The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)Spencer, Herbert
Science
The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)
Spencer, Herbert
Biology
prove, on further inquiry, to be distinguished by their _combination_ from
certain non-vital changes which simulate them. Here, too, the parallelism
is maintained. It was shown in _First Principles_, Chap. XIV, that an
essential characteristic of Evolution is the integration of parts, which
accompanies their differentiation--an integration shown both in the
consolidation of each part, and in the union of all the parts into a whole.
Hence, animate bodies having greater co-ordination of parts than inanimate
ones must exhibit greater co-ordination of changes; and this greater
co-ordination of their changes must not only distinguish organic from
inorganic aggregates, but must, for the same reason, distinguish higher
organisms from lower ones, as we found that it did. Once more, it was
pointed out that the changes constituting Life differ from other changes in
the _definiteness_ of their combination, and that a distinction like in
kind though less in degree, holds between the vital changes of superior
creatures and those of inferior creatures. These, also, are contrasts in
harmony with the contrasts disclosed by the analysis of Evolution. We saw
(_First Principles_, §§ 129-137) that during Evolution there is an increase
of definiteness as well as an increase of heterogeneity. We saw that the
integration accompanying differentiation has necessarily the effect of
increasing the distinctness with which the parts are marked off from each
other, and that so, out of the incoherent and indefinite there arises the
coherent and definite. But a coherent whole made up of definite parts
definitely combined, must exhibit more definitely combined changes than a
whole made up of parts that are neither definite in themselves nor in their
combination. Hence, if living bodies display more than other bodies this
structural definiteness, then definiteness of combination must be a
characteristic of the changes constituting Life, and must also distinguish
the vital changes of higher organisms from those of lower organisms.
Finally, we discovered that all these peculiarities are subordinate to the
fundamental peculiarity, that vital changes take place in correspondence
with external co-existences and sequences, and that the highest Life is
reached, when there is some inner relation of actions fitted to meet every
outer relation of actions by which the organism can be affected. But this
conception of the highest Life, is in harmony with the conception, before
arrived at, of the limit of Evolution. When treating of equilibration as
exhibited in organisms (_First Principles_, §§ 173, 174), it was pointed
out that the tendency is towards the establishment of a balance between
inner and outer changes. It was shown that "the final structural
arrangements must be such as will meet all the forces acting on the
aggregate, by equivalent antagonistic forces," and that "the maintenance of
such a moving equilibrium" as an organism displays, "requires the habitual
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