Life as a Physical Phenomenon. 151 



overwhelmed by the surprising manifestations that meet 

 us at the very outset of our investigations. 



He who would learn to read does not begin at once to 

 discuss and analyze the literary beauties of Milton or 

 Shakespeare, but he learns first the simplest symbols and 

 combinations. So when we would learn to read from the 

 book of nature the secrets of life we are not to commence, 

 as many do, with the most complex forms of existence ; but 

 we are first to learn what we can from .the simplest forms, 

 and trace the processes we find higher and higher as we 

 become more and more familiar with the elements of truth 

 they teach us. 



The simplest living structure is a single cell. Some 

 plants and some animals are composed of just this one cell. 

 Now what can we learn from one of these minims of creation ? 



We find the green scum that floats on a stagnant pool, 

 we place a little of it under a powerful glass, aod we see 

 that the scum is made up of hundreds of individual plants, 

 each plant a single cell. 



How does it look under the glass ? It looks like a bag 

 containing a transparent sac, within which is a fluid, and 

 in the centre a dot ; around the dot are many minute points 

 or smaller dots arranged like a system of planets about a 

 central globe. 



Every one of these little plants of this simple construc- 

 tion consists of this outer bag, this inner sac, this contained 

 fluid, and the dot. These cells or individual plants are very 

 minute ; a hundred of them would rest upon a pin's head. 



Here then under the glass of the microscope we have a 

 living being in which we can inspect each of its parts, and 

 see all its little plans of life. Are these plans in any way 

 similar to the operations in higher structures? Yes ; what 

 transpires within the limits of this little sphere is a type 

 of all the operations carried on in every tissue in every 

 living creature ? 



