PROPOSITION CXCIII.

Within each of the first three aforesaid principal gradations of substantial bodily Forms, there are specific diversities discoverable in ascending degrees.

This Proposition has been allowed a place in the present Article for the same reasons as those that caused the admission of the preceding Proposition. Its declaration by the Angelic Doctor will be found under the second paragraph of the passage quoted in the hundred and eighty-sixth Thesis. The evidence of universal experience in its favour is so complete as to obviate all need of proof. Every text-book on chemistry, botany, zoology, is constructed on the presumption of its truth. Even the uneducated have a settled conviction that reptiles, insects, fish, birds, beasts, are essentially different from each other; and that there is a similar difference between trees, grass, plants, ferns, mosses, sea-weed. Nor would they be less prone to acknowledge that water, fire, gas, iron, sulphur, charcoal, gold, sand, are thoroughly distinct the one from the other.

NOTE. It is equally undoubted that there are sensible variations in many, if not all,-of these specific divisions. Most people are aware of the difference among dogs of a setter, a pointer, a greyhound, spaniel, mastiff, bull-dog, terrier, as also of variations in some of these kinds, for instance, the Italian greyhound, the Blenheim spaniel, the Gordon terrier. So likewise, among cats most of us have heard of, if not seen,-the tortoise-shell, Angora or Persian, the Manx. Similarly, farmers are practically acquainted with differences in wheat and barley as well as in breeds of cattle and in sheep.

PROPOSITION CXCIV.

From the truths enunciated in the preceding Propositions it is reasonable to conclude, as conducing to the completeness of cosmic unity, that there will be substantial Forms which may serve to unite the highest Forms of one division with the lowest Forms of the division immediately above it, by embracing certain characteristics of both.

DECLARATION OF THE PROPOSITION.

From the Propositions which have gone before we gather, that the material universe was created for the purpose of manifesting

the Divine Perfection; and that, as such manifestation could not be completed, (even in the limited sense in which the finite can be said to be a completed manifestation of the Infinite), in any one solitary created Form, it was necessary that there should be a diversity of substantial Forms and, consequently, of specific natures. But, if such multiplied Forms and essences are to prove a real manifestation of the Divine Perfection, there is another condition imposed, so to say, by the Exemplar. The likeness must do its best to represent the Unity of the Prototype. Yet, an entitatively singular unity, from the nature of the case, is impossible. It is true, indeed, that there is an entitative unity of Subject; since all substantial bodily Forms are acts of the same primordial matter. But such unity partakes of the all but unintelligibility of its basis, and virtually disappears in its apportionment and determination under substantial and accidental Forms. It remains, therefore, that there must necessarily be a cosmic unity of order. Now, as a fact, we find the material universe to be divided into four primary gradations of being, beginning with inanimate and unorganized bodies, ascending thence to vegetative life, thence to animal or sensitive life, and thence to the highest grade, man. Lastly, it has appeared that under each of the first three gradations there are specific differences and, under these latter, variations. These specific differences continue in an ascending scale from the lowest to the highest Forms within each kingdom or primary gradation. To this point we have already reached by previous examination; and the result is a chain whose links, beginning with the elements, gradually proceed upwards, till the highest link carries us beyond matter into another order, with which for the present we have nothing to do.

So far, however, there are some links missing; for there seems to be an absolute break between each of the four primary gradations. The separation between inanimate bodies and vegetative life, that between vegetative and sensitive life, and finally the separation between irrational animals and man, have not as yet been in such wise diminished that we may be able philosophically to combine them all in a developed unity of order. We seem to be in presence of a quaternity that is incapable of ulterior reduction,four independent kingdoms utterly disconnected with each other. It would seem necessary, therefore, to the perfectness of cosmic unity, more particularly as representative of the Divine Unity, that

there should be certain (shall we call them so?) interstitial substantial Forms, embracing, as it were, the lower and the higher gradation by surpassing the highest development of the former, while exhibiting to some extent the nature of the latter. To this end it matters little whether the Form properly belongs to the higher or lower gradation, provided that it embraces certain characteristics of both. Experience and observation show that this requirement is fulfilled. The missing links do really appear.

But, before illustrating this position from the evidence of physical facts, let an observation or two be made by way of introduction. First of all, when it is asserted that these intervening Forms unite the highest Forms of the inferior with the lowest Forms of the immediately superior gradation, this must not be interpreted to mean that they are themselves reckoned among the lowest Forms of the superior order while exhibiting certain characteristics of the highest Forms in the lower order, or vice versa ; more particularly if we adopt the modern systems of classification. All that is urged is this; that there are certain Forms which exceed in certain of their operations or properties the highest manifestations of the kingdom under which they are ranged, or that they exhibit certain operations or properties characteristic of a kingdom inferior to the one under which themselves are ranged. Hence,— and this is the second observation,-such a junction of the two kingdoms may be exhibited by the Form in one of two ways. Since the Form cannot actually belong to the two kingdoms of being at once, (for, could this be verified, the substantial composite would subsist in two specific natures simultaneously, which is metaphysically impossible); it must either belong to the inferior kingdom with characteristic anticipations of the superior, or it must belong to the superior kingdom, though exhibiting certain retrograde characteristics of the inferior. The latter,-and this is the third observation,-is the more common and the more satisfactory, because its evidence in support of the present Thesis is clearer. It assists us in filling up the first and second gaps; but the former is alone possible in relation to the third.

