Here, indeed, let me draw attention to tho truth indi- cated by some of the above examples, that the extension of the correspondence in space is exhibited not in the ascending grades of animal life alone, but in the successive phases of human civilization, and is even now going on. 1'rom early races acquainted only with neighbouring locali- ties, up to modern geographers who specify the latitude and THE COMHB&rONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN SPACE. 319 longitude of every place on tie globe — from the ancient builders and metallurgists, knowing but surface-deposits,, up to the geologists of our day whose data in some cases enable them to describe the material existing at a depth never yet reached by the miner — from the savage barely able to say in how many days a full moon will return,, up to the astronomer who ascertains the period of revolution of a double star — there has been a gradual widening of the sur- rounding region throughout which the adjustment of inner to outer relations extends.
It remains only to point out the additional evidence thus afforded that the degr^ of life varies as_ the degree of coin^espondence. On the one hand, each further extension of the correspondence in space adds to the number of external relations to which internal relations are adjusted — adds,, that is, to the number of internal changes — adds therefore to the amount of life. On the other hand, the greater the space throughout which the correspondence reaches, and the more numerous the adjustments which can consequently be made, the greater must be the number of cases in which food is obtained and danger shunned. Whence we may clearly see how life and ability to maintain life, are two sides of the same fact — how life is a combina- tion of processes the^ result of whose workings is their o\vn continuance.
CHAPTER V.
THE CORRESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING- IN TIME, § 146. It was pointed out some pages back (§ 186), that • while tlie lowest Protopliytct and Protozoa display no manifest adjustments of internal changes to changes in the environ- ment, the higher plants pass through cycles of states answer- ing to the cycles of the seasons. Whether this should be regarded as a progress towards correspondence in Time, is doubtful. It may be said that since in a tree the budding, blossoming, ripening the fruit, and dropping the leaves, occur at the same times with fit external conditions,, the inner sequences are conformed to the outer ones. But it may be replied that this is an incidental result of the per- petual adaptation of the internal actions to external co- existences (temperature, light, moisture), which, by passing through a series of variations, involve a parallel series of variations in the plant. It may be argued that the putting forth of leaves has reference simply to the then concurring in- fluences, and has no direct reference to the subsequent nutri- tion of the fruit; that the true nature of these vegetative changes is seen in the fact that a tree will flower in the autumn if the heat be great enough; and that thus plant- life exhibits no true correspondence to sequences in the environment, but only to co-existences in it. To decide be- tween these views is not easy; though on the whole the last seems the more rational. But at any rate, this species THE CORRESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN TIME. 321 of correspondence in Time, if suck it be, is of a vague kind compared witli that properly so called.
Turning to those more definite cases which animal life displays-it is to be observed that in creatures possessing no other sense than that of touch, the sole external relations with which internal relations can be put in correspondence, are relations of co-existence. Only when there comes to be some amount of smell, or sight, or hearing, can sequences in the environment be met by adjusted sequences in the orgar^m. The connexion between the tangibility of an adjacent body and some co-existent property possessed by it, is the only one to which, in a zoophyte, the connexion between irritation and contraction answers. Time is no more involved than Space. But when relations among. things or attributes that are in any degree removed from the organism, become cognizable — when, for example, there exists incipient vision, and obstruction of light is often followed by a touch from the obstructing body — then, an organic response to an external sequence becomes possible: then the organism can move in anticipation of motion in an -external body. Two phenomena in the Environ- ment, the one immediately succeeding the Bother, pro- duce two phenomena in the organism ia like.suc- cession.
~ Or, to present the proposition under another aspect:— -As the simplest sequences, and those first perceived, are me- chanical sequences; as mechanical sequences imply change of position,• as change of position implies progress through Space; it follows that only when there is some degree of space-penetrating faculty, can there be any adaptation in the organism to changes of position in adjacent objects — any adjustment to external sequences — any correspondence* in Time. After the ability to respond to the touches of surrounding bodies, the next advance is the ability to re- spond to those motions of them which precede touch; and since motion involves both Time and Space, the first extensum of the correspondence in Tinio is necessarily coeval with its first extension in Space.
