and die, but
the species man never dies, and has always existed upon the earth. The
same is true of plants and animals. And since man has always existed,
he cannot have evolved in time from a lower being. There is no room
here for Darwinism. In what sense, then, is this a theory of
development or evolution? The process involved is not a time-process,
it is a logical process, and the development is a logical development.
The lower always contains the higher potentially. The man is in the
ape ideally. The higher, again, contains the lower actually. The man
is all that the ape is, and more also. What is merely implicit in the
lower form is explicit in the higher. The form which is dimly seen
struggling to light in the lower, has realized itself in the higher.
The higher is the same thing as the lower, but it is the same thing in
a more {294} evolved state. The higher presupposes the lower and rests
upon it as foundation. The higher is the form of which the lower is
the matter. It actually is what the lower is struggling to become.
Hence the entire universe is one continuous chain. It is a process;
not a time-process, but an eternal process. The one ultimate reality,
God, reason, absolute form, eternally exhibits itself in every stage
of its development. All the stages, therefore, must exist for ever
side by side.

Now the form of a thing is its organization. Hence to be higher in the
scale means to be more organized. The first distinction, therefore,
with which nature presents us is between the organic and the
inorganic. Aristotle was the discoverer of the idea of organism, as he
was also the inventor of the word. At the bottom of the scale of
being, therefore, is inorganic matter. Inorganic matter is the nearest
existent thing to absolutely formless matter, which, of course, does
not exist. In the inorganic world matter preponderates to such an
extent as almost to overwhelm form, and we can only expect to see the
universal exhibiting itself in it in a vague and dim way. What, then,
is its form? And this is the same as asking what its function, end, or
essential activity is. The end of inorganic matter is merely external
to it. Form has not truly entered into it at all, and remains outside
it. Hence the activity of inorganic matter can only be to move in
space towards its external end. This is the explanation of what we, in
modern times, call gravitation. But, according to Aristotle, every
element has its peculiar and na