e--cannot be eliminated altogether; and that therefore it may as
reasonably be accepted in this mode as in any other.

It was urged at the end of the third chapter that it is congruous to credit
mineral species with an internal power or force. By such a power it may be
conceived that crystals not only assume their external symmetry, but even
repair it when injured. Ultimate chemical elements must also be conceived
as possessing an innate tendency to form certain unions, and to cohere in
stable aggregations. This was considered towards the end of Chapter VIII.

Turning to the organic world, even on the hypothesis of Mr. Herbert Spencer
or that of Mr. Darwin, it is impossible to escape the conception of innate
internal forces. With regard to the physiological units of the former, Mr.
Spencer himself, as we have seen, distinctly attributes to them "an
_innate_ tendency" to evolve the parent form from which they sprang. With
regard to the gemmules of Mr. Darwin, we have seen, in Chapter X., with how
many innate powers, tendencies, and capabilities they must each be
severally endowed, to reproduce their kind, to evolve complex organisms or
cells, to exercise germinative affinity, &c.

If then (as was before said at the end of Chapter VIII.) such innate powers
must be attributed to chemical atoms, to mineral species, to gemmules, and
to physiological units, it is only reasonable to attribute such to each
individual organism.

The conception of such internal and latent capabilities is somewhat like
that of Mr. Galton, before mentioned, according to which the organic world
consists of entities, each of which is, as it were, a spheroid with many
facets on its surface, upon one of which it reposes in stable equilibrium.
When by the accumulated action of incident forces this equilibrium is {229}
disturbed, the spheroid is supposed to turn over until it settles on an
adjacent facet once more in stable equilibrium.

The internal tendency of an organism to certain considerable and definite
changes would correspond to the facets on the surface of the spheroid.

It may be objected that we have no knowledge as to how terrestrial,
cosmical and other forces can affect organisms so as to stimulate and
evolve these latent, merely potential forms. But we have had evidence that
such mysterious agencies _do_ affect organisms in ways as yet inexplicable,
in the very remarkable effects of geographical conditions which were
detailed in the th