With these preliminary remarks, let us examine separately these three gaps, for the purpose of testing the truth of the doctrine propounded by the Angelic Doctor, and of determining whether these missing links are provided for us by physical observation. Wherefore, i. Is there any Form that seems to connect the

vegetable kingdom with inanimate bodies? By way of answer to the question, let us examine into the nature of the seed-Form. This Form undoubtedly belongs to the vegetable kingdom; a sign of which is, that it is conjoined with a partial and rudimentary, (it is true), yet real, organization of the matter, which is a property of life. Within the seed is enclosed the embryo of the future plant with its germinal radicle and stem-bud, or plumule. Round the afore-named essential constituents of the embryo, entirely closing them in, are two lobes or cotyledons, (the illustration is taken, for the sake of clearness, from the more numerous class of dicotyledonous plants), which, though claiming to be a part of the embryo, in the majority of cases seem to be purely provisional and, within the embryo-sac, supply the embryo with its necessary food, as soon as the latter commences its vegetable life by the evolution of its plant-Form. When, then, it is said that the seed-Form undoubtedly belongs to the vegetable kingdom, the assertion must be understood of such Form as provisional and transitory in its own nature, and as only potentially a living Form. It belongs to the vegetable kingdom, because its properties, or essential qualitative accidents,-virtually contain the true vegetable Form of the parent plant which was the proximate efficient cause of both.

Now, there are certain things connected with this embryo within the seed, which are deserving of particular notice. First of all, in its isolated state,-separated from the parent plant, separated from certain causal prerequisites such as soil, water, etc.,-it shows no signs whatsoever of growth; so that it can remain, as it appears, for more than two thousand years in its primeval condition, though all along capable of development and, after that lapse of time, actually developing its plant-Form. This has been verified, (so at least it is reported), in the instance of corn that had been buried with certain mummies. Yet growth is the natural and, therefore, necessary operation of plants.

Again: In phanerogams generally, within the seed-coats,-or integuments of the embryo-sac,-besides the embryonic vesicle with its two cotyledons, (the examination, for the sake of precision, is still limited to dicotyledonous plants), there is stored up a treasury of food, which in modern books is called endosperm,otherwise named albumen, from its principal constituent. This, together with material enclosed within the cotelydons, is the source of nourishment to the young embryo, previous to its breaking

through the boundaries of its temporary prison. All seeds of phanerogams contain this endosperm; the only reason why the ripe seeds of many Dicotyledons do not contain any endosperm is because it has already been absorbed and supplanted by the rapidly growing embryo before the seeds become ripe, while in others this absorption happens only on germination after the ripening of the seeds, i.e. on the unfolding of the embryo 1.' Now, it is of some importance to inquire into the nature of this endosperm, which is brought into such intimate local as well as entitative relation with the embryo while yet confined within the testa, or outer integument of the seed. Roughly speaking, it may be said to consist of two elements; viz. nitrogenous substances in the form of albuminoids. on the one hand, and certain carbo-hydrates and oils on the other. The albuminoids go to constitute the protoplasm, so called, of the plant; the carbo-hydrates and oils, to form the cell-walls, or what has been called cellulose. What, then, after all is this famous protoplasm? It is a compound,' says Professor Thomé, 'of different organic substances, among which albuminous (nitrogenous) are never absent, and usually constitute the bulk of it. These constitutive substances are apparently called organic 3, because they are not found to enter into the composition of other than organic substances. But the protoplasm is itself organic, according to the authority just quoted; and organic in another sense, that is to say, it has in itself an organic structure. It will be well to quote his own words, since it is intended to reduce them afterwards into logical form. Thus, then, he writes: It (protoplasm) cannot therefore be destitute of structure, but must be already organized; and it must be simply the imperfection of our microscopes which prevents us from recognizing that organization which is a necessary accompaniment of all vital phenomena. One of the most important of these phenomena is its motility (sic), or power of movement. One cannot help remarking, that the above piece of

1 Julius Sachs' Text-Book of Botany, Book II, Group V, note 2; translation by Bennett and Dyer, p. 421.

2 Text-Book of structural and physiological Botany, Introduction; translation by A. W. Bennett, p. 9-A very valuable little Work on the subject of which it professedly treats.

3 The word, organic, seems to be used by physicists in a variety of senses, which is misleading and creates no little confusion. Sometimes it means that which has an organism,—is itself organized; sometimes, that which is derived from an organized substance; sometimes, again, that which goes to the constitution of organisms. 1 Ibidem, pp. 9, 10.