200 THE HISTOEY OF CREATION. 



accurately, by the individual nature of the sperm as well as 

 of the egg. There can be no doubt as to the purely 

 mechanical material nature of this process. But here we 

 stand full of wonder and astonishment before the infinite 

 and inconceivable delicacy of this albuminous matter. We 

 are amazed at the undeniable fact that the simple egg-cell 

 of the maternal organism, and a single paternal sperm- 

 tliread, transfer the molecular individual vital motion of 

 these two individuals to the child so accurately, that after- 

 wards the minutest bodily and mental peculiarities of both 

 parents reappear in it. 



Here we stand before a mechanical phenomenon of 

 nature of which Virchow, whose genius founded the 

 " cellular pathology," says with full justice : " If the 

 naturalist cared to follow the custom of historians and 

 preachers, and to clothe phenomena, which are in their way 

 unique, with the hollow pomp of ponderous and sounding 

 words, this would be the opportunity for him ; for we have 

 now approached one of those great mysteries of animal 

 nature, which encircle the region of animal life as opposed 

 to all the rest of the world of phenomena. The question 

 of the formation of cells, the question of the excitation of 

 a continuous and equable motion, and, finally, the questions 

 of the independence of the nervous system and of the soul 

 — these are the great problems on which the human mind 

 can measure its strength." To comprehend the relation of 

 the male and female to the egg-cell is almost as much as 

 to solve all those mysteries. The origin and development 

 of the egg-cell in the mother's body, the transmission of 

 the bodily and mental peculiarities of the father to it by 

 his seed, touch upon all the questions which the human 



