2i2 From Matter to Man. 



night, and as spontaneously dissolve with the morning 

 dew. 



(3) Animal Structure. — As we have seen, all animals 

 originate from a living cell or germ. Biologists now 

 believe that when two or more cells unite and form a 

 multicellular animal each cell still remains distinct 

 and lives an individual as well as a collective life. 

 Hence every animal is but a colony of individuals, a 

 veritable "cell-monarchy" as Haeckel says (even as a 

 plant is a " cell-republic ") bound together temporarily 

 for a common purpose. This startling hypothesis we 

 can understand in the corals, sponges, and zoophytes, 

 but when applied to man our credulity is tasked. 

 Yet so far as can be judged, facts are on the side of 

 the biologists. For all animals are but an agglomera- 

 tion of identical cells, specialised however to perform 

 different functions according to their position in the 

 body. These cells moreover increase or renew them- 

 selves by interminably dividing and re-dividing them- 

 selves, so that likeness of parts is permanently retained. 

 Thus the squint eye always remains squint and the 

 snub nose snub. 



While the structure or what we might call the grain 

 of animals, is thus merely an agglomeration of cells ; 

 yet in the development of the animal mechanism from 

 the simple into the infinitely complex, the evidence 

 shows that the improvements have been accidental 

 and haphazard. For as all motion and all action in 

 nature is automatic, nature has no plan, specification, 

 or architect. What is formed or produced in structure, 



