CHAPTER VIII. 



THE DAWN-ANIMAL AS A TEACHER IN SCIENCE. 



THE thoughts suggested to the philosophical natural- 

 ist by the contemplation of the dawn of life on our 

 planet' are necessarily many and exciting, and the 

 subject has in it the materials for enabling the 

 general reader better to judge of some of the theories 

 of the origin of life agitated in our time. In this 

 respect our dawn-animal has scarcely yet had justice ; 

 and we may not be able to render this in these pages. 

 Let us put it into the witness-box, however, and try to 

 elicit its testimony as to the beginnings of life. 



Looking down from the elevation of our physio- 

 logical and mental superiority, it is difficult to realize 

 the exact conditions in which life exists in creatures so 

 simple as the Protozoa. There may perhaps be higher 

 intelligences that find it equally difficult to realize how 

 life and reason can manifest themselves in such poor 

 houses of clay as those we inhabit. But placing our- 

 selves near to these creatures, and entering as it were 

 into sympathy with them, we can understand something 

 of their powers and feelings. In the first place it is 

 plain that they can vigorously, if roughly, exercise 

 those mechanical, chemical, and vegetative powers of 