§ 147. Throughout Hie successive sfntfos in fin* dovlnp- triont of the senses, these two orders of eonvxpMitdrnru progress together. In proportion as i.ho disf.mrn n\. which a moving object is perceivable increases, the irr^iffT brcornr-A the duration of the (external actions, or chains oi adion^, to which the internal changes may In* adjusted. Othor fining equal, the more \*einot.o any body, the IMU^T must, In* tin* interval before it can net on the organism or th«* origan i--ni on it; that is — the longer must bt^ the fini*% Ix-fwrou th«* outer antecedents and consequents with whi«*li Ihr ii»n»*r ant(K*«!detii«H and consequents ar<^ put in rorrr^prtnilonri*. The inner and outer sequences Khown in the pursuit of a lioron by a hawk, are longer than those shown in th«* pur- suit of a iish by a horou; and are HO rhiHly Invuu1^ tho vision of a heron is wider than that of a fish. Without, giving eases, it will bo manifest that by tin* <ltnvl«»pwt»nt **f smell and hearing" also, the correspondences an* hiwultimo- ously extended in duration and distance. Nfof' Uwl thry maintain a constant ratio. The connexioti bi'twc««n fh«nit IH variously tuotUlitHl by circuinstanceH, The cl»irncii«r of tin* cuviroinncmfc, the particular powt*rH <?f the orpwisw in respect of locomotion, as well as othtn* condiltonn, ^rt'afly affect its. All that can be said is, that tin? two- kiittU nf extension nro connate; and that, in HO fur us w*«rlwniriil phonoinena are concerned, they display throughout a gvfti<ml inter- dependence* § 148, This limitation — "infto far HH mcrlmnintt |ih(*m»* txiona arc concerned ''—serves to introduce tlm furt IhiU, in respect to other orders of plwmoiufna, tho pmgm»»w uf tlio corresponclonco in Time has little or nothing to c!o with IIH progress in Spaco, Bid nil actuinn involve motion— wore altoratioxx of position a THE COREESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN TIME. 323 raent of every alteration, the two would be uniformly related. Bat as tliere are hosts of changes, chemical, thermal, electric, vital, which involve no appreciable mechanical change — as there are numberless changes of state which occur without changes of place; it results that, in the growth of internal adjustments to these, there is an extension of the correspon- dence in Time separate from, and additional to, that which arises from its extension in Space.
This second species of correspondence in Time is of a much higher order — is, in fact, a far more extended corre- spondence. For the ordinary mechanical sequences in surrounding bodies by which each organism is affected, are incalculably more rapid than the non-mechanical sequences. The motions of enemies or of prey, even when sluggish, are readily appreciable: a few seconds only, at most, are needed to bring about manifest changes. But the decay of a dead animal, or tlie ripening of fruit, or the drying up of a pool, or the hatching of an egg, occupies an immensely longer interval. One of these latter sequences has a duration a hundred, a tliousand, a million times as great as one of the former; and the ability of the organism to adjust itself to them, implies a proportionate extension of the correspon- dence in Time.
Hence the fact that only when we come to creatures of comparatively high inteffigeiice, do w^ meet with inner changes in adaptation to ^outer changes of anon-mechanical kind7 "" For -we must not class as coming under this head such actions of inferior animals as are adjusted to daily and annual modifications of the environment. These, like parallel actions in. plants, are most likely nothing but the cumulative results of successive adaptations of the organism to successive co-existences in the environment. It is ana- l tornically demonstrable that the^airing jndjaidifiQatiDa of birds in the spring, is preceded^by constitutional changes which are probably produced by more food and higher tem- perature. And it is a rational inference that the whole 324 " GENERAL SYNTHESIS.
series of processes implied in the rearing of a brood, are severally gone through, act with any recognition of remote ends, but solely under the stimulus of conditions con- tinuously present.
An early stage of the higher kind of correspondence hi :; Time7muit"^e^ooked for where the period betweini unt«- ; cedent and consequent is but a few hours* '$££& that % from inland to the sea-side to l!eed wlien the tide in oufc, and ^ cattle that return to the farm-yard afc milking-tituo, supply i instances. Even here, however, there is not a purely intel- ligent adjustment of inner to outer sequences j for creatures accustomed to eat or to be milked at regular infcervalH, come to have adapted recurrences of constitutional states, and the sensations accompanying these states form the proximate stimuli to their acts. Nevertheless, we must not wholly exclude these instances from the category of advancing correspondence in Time; but must recognise them as imperfect and transitional forms of it, through which only the higher forms can be reached. l\>r if wo consider under what conditions only an inner sequence can be adjusted to some outer sequence occupying1 honra or clays, it becomes plain that there must exist in the organ- ism a^eansjpfjrw^ Unless tlio organism is differently affected by periods of different lengths, itn actions cannot be made to fit slow external actions. Wlion we pass from those mechanical sequences in which the motion of the external body itself serves the organism as a measure of duration, to those non-mechanical sequences which not only afford no measure but last incomparably longer, the only measure of duration available is QUO resulting from the periodic sensations of tlio organism itself. Naturally; then, these first examples of the higher correspondence in Time, arise where an internal periodicity agrees with an external periodicity. And naturally, in tho cases next above these— ca^n^lying some foresight of £atareevent3J such as is shown by a dog ^ hiding a Bono" in THE CORRESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN TfMB. 325 anticipation of the timo when ho will bo again hungry — there is a distinct reference to this same recurrence of organic states.
