A GREAT CONFESSION. 69 



selection " by a mind deliberately divesting itself of its own 

 higher faculties, and choosing in consequence to exert only those 

 which are simple and almost infantile. The question naturally 

 arises. What is the most universal peculiarity and distinction of 

 organic forms ? When we get rid of ourselves, when we stand 

 outside of our own anthropocentric position, and consult only 

 the faculties which are most purely physical, we shall be com- 

 pelled to reply that the great specialty of organic forms is the 

 " differentiation of their outside from their inside." * They 

 have all an outside and an inside, and these are different. They 

 begin with a cell, and a cell is a blob of jelly with a pellicle or 

 thin membrane on the outside. Do we not see in this the 

 mechanical action of the surrounding medium ? The skin may 

 come from a chill on the outside, or the pressure of the medium. 

 Does not a little oil form itself into a sphere in water, or a little 

 water into a drop in air ? And so from one step to another, 

 can not we conceive how particles of protein become cells, and 

 how one cell gets stuck to another, and the groups to groups — all 

 with insides and outsides " differentiated " from each other, 

 and so they can all be pressed and compacted and squeezed 

 together until the organism is completed ? f 



Such or such like are the images presented to enable us to 

 conceive the purely physical view of the beginnings of life. 

 Their own genesis is obvious. It is true that all or nearly all 

 organisms have a skin. Most if not all of them begin, so far as 

 seen by us, in a nucleated cell. The external wall of these cells 

 is often a mere pellicle. It is true also that one essential idea of 

 life is separation or segregation from all other things. This is 

 an essential part of our ideas of individuality and of personality. 

 If a pellicle or skin round a bit of protein be taken as the sym- 

 bol of all that is involved in this idea of life, then " outness " 

 and " inness " may be tolerated as a very rude image of one of 

 the great peculiarities of all organic life. It may even be re- 

 garded as a symbol of the thoughts expressed in the solemn 



lines — 



"Eternal form shall still divide 



The eternal soul from all beside." 



But if " outer " and " inner " are used to express the idea of some 

 essential mechanical separation between different parts of the 

 same organism, so that one part may be represented as more the 

 result of surrounding forces than another — then this rude and 

 mechanical illustration is not only empty, but profoundly erro- 

 neous. The forces which work in and upon organic life know 



* Page 755. (" Popular Science Monthly," vol. xxix, p. 60.) 



f Pages 756-758. ("Popular Science Monthly," vol. xxix, pp. 61-63.) 



