polarizing force, and to subdue 
and mould it in subserviency to the exigencies of 
the resulting specific form.’ ^ 
‘ Now, however, the recognition of an ideal 
Exemplar for the Vertebrated animals proves that 
/ O Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton 
<1848), p, 172. 
