276 THE MOUNTAIN. 



(SEE ANTE, p. 250.) 



"Given, the head of Socrates, the wisest philosopher of Greece, 

 and a Protococcus pluvialis, a microscopic single-cell plant, is there 

 no 'essential distinction,' and to which does the word incompre- 

 hensible most justly apply ? Of the creation and destiny (genesis, 

 exodus) of a cell, or a limitless congeries of cells, (organic bodies,) 

 of the how and why of their getting into special shapes or living 

 forms from the sleep of inorganic matter, and staying there to 

 circulate for a time within the 'ring' of natural affinities, then 

 dropping out of that circulation into another apparently temporary 

 sleep, called death, or of the creation and destiny (genesis, exodus) 

 of a man or numberless congeries of men, (Humanity,) of the how 

 and why of their assuming particular styles of existence and 

 circulating for a time within the grasp of supernatural affinities 

 (supersensuous, quondam spiritual, immaterial forces, will, intel- 

 lection, sensation, and affection, entities, real as iron or stone, but 

 not on the chemist's table, or naturalist's catalogue,) and also, get- 

 ting out of that material and spiritual circulation, into an apparent 

 sleep, called, likewise, death, what has the microscopic atom, the 

 proud mote, the wise monad, man, the Philosopher, to say ? 



"Place the dry skulls of Plato and Shakspeare beside the rup- 

 tured and effete cells of the Protococcus pluvialis and Volvox glo- 

 bator, and say which are the most inconceivable existences, which 

 are the everlasting wonder of wonders. Does not the cell stand the 

 most imposing mystery, the most incomprehensible miracle? The 

 two problems, vast towers ! ! loom up from the Infinite, their sum- 

 mits and bases both hidden in darkness and unapproachable solitude. 

 The broad gulf between them can only be passed upon the wings of 

 a purer and nobler philosophy, and the deep abyss can only be 

 fathomed by the plumb-line of a profounder and more earnest 

 Faith." ROBERT SMITH, Philosophical and Religious Meditations, 

 vol. vii. p. 472. 



