THE -HISTORY OF LIFE 209 



the fundamental atom to form the specific molecule. 

 Moreover every organism, except the very lowest class 

 which multiplies by division or budding, has sprung 

 from apparently the most simple of cells, the egg-cell, 

 and in that egg-cell like other cells were the nucleus 

 and the nucleolus. 



Now if the mind rests upon the facts, there are only 

 two fundamental ideas that can be grasped to explain 

 them. First, life recurs by molecular regeneration. 

 Secondly, that regeneration has been going on for a time 

 ivhich appears to the human mind to be absolutely 

 that of eternity. 



But there is yet another still more remarkable 

 fact to observe. The first organisms appear to have 

 been simply little masses of free moving molecules 

 called protoplasm, the next higher stage of life were 

 organisms consisting of cells each with a nucleus 

 and nucleolus, 1 and from these simple forms of life, 

 which would appear to have originated by spontaneous 

 generation, 2 were gradually built up more and more 



1 " If thoughtfully and carefully we consult these most valuable 

 records, we at once perceive what is exceedingly significant, namely, 

 that the lowest and simplest forms of life, the so-called primary 

 plants and primary animals, consist throughout life merely of one 

 simple cell; they are permanently one-celled." ("The History of 

 Creation," Prof. Ernst Haeckel, 1892, vol. ii. p. 40.) 



2 " Life is purely a physical phenomenon. All the phenomena of 

 life depend on mechanical, physical, and chemical causes, which are 

 inherent in the nature of matter itself. The simplest animals and 

 the simplest plants, which stand at the lowest point in the scale of 

 organization, have originated and still originate by spontaneous 

 generation." (Idem, vol. i. p. 115.) 



" If the hypothesis of spontaneous generation is not accepted, then 

 we should have at this one point in the theory of development to take 

 refuge in the miracle of a supernatural creation. We should have to 



P 



