Page [289], § 161. Evolution and development in the stricter sense in which these terms were originally used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries imply a theory of preformation, according to which the growth of an organic being is simply a process of enlarging and filling out a miniature organism, actual but invisible, because too inconspicuous. Such was the doctrine adopted by Leibniz (Considérations sur le principe de vie; Système nouveau de la Nature, &c.). According to it development is no real generation of new parts, but only an augmentation into bulk and visibility of parts already outlined. This doctrine of preformation (as opposed to epigenesis) is carried out by Charles Bonnet, who in his Considérations sur les corps organisés (1762) propounds the further hypothesis that the 'germs' from which living beings proceed contain, enclosed one within another, the germs of all creatures yet to be. This is the hypothesis of 'Emboîtement.' 'The system which regards generations as mere educts' says Kant (Kritik der Urteilskraft, § 80; Werke, iv. 318) 'is called that of individual preformation or the evolution theory: the system which regards them as products is called Epigenesis.—which might also be called the theory of generic preformation, considering that the productive powers of the générants follow the inherent tendencies belonging to the family characteristics, and that the specific form is therefore a 'virtual' preformation, in this way the opposing theory of individual preformation might be better called the involution theory, or theory of Einschachtelung (Emboîtement.) Cf. Leibniz (Werke, Erdmann, 715). 'As animals generally are not entirely born at conception or generation, no more do they entirely perish at what we call death; for it is reasonable that what does not commence naturally, does not finish either in the order of nature. Thus quitting their mask or their rags, they only return to a subtler theatre, where however they can be as sensible and well regulated as in the greater.... Thus not only the souls, but even the animals are neither generable nor perishable: they are only developed, enveloped, re-clothed, unclothed,—transformed. The souls never altogether quit their body, and do not pass from one body into another body which is entirely new to them. There is therefore no metempsychosis, but there is metamorphosis. The animals change, take and quit only parts: which takes place little by little and by small imperceptible parcels, but continually, in nutrition: and takes place suddenly notably but rarely, at conception, or at death, which make them gain or lose much all at once.'
The theory of Emboîtement or Envelopment, according to Bonnet (Considérations, &c. ch. I) is that 'the germs of all the organised bodies of one species were inclosed (renfermés) one in another, and have been developed successively.' So according to Haller (Physiology, Tome vii. § 2) 'it is evident that in plants the mother-plant contains the germs of several generations; and there is therefore no inherent improbability in the view that tous les enfans, excepté un, fussent renfermés dans l'ovaire de la première Fille d'Eve.' Cf. Weismann's Continuity of the Germ-plasma. Yet Bonnet (Contemplation de la Nature, part vii. ch. 9, note 2), says, 'The germs are not enclosed like boxes or cases one in another, but a germ forms part of another germ, as a grain forms part of the plant in which it is developed.'
P. [293], § 163. Rousseau, Contrat Social, liv. ii. ch. 3.
P. [296], § 165. The 'adequate' idea is a sub-species of the 'distinct.' When an idea does not merely distinguish a thing from others (when it is clear), or in addition represent the characteristic marks belonging to the object so distinguished (when it is distinct), but also brings out the farther characteristics of these characteristics, the idea is adequate. Thus adequate is a sort of second power of distinct. (Cf. Baumeister's Instit. Philos. Ration. 1765, §§ 64-94.) Hegel's description rather agrees with the 'complete idea' 'by which I put before my mind singly marks sufficient to discern the thing represented from all other things in every case, state, and time' (Baumeister, ib. § 88). But cf. Leibniz, ed. Erdm. p. 79: notitia adaequata.
P. [298], § 166. Cf. Baumeister, Instit. Phil. Rat. § 185: Judicium est idearum conjunctio vel separatio.
P. [299], § 166. Punctum saliens: the punctum sanguineum saliens of Harvey (de Generat. Animal, exercit. 17), or first appearance of the heart: the στιγμὴ αἱματίνη in the egg, of which Aristotle (Hist. Anim. vi. 3) says τoῡτο τὸ σημεῖον πηδᾷ καὶ κινεῖται ὥσπερ ἓμψυχον.
P. [301], § 169. Cf. Whately, Logic (Bk. ii. ch. I, § 2), 'Of these terms that which is spoken of is called the subject; that which is said of it, the predicate.'
P. [303], § 171. Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft (p. 95, 2nd ed.) § 9.
P. [304], § 172. Cf. Jevons, Principles of Science, ch. 3, 'on limited identities' and 'negative propositions.'