50 FROM DUST TO DUST. 



have a vast vegetable kingdom, whose grand and mysterious func- 

 tion it is to turn inorganic matter into organic life, by the action 

 of rootlets and spongioles upon nitrogen, salts, and minerals ; and 

 by that of the chlorophyll of the cells upon carbon, under the 

 influence of the sun's light. What a mystical moment it must be 

 when a particle of inorganic matter suddenly, in an instant, 

 becomes part of an organic existence ! Could we but follow 

 any single particle on its journey through life and back again to 

 its former state as an element, we should know not only its own 

 history, but that of the greater part of the universe. 



Herbert Spencer* in " Principles of Biology" says — ''As in 

 all cases we may consider the external phenomena as simply in 

 relation, and the internal phenomena also as simply in relation, 

 the broadest and most complete definition of Life will be : — The 

 continuous adjustment of inter^ial relations to external relations. It 

 will be best, however, commonly to employ its more concrete 

 equivalent — to consider the internal relations as 'definite combin- 

 ations of simultaneous and successive changes ; ' the external 

 relations as ' co-existences and sequences ; ' and the connection 

 between them as a ' correspondence.' " 



t " Each advance to a higher form of life consists in a better 

 preservation of this primary correspondence by the establishment 

 of other correspondences." ..." Perfect correspondence 

 would be perfect life." 



For life to have existed at all, the conditions of life-existence 

 must have been first present. We are accustomed to use the 



plant-life, how its flower gardens are only stocked with animals, and how its 

 very herbs and lichens are corallines and sponges ; we learn how the vast 

 animal armies of the sea attack and devour other animal armies, but have never 

 a plant for their forage ; and thus by descending steps we are brought to the 

 conclusion that ' the basis of all the life in the modern ocean is found in the 

 micro-organisms of the surface,' lowly animals and plants so abundant and 

 prolific that they meet all demands. These minute pelagic creatures must 

 have been the first to exist, and where they first appeared, there they have 

 since remained, undisturbed by varying environment or the stress of com- 

 petition, and therefore retaining their primaeval simplicity." 



* Herbert Spencer, Principles cf Biology, § 30. 



t Herbert Spencer, First Principles, § 25. 



