vi] RELATION TO MATTER 151 



cell-theory altogether on this account is not warranted. 

 Rather should we in such facts see examples of the 

 extreme lengths to which the degradation of the 

 individuality of the parts can go a degradation 

 which we found to be everywhere (except in man's 

 societies) a necessary accompaniment of the formation 

 of a higher individual from an aggregate. Here the 

 cells have become degraded to the level of mere 

 bricks, with even less share in determining the form 

 of the whole than real bricks have in determining 

 the form of a house. But how different is the 

 structure of our Sponge or of Volvox and they 

 deserve equal consideration with the fish. It is 

 better to believe in the historical individuality of 

 the cells and to wonder at the idea of the whole's 

 form that can thus penetrate the substance and 

 absorb the individualities of its parts, robbing them 

 of all their ancestral freedom, as the universal mind 

 (some would believe) absorbs and loses in itself our 

 souls at death. But here we have come down to the 

 bed-rock questions of biology the old problems of 

 ordered growth and purposeful working, which are 

 still shrouded in their dense cloud of ancient mystery. 

 Yet though, like enquirers who try to push far 

 after knowledge in any direction, we are at length 

 brought face to face with the unknown and perhaps 

 unknowable, we have made some solid progress. 

 Without discovering the origin or the inner being 



