39 



III. 



The Phenomena of Reproduction in the Animal World. 



The faculty of giving existence to new life is part of 

 the evidence of life. A crystal does not reproduce 

 itself, it can only be resolved into its elementary consti- 

 tuents ; and in the natural course of things, or in an 

 artificial manner, these may be induced to form another 

 crystalline combination. But this is not that con- 

 tinuity of reproduction which links individual to indivi- 

 dual, is not procreation wrapped in a cloud of mystery. 

 Herein, it seems, consists a stubborn opposition. Yet, 

 if the distinction between animate and inanimate nature 

 has been recognized as one not entirely absolute ; 

 especially if the possibility, nay even the necessity, has 

 been perceived of the primordial generation or parent- 

 less origin of the lowest organic beings from inorganic 

 matter (of which more hereafter), and if the nature of 

 nutrition and growth is understood to be entirely 

 dependent on the power of obtaining material, — the 

 mystery of reproduction henceforth disappears. Gene- 

 ration is no longer a mystical event ; and the origin of 

 an organism in or from an organism, the emission or 

 development of innumerable germs, may, like the 

 origin of a new crystal, be analyzed into the motions 

 of elements, as yet accessible only to the eye of imagi- 



