The Evolution of Beauty. 
380 
[July, 
carries the tree through many seasons to its normal limit 
of growth. But it furnishes also an analogy suggesting 
that even the primary life-wave of the individual organism 
is in truth subsidiary to a still larger and more inclusive 
wave controlling the development of the species ; that each 
specific wave may be part only of a generic wave, which in 
its turn may be included in some wave of longer period and 
wider sweep ; and that so all finite waves may, in their 
ultimate relationships, be but ripples of the one universal 
impulse. 
Organic growth is, then, always a process of concentra- 
tion, an accumulation of minute waves of force, each 
accompanied by some particle of matter. Of these minute 
waves many probably run together, and form the subsidiary 
waves of various ranks, while others remain distindd as 
superficial undulations. The constant tendency is to bring 
into relationship a vast number of force-waves which were 
previously scattered. These constituents are arranged, as 
they arrive, first in a rough outline indicating the tendencies 
of the primary wave ; and this outline is gradually filled up 
as force and matter are accumulated, and drawn closer to 
the point of ultimate concentration of the primary wave. 
In all developing organisms the order of growth is from 
the general to the particular, from the less to the more 
differentiated, from the scattered to the concentrated, from 
the outline or framework to the clothed and completed form ; 
and although organic growth may appear to be an expansion 
rather than a concentration, it is not so in reality. When 
the bugle-call of a regiment in the field summons the 
skirmishers to retire upon their supports, the result is a 
concentration of force, although accompanied by an enlarge- 
ment of the central mass. 
In the process of organic development there appear to be 
at least four well-marked stages, which seem to indicate the 
existence of four large secondary waves immediately subsi- 
diary to each organic primary. In the animal kingdom 
these mark the development of the four great systems of 
organic tissue — the cellular, the osseous, the fibrous, and 
the nervous. In the vegetable kingdom they are represented 
by the cellular tissue, the trunk and branch system, the 
foliage, and the blossom. 
The visible beauty of the organic world depends upon the 
correlation between the sense-organs of the human race 
and these concentrating organic waves of force. That an 
objedd should appear to be beautiful is not the result of 
accidental surroundings, nor of any superficial garment 
