that living matter exhibits physical properties, includes the further admission, that those _physical_ or dead properties are themselves vital in essence, really _distinct_ but in appearance only _different_; or in absolute contrast with each other. In all cases that which, _abstractly_ taken, is the definition of the _kind_, will, when applied _absolutely_, or in its fullest sense, be the definition of the highest _degree_ of that kind. If life, in general, be defined _vis ab intra, cujus proprium est coadunare plura in rem unicam, quantùm est res unica_; the unity will be more intense in proportion as it constitutes each particular thing a whole of itself; and yet more, again, in proportion to the number and interdependence of the parts, which it unites as a whole. But a whole composed, _ab intra_, of different parts, so far interdependent that each is reciprocally means and end, is an individual, and the individuality is most intense where the greatest dependence of the parts on the whole is combined with the greatest dependence of the whole on its parts; the first (namely, the dependence of the parts on the whole) being absolute; the second (namely, the dependence of the whole on its parts) being proportional to the importance of the relation which the parts have to the whole, that is, as their action extends more or less beyond themselves. For this spirit of the whole is most expressed in that part which derives its importance as an End from its importance as a Mean, relatively to all the parts under the same copula.