66 "Scientific Levity" 



to this " vigorous exposition " we find that the 

 transition was effected by means of a " nucleated 

 vesicle." This " nucleated vesicle," the funda- 

 mental form of all organisation, we must regard 

 as "the meeting-point between the inorganic 

 and the organic the end of the mineral and 

 the beginning of the vegetable and animal king- 

 doms, which thence start in different directions, 

 but in a general parallelism and analogy." 



