164 /. '" as a Physical Phenomenon. 



cell reaches through all phases of living existence (as I 

 shall presently show it does) does not the suggestion he- 

 come a conviction that a -ingle mind has designed and 



created them all ; and that they are all, solar systems and 

 living beings, designed on the same plan — different mani- 

 festations of the same grand idea, a single law governing 

 them all ? 



The little granules contained within the cell walls at 

 length enlarge. They appropriate the nourishment in the 

 little sac of flu id, and the sac in turn continues to draw 

 more from the surrounding medium. The little granule 

 is seen to collect about itself a thin transparent ring of 

 matter which becomes an envelope like the original sac, 

 and we are reminded of Saturn and his rings. Here, in 

 one part of the field of the microscope is the miniature 

 Saturn. There is another granule growing rapidly, around 

 which other smaller granules revolve, reminding us of 

 Jupiter and his moons. In another part of the field a little 

 group of granules revolve together, recalling to mind some 

 constellation, while the clear liquid in which this little cos- 

 mos is contained is like the celestial spaces. We cannot 

 watch the process under the microscope without the con- 

 viction that the little plant is a repetition, on a small scale, 

 of the systems of stars about us. 



It maybe said that the existence of cell walls destroys 

 the analogy. That in one case we have but the circulation 

 of a fluid within a closed cavity, while in theotherwe have 

 tin; revolution of great masses in open spaces. But the 

 cell wall is not essential, for these revolutions of granules 

 may be seen in masses of protoplasm in which there is no 

 indication of a cell wall, the granules are gathered about 

 the nucleus and independently of any boundary but the at- 

 traction by which they are related to the nucleus, perform 

 their revolution. Thus the analogy becomes perfect, the 

 cell wall is au addition to the ideal cell, placed about it by 



