quantity of dissimilar elements, like the atoms of matter, can unite
to form those perfect unities which we call individuals, if we do not
suppose the existence of a specific principle, proper to the individual but
foreign to the component atoms, which aggregates these said atoms, groups
them into molecules, and then moulds the molecules into cells, the cells
into tissues, the tissues into organs, and the organs into apparatus?"

"But, it may be urged in opposition by the Pangenesists, your vital
principle is an unknown and irresolute _x_. This is true; but, on the other
hand, let us see whether Pangenesis produces a clearer formula, and one
free from unknown elements. The existence of the gemmules is a first
unknown element; the propagative affinity of the gemmules is a second;
their germinative affinity is a third; their multiplication by fission is a
fourth--and what an unknown element!"

"Thus, in Pangenesis, everything proceeds by force of unknown elements, and
we may ask whether it is more logical to prefer a system which assumes a
multitude of unknown elements to a system which assumes only a single one?"

Mr. Darwin appears, by "Natural Selection," to destroy the reality of
species, and by Pangenesis that of the individual. Mr. Lewes observes[227]
of the individual that "This whole is only a subjective conception which
summarizes the parts, and that in point of fact it is the parts which {217}
are reproduced." But the parts are also, from the same point of view,
merely subjective until we come to the absolute organic atoms. These atoms,
on the other hand, are utterly invisible, intangible; indeed, in the words
of Mr. Darwin, inconceivable. Thus, then, it results from the theories in
question, that the organic world is reduced to utter unreality as regards
all that can be perceived by the senses or distinctly imagined by the mind;
while the only reality consists of the invisible, the insensible, the
inconceivable; in other words, nothing is known that really is, and only
the nonexistent can be known. A somewhat paradoxical outcome of the
speculations of those who profess to rely exclusively on the testimony of
sense. "_Les extremes se touchent_," and extreme sensationalism shakes
hands with the "das seyn ist das nichts" of Hegel.

Altogether the hypothesis of Pangenesis seems to be little, if at all,
superior to anterior hypotheses of a more or less similar nature.

Apart from the atoms of Democritus, and apart