§ 149. The existence of so wide a gap between ordinary mechanical sequences and most non-mechanical sequences, in respect of the periods they occupy, joined with the cir- cumstance that tho adjustment of internal sequences to lengthened external sequences implies estimation of inter- vals, explains how it happens that only when wo reach an advanced phase of intelligence, docs this higher kind of correspondence in Timo begin to exhibit a marked exten- sion. Not that tho transition is sudden. During the first stages of human progress, tho method of estimating epochs docs not differ in naturo from that employed by tho naore intelligent animals. There aro historical traces of tho fact that, originally, tho civilised races adjusted their actions to tho longer sequences in the environment just as Australians and Bunhmeti do now, by observing their coincidozxco with the migrations of birds, the floodings of rivers, the flower- ings of plants. And it is obvious that tho savages who, after the ripening of a certain berry travel to the sea-shore, knowing that they will then find a particular shell-fish in season, are guided by much the same process as tho dog who, on seeing tho cloth laid for dinner, goes to the window to watch for his master. But when these phenomena of the seasons are observed to coincide with recurring phenomena in the heavens— when, as was the case with the aboriginal Hottontots, periods come to be measured partly by astronomical and partly by terrestrial changes; then we see making its appearance a means. whereby the corre- spondence in Time- may "be indefinitely extended* The sun's daily movements and the monthly phases of the moox having once been generalised, and somo small power of counting having been reached, it becomes possible to recog- nize the intervals between antecedents and consequents 326 GENERAL SYNTHESIS.
that are long apart, and to adjust the actions to them. Multitudes of sequences in the environment which, in the absence of answering functional periods, cannot be directly responded to by the organism, may be discerned and in- directly responded to when there arises this ability of numbering days and lunations. Given a unit of Time and a faculty of registering units, and the internal actions may be adjusted to countless non-mechanical actions going on externally, which, though the least conspicuous^ are often the most potent in their effects.
This higher order of correspondence^ in^ Time,, scarcely more than foreshadowed among the higher animals, and definitely exhibited only when we arrive at tlie human race, has made marked progress during civnizatipjar^The lowest tribes of men who wander from place to place as the varying supplies of wild animals, roots, and insects, dictate, do not adapt their conduct to periods exceeding- a year in duration. Hardly worthy to be defined as creatures " looking before and after," their actions respond to few if any sequences longer than those of the conspicuous and often-recurring phenomena of the seasons. But among semi-civilized races we see, in the building of permanent huts, in the breeding and accumulation of cattle, in the storing of commodities, that longer sequences are recognized and measures taken to % meet them. And when united in higher social states, men show, by planting trees that will not bear fruit for a gene- ration, by the elaborate educations they give their children, by building houses that will last for centuries, "by insuring their lives, by struggling for future wealth or fame, that in them, internal antecedents and consequents are habitually adjusted to external ones which are extremely long in their intervals. Especially is this extension of the correspondence in Time displayed by grogressing__science. Beginning with the sequences of day and night, men advanced to the monthly changes of the moon, next to the sun's annual cycle, next to the cycle of the moon^s eclipses THE CORRESPONDENCE AS EXTENDING IN TIMTfi, 327 and the periods of tlio planets; while modern astronomy determines the vast interval after which the Earth's axis will again point to the same place in the heavens, and the scarcely conceivable epoch after which planetary pertur- bations repeat thomselves- Whon, as in these cases, the sequences exceed in length the lives of individual men, the correspondence is effected by the agency of many men whoso actions are co-ordinated. An astronomer who computes the elements of a comet of brief period, and who, after the lap so of certain years, months, and days, turns his telescope to that region of tlio heavens in which the expected body shortly makes its appearance, shows in himself the entire correspondence between an internal scries of changes and an external series. But when ' centuries pass between tho prediction and its fulfilment, wo see that by tho holp of written symbols, tho proceedings of successive men arc united into ouo long sequence, dis- playing tho same adjustment to an external sequence as though it had occurred iu a single*, man surviving through- out tho interval. Perhaps nothing more strongly suggests tho conception of au embodied Humanity, than this ability of Humanity as a whole to respond to environing changes which are far too slow to bo responded to by its component individuals.
