THE DAWN-ANIMAL AS A TEACHER IN SCIENCE. 233 



It is important that these points should be clearly 

 before our minds^ because there has been current of 

 late among naturalists a loose way of writing with 

 reference to them^ which seems to have imposed on 

 many who are not naturalists. It has been said^ for 

 example, that such an organism as Eozoon may include 

 potentially all the structures and functions of the 

 higher animals^ and that it is possible that we might 

 be able to infer or calculate all these with as much 

 certainty as we can calculate an eclipse or any other 

 physical phenomenon. Now^ there is not only no foun- 

 dation in fact for these assertions, but it is from our 

 present standpoint not conceivable that they can ever 

 be realized. The laws of inorganic matter give no 

 data whence any a priori deductions or calculations 

 could be made as to the structure and vital forces of 

 the plant. The plant gives no data from which we can 

 calculate the functions of the animal. The Protozoon 

 gives no data from which we can calculate the special- 

 ties of the Mollusc, the Articulate, or the Vertebrate. 

 Nor unhappily do the present conditions of life of 

 themselves give us any sure grounds for predicting the 

 new creations that may be in store for our old planet. 

 Those who think to build a philosophy and even a 

 religion on such data are mere dreamers, and have no 

 scientific basis for their dogmas. They are more 

 blind guides than our primgeval Protozoon himsel 

 would be, in matters whose real solution lies in the 

 harmony of our own higher and immaterial nature 

 with the Being who is the author of all life — the 



