152 /. / as a Physical Phenomenon. 



[ndeed, at one period of its existence, every living thing, 

 from the lowest plant to the highest animal, to man him- 

 self, was nothing more then one of these little spheres; 

 and the most complex being can be traced back to its con- 

 dition as a sac with its contained fluid and dot. 



The higher forms of existence are made up by the 

 multiplication in numbers and modification in form of 

 these same cells ; and life in man himself is but the mul- 

 tiplication of what may be seen in this little cell under the 

 glass. 



Now let us see what goes on in the little being. If it 

 continues to live under the glass we shall presently see that 

 the minute granules, which are within the cell, are moving 

 about. Watch them closely, and we find that they are 

 all revolving about the nucleus or dot. We may observe 

 what seems at first some confusion, for while the granules 

 seem nearly all to be revolving in the same direction some 

 very small ones seem to have an irregular motion; but by 

 closer inspection we see that these smallest granules are 

 revolving like satellites about other granules, which are 

 larger and which have entered upon a stage of their exist- 

 ence hereafter to be described. 



I shall now crave your indulgence for a moment while 

 I call your attention to what seems to me at least a very 

 curious analogy. I would like to leave the little cell with 

 its revolving granules, and exchange the microscope for 

 the telescope. If on some bright evening we goto yonder 

 observatory, and watch the eye-piece of the telescope as 

 the instrument is made to point to the stars, we shall gaze 

 upon objects of wondrous interest. Jupiter and his satel- 

 lites, Saturn with his moons and rings, and other planets 

 are brought to view with greatly magnified splendor. As 

 the instrument sweeps from one point of the heavens to 

 another it brings to our notice a hazy, cloudy mass larger 

 than hundreds of stars, looking in the distant heavens like 



