OTHEllHYTHMS OF THE ORGANISATION 81 



gastrula in their adult condition, and it is in 

 embryonic form in all superior animals, showing 

 the unique affiliation of all these beings. 



Nature has a unity of plan so admirable and so 

 faithful that the cellular condition of the morula, 

 blastula, and gastrula, which is found in all beings, 

 causes the superior animals, mammiferse, and even 

 man to reproduce them in their embryonic period. 

 Thus every plant or animal starts from a cell, and 

 man in the actual moment of evolution passes 

 through in his period of gestation (nine months) 

 the same phases, starting from the cell, as the whole 

 animal kingdom has passed through in periods of 

 time which imagination and knowledge cannot 

 fix, but which can be counted by thousands and 

 thousands of years. 



That man of every epoch should believe himself 

 the end and object of something is easily under- 

 stood, as much through the limitation of his 

 perceptions as through a defect of education, 

 because the education of humanity has consisted 

 until now in exploring the past ; so we always have 

 before our eyes a panorama which unfolds itself in 

 a retrospective state. The great law of evolution 

 is necessary for man to understand that his actual 

 form is a moment in evolution, and to call attention 

 to the future which stretches out as far as the past. 



And one should ask : " What perfections does 



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