242 



THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 



these conjugate and continue to live, whilst the remaining cells, the 

 mere carriers as it were of the immortal reproductive cells, die and dis- 

 integrate. The bodies of the higher animals which die, may from this 

 point of view be regarded as something temporary and non-essential, 

 destined merely to carry for a time, to nurse, and to nourish the more 

 important and deathless fission-products of the unicellular egg." 



In most cases, as Weismann insists, it is more correct to speak of 

 " the continuity of the germinal protoplasm " than of the continuity of 

 the germ-cells; but, with this proviso, the diagram expresses a fact 

 most important in understanding reproduction and heredity, that the 

 chain of life is in a real sense continuous, and that the " bodies " which 

 die are deciduous growths, which arise round about the real links. 

 The bodies are but the torches which burn out, while the living flame 

 has passed throughout the organic series unextinguished. The bodies 

 are the leaves which fall in dying from the continuously growing 

 branch. Thus although death take inexorable grasp of the individual, 

 the continuance of the life is still in a deep sense unaffected; the repro- 

 ductive elements have already claimed their protozoon immortality, 

 are already recreating a new body; so in the simplest physical, as in 

 the highest psychic life, we may say that love is stronger than death. 



