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COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 253
In Pander and d Alton s admirable illustrated work l
find :
"
Just as all that is characteristic in the formation of
bones springs from the character of the animals, so does
that character, on the other hand, develop out of their
tendencies and desires. These tendencies and desires
of animals, which are so vividly expressed in their whole
organisation and of which that organisation only appears
to be the medium, cannot be explained by special primary
forces, since we can only deduce their inner reason from
the general life of Nature." By this last turn the author
shows indeed that he has arrived at the point where, like
all other investigators of Nature, he is brought to a stand
still by the metaphysical; but he also shows, that up
to this point beyond which Nature eludes investiga
tion, tendencies and desires (i. e. will) were the utmost
thing knowable. The shortest expression for his last
"
conclusion about animals would be As they will, so they
are. *
The learned and thoughtful Burdach, 2
we
when treating of
the ultimate reason of the genesis of the embryo in his
great work on Physiology, bears witness no less explicitly
to the truth of my view. I must not, unfortunately, con
ceal the fact that in a weak moment, misled Heaven knows
by what or how, this otherwise excellent man brings in
just here a few sentences taken from that utterly worthless,
tyrannically imposed pseudo-philosophy, about thought
being what is primary (it is just what is last and most
conditioned of all) yet no representation (that is to say,
a wooden iron). Immediately after however, under the
returning influence of his own better self, he proclaims the
real truth (p. : 710)
" The brain curves itself outwards to
the retina, because the central part .of the embryo desires
1 Pander and d Alton,
p. 7.
2
Burdach, Pbysiologie," vol. 2, 474.
" Ueber
die Skelette der Eaubtliiere," 1822,