IS 7 S.] 
The Evolution of Beauty. 
379 
from the general law impressed upon them by the primary 
impulse, assert their individuality within that limit, and are 
slightly modified at the same time, as is also the primary 
itself, by surrounding resistances and attractions. Hence 
the result that no two oak trees are precisely similar in 
details, though identical in general plan. 
Of the three leading wave-types, by far the most complex 
is the centripetal. This type is especially associated with 
organic life. The primary impulse in every entire organism 
is of this form ; so also are all the great subsidiary waves. 
An organic being is a living and aCtive centre, around which 
force and matter are alternately concentrated and dispersed. 
The normal life-period of each organism depends upon the 
character of its primary centripetal force-wave ; and the 
apex or grand climacteric of its life is the point of greatest 
concentration, from which point dispersion sets in, ending 
in partial or in total dissolution. 
The subsidiary waves being also of the centripetal type, 
but of varied periods and intensities, their climacterics are 
not synchronous, but successive, so that nearly always some 
portions of the organism are at their climax, while some are 
tending towards decay, and others still developing. 
Among the characteristics of the organic centripetal wave 
there is one of peculiar significance. It is this — that the 
necessary result of centripetal aCtion is concentration, and 
concentration implies the bringing into closer relations with 
each other of elements which had previously been more 
scattered. There is an important correlation between this 
pr ocess and our human senses. 
Organic development takes place by the process of assi- 
milation, by continually adding to the original impulse the 
energy of surrounding materials, by complicating the pri- 
mary wave with an ever-increasing army of subsidiary waves. 
The intense attractive power of the organic life-wave has 
this especial capacity of accumulation and concentration, 
which is continued until the whole kinetic energy of the 
primary wave is changed into the potential form. At this 
point reaction sets in, and the descending phase of the 
wave commences, accompanied by decay of the organism 
and re-dispersion of its constituents. 
During the career of the primary wave many subsidiary 
waves of all ranks will have run their course. In the life 
of a deciduous tree the annual wave, accompanied by evolu- 
tion of foliage and blossom, and leaving part of its energy 
stored up in the seed, has almost a primary character, 
though it is in faCt a subsidiary of the larger wave which 