§ 150. Tho extension of tho correspondence iu Time, like its extension in Space, involves an increased amount of life and rentiers possible a greater continuance of life. Each longer sequence recognised implies an adjustment of a now sot of internal relations to a now sot of external relations- — implies au additional series of vital actions- — implies, there-, fore, an increased number and heterogeneity of tho com-; bined changes which constitute life. At tho same time, \ tho adjustment of tho organism to these successively longer ] sequences, is itself an avoidance of dangers or a soiling of advantages; and is consequently a process of solf-presorva- 328 GENERAL SYNTHESIS.
tion. As we have seen, the ascending grades of brute lifo illustrate this, and it is illustrated by human progression. The civilized races, by recognizing slower changes and pro- viding for more remote results than the hand-to-mouth- I living savage does, obviously meet more numerous contin- gencies and secure greater longevity; while, in the mooting of these more numerous contingencies a higher degree of vital activity is involved. It may bo argued with some plausibility, that the like is true even of the adjustment of our conceptions to those immense periods involved in the larger generalizations of astronomy and geology. For little as the recognition of these modifies human actions directly, yet indirectly, by abolishing old theories of creation and humanity, it ultimately produces a powerful effect on the conduct of the race.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CORRESPONDENCE AS INCREASING IN SPECIALITY, j § 151. OTHEEWISE considered, the evolution of life is an advance in the Speciality of the correspondence between inner and outer relations. In part, this is an aspect of the processes described in the last two chapters; and in part it is a farther and a higher process. Just as we saw that in so far as mechanical phenomena are concerned, the exten- sion of the correspondence goes on pari passu in Space and in Time, but that the extension of the correspondence in Time afterwards takes in many other orders of phenomena; so, though at first the increase of the correspondence in Speciality is inseparable from its extension in Space and Time, yet it presently comes to include innumerable cor- respondences not comprehended under^eitlier of these. Objectively, the development of the correspondence is essentially one; but the limitations of our intellects pre- vent us from grasping it as one; and it is an inconvenience accompanying the presentation of it in parts, that the divisions overlap one another.
The first specialization of the correspondence occurs on passing from those simplest organisms whose environments are homogeneous both in Space and Time, to those whose f environments are homogeneous in Space but heterogeneous I in Time. The yeast-cell, touched on all sides by the ele-f ments it requires, and during its short life kept under the 330 GENERAL SYNTHESIS, needful conditions, exhibits a correspondence in the highest degree general. But the tree which, though constantly bathed by nutritive materials, assimilates them only nnder particular states of the environment, exhibits, in the ad- justment of its internal changes to the recurring external changes, some advance towards speciality of correspon- dence.
The next step of the same nature — the step which dis- tinguishes, so far as it can be distinguished, the animal kingdom from the vegetal one — takes place when, relatively to the needs of the organism, the environment is hetero- geneous both in Time and Space. To the lowest living- things, the integrable matter is everywhere present under uniformly available conditions. To plants in general, it is everywhere present, but not under uniformly available con- ditions. To animals in general, it is neither everywhere present nor present under uniformly available conditions — • it exists in particular bodies irregularly dispersed, which, can be obtained only by particular actions. And thus, change from a general diffusion of food to a localiza- tion of food, involves a further specialization of the corre- spondence. The organism now lives only on condition that contact with special masses of matter shall be followed by the special acts required to utilize them. In the Amoeba, which wraps itself round and gradually includes the small nutritive fragments it meets with, we see that even before there are either prehensile or digestive organs the existence of its food in a solid form, implies that the organism must respond differently to the contacts of solid matter and of liquid matter; and this is a progress towards speciality of correspondence.
When there arises the primary division of the tissue into stomach and skin — when the established differentiation in the environment is met by an established differentiation in the organism — when to the ability to distinguish solid from liquid matter, conies to be added the ability to distinguish THC CORRESPONDENCE AS INCREASING IN SPECIALITY. 331 different orders of solid matter from one another; there are foreshadowed those many higher specializations which accompany the development of the senses. These we have now to consider.
§ 152. Out of the primordial irritability which (exclud- ing the indeterminate types that underlie both divisions of the organic world) characterizes animal organisms in general, are gradually evolved those various kinds of irritability which answer to the various attributes of matter. The fundamental attribute of matter is resistance. The funda- mental sense is a faculty of responding to resistance. And while in the environment, associated with this attribute of resistance, are other attributes severally distinctive of certain^ classes of bodies; in the organism, there arise faculties of! responding to these other attributes — faculties which enable \ the organism to adjust its internal relations to a greater variety of external relations — facilities, therefore, which I increase the speciality of the correspondence.
We see this not only in the rise of the senses that are affected by the sapid, odorous, visible, and sound-producing properties of things, but also in the series of phases through which each sense advances towards perfection. For every higher phase shows itself as an ability to recognize smaller and smaller differences, either of kind or degree, in the attributes of surrounding bodies; and so makes possible still more special adjustments of inner to outer relations.
In the case of touch, a progress is early shown in the power to distinguish a large moving mass from a small one by the force of its collision. Even zoophytes, which con- tract bodily if their tentacles are roughly handled but draw in particular tentacles only if these are touched lightly, have reached this stage. When, as in higher creatures, a muscular system and a concomitant muscular sense are developed, there results an appreciation of relative hardness in the objects met with; as is proved by the differences 332 GENERAL SYNTHESIS.