COMPLEXITY OF PROTOPLASM. 31 



atoms. In this inquiry he meets with 

 evidences, everywhere present, of an 

 eternal, omniscient, omnipotent source, 

 and is compelled to believe that in the 

 beginning if there ever was a beginning 

 this eternal mind willed or gave the com- 

 mand : " Let there be matter ; let there 

 be atoms ; and let the atoms have the 

 property that will make them attract and 

 repel each other, different atoms having 

 different attractions, so that by their 

 different attachments and combinations 

 they may produce an infinity of varied 

 motions, and an infinity of varied bodies 

 and varied qualities of bodies, so that 

 matter may gradually evolve by slow and 

 imperceptible steps up from simple to 

 complex, and from complex to living ; 

 through plants to animals, up to man." 19 

 As already stated, protoplasm is the 

 most complex substance known ; and it 

 is necessary that it should be so, for it has 

 to serve the most complex of purposes, 

 viz., the purposes of life, of all kinds of 



19 "Can there be any splendour of the Infinite Mind more 

 ineffable and effulgent than the evidence in His works 

 that in the beginning He determined the potency and 

 prevision of all the life, and the adaptations^ that ever 

 emerged or can emerge." DALLINGER, p. 57* (See p. 27.) 



