iving matter exhibits physical properties, includes the further
admission, that those _physical_ or dead properties are themselves vital
in essence, really _distinct_ but in appearance only _different_; or in
absolute contrast with each other.

In all cases that which, _abstractly_ taken, is the definition of the
_kind_, will, when applied _absolutely_, or in its fullest sense, be the
definition of the highest _degree_ of that kind. If life, in general, be
defined _vis ab intra, cujus proprium est coadunare plura in rem unicam,
quantum est res unica_; the unity will be more intense in proportion as it
constitutes each particular thing a whole of itself; and yet more, again,
in proportion to the number and interdependence of the parts, which it
unites as a whole. But a whole composed, _ab intra_, of different parts,
so far interdependent that each is reciprocally means and end, is an
individual, and the individuality is most intense where the greatest
dependence of the parts on the whole is combined with the greatest
dependence of the whole on its parts; the first (namely, the dependence of
the parts on the whole) being absolute; the second (namely, the dependence
of the whole on its parts) being proportional to the importance of the
relation which the parts have to the whole, that is, as their action
extends more or less beyond themselves. For this spirit of the whole is
most expressed in that part which derives its importance as an End from
its importance as a Mean, relatively to all the parts under the same
copula.

Finally, of individuals, the living power will be most intense in that
individual which, as a whole, has the greatest number of integral parts
presupposed in it; when, moreover, these integral parts, together with a
proportional increase of their interdependence, as _parts_, have
themselves most the character of wholes in the sphere occupied by them. A
mathematical point, line, or surface, is an _ens rationis_, for it
expresses an intellectual act; but a physical atom is _ens fictitium_,
which may be made subservient, as ciphers are in arithmetic, to the
purposes of hypothetical construction, _per regulam falsi_; but
transferred to _Nature_, it is in the strictest sense an _absurd_
quantity; for extension, and consequently divisibility, or _multeity_,(11)
(for space cannot be divided,) is the indispensable condition, under which
alone anything can _appear_ to us, or even be _thought_ of, as a _thing_.
But