his place, and with the design of our
present discussion in view, we ought not to render the importance of this
fact obscure by a teleological comparison of the different eggs and germs
with one another. If we look upon that which is to _come out_ of the germs,
and which certainly if prepared and present in the first vital functions of
the {267} germ, although we are not able to observe, prove, and estimate it
by means of the microscope and the retort, then of course the difference in
the value of the germs must be immense; and from this point of view we
certainly look upon the germ of man differently than upon the germ of an
oyster. But here the question is not as to the differences of value of
organisms: no scientist who remains within the limits of his realm, will
ever deny them; but we treat of the question whether such valuable objects
come into existence suddenly or gradually--whether it is possible, or even
a fact which repeats itself before our eyes, that a form of being of higher
value comes forth from a form of being of a lower value in gradual
development. And here it is an undisputed fact that all qualities of man,
the physical as well as the spiritual, come into existence in such a
gradual development that not in a single one of them can be fixed any
moment of which it may be said: on the other side of this moment it did not
exist, but on this side it did exist. All differentiations of his body,
from the first differentiation of the egg-cell into a complexity of cells
up to the last formation of his organs, take place in the same gliding
development. All his psychical and spiritual functions and forces come into
existence in this form of gradual development. Where, in the development of
the human individual, is the moment in which consciousness, language,
self-consciousness, memory, will, the perception of God, moral
responsibility, the perception of the idea and the ideal, or whatever else
we may mention, came into existence? Nowhere; all this, and all the rest,
is developed in a gradual process. The only marked time in this development
is the time of birth: {268} it brings a great change into physical life,
and is perhaps the beginning epoch of the spiritual development of man. But
even the birth is not absolutely bound to a certain time; the child may be
born too early, by weeks or even months, and its development nevertheless
takes place; and even after birth, how slowly and gradually spiritual
development