CONCLUSIONS 427 



first about the cause of plants and animals, we must first 

 understand plainly the cause of them and then it will be 

 time to begin to understand the cause of the cell. In 

 order to understand who builds skyscrapers and railroads, 

 it is not necessary to understand who built man. The 

 fact which I wish to make clear in this book is that the 

 cell builds all living things we see, and the reason that 

 he is able to do so is the fact that he is an intelligent being. 

 The cell is a self directed, self acting, intelligent and ag- 

 gressive being, superior to his surroundings and able to 

 direct and control matter and the forces of nature just as 

 man can. We find him so at this time ; what he has been 

 or was in the beginning, millions of years ago, we do not 

 yet know or understand, perhaps some day we shall. 



The idea that climate will produce fat and fur on ani- 

 mals in the frozen North, is foolish. These things are pro- 

 duced for a purpose by the beings or cells which built the 

 animals. Water will not produce the swimming appara- 

 tus on a fish any more than it will produce a propeller on 

 a steamship. Back of all these structures, there must be 

 some one who can direct and form blind forces and crude 

 matter to effect the desired purpose. In walking, my acts 

 can be directed either by my brain cells or by the cells in 

 my spine. In either case the actions are intelligent. The 

 movements, whether directed by the one or the other, re- 

 quire the conscious intelligence of some one. This some 

 one must be somewhere. 



A great number of educated people of late have come 

 to the conclusion that nearly all animals reason. If they 

 would investigate and stop to think, they would soon be 

 convinced that not only do animals reason but also plants 

 because they are both produced and occupied by the same 

 beings. The idea that some actions are reflex, automatic 

 and instinctive because performed by animals is without 



