HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION 119 



life unfolds by successive stages of advance similar 

 to those of embryonic life in animal history; the 

 ultimate configuration of the body is secured after 

 the manner which provides for the mature embryo 

 of other species. But, notwithstanding this closeness 

 of resemblance, human life from the first movement 

 of the germ-cell to the moment of birth, is con 

 joined in life-history with a mature rational life. 

 As, in personal history, mental life constantly tells 

 on the physical, so must it tell on the embryonic life 

 depending upon the parent life. Each life thus owes 

 its start in the history of its intelligence, as well as of 

 its organic existence, to the parent life. Parentage 

 must imply special responsibilities, connected at once 

 with physique, intellect, and character. 



These investigations lead to distinct conclusions, 

 depending on the difference between body and mind. 

 All the more familiar laws of heredity are concerned 

 with the relations of the germ-cell to the fully- 

 developed organism. These laws provide, more 

 obviously, for transmission of the characteristics of 

 species, and next for transmission of variations in 

 structure. Such laws are applicable to man as to the 

 lower animals. 



But man is variable in body and in mind. Human 

 life presents a two-fold problem. Have then body 

 and mind unitedly and equally their origin in the 

 nucleus of a germ-cell ? Can it be maintained that 

 the whole range of mental powers, as well as the 

 physical powers, spring from the minute point of 

 organised matter ? The close analogy between human 

 life and animal life, first in the structure of the germ- 

 cell, and afterwards in all the stages of embryonic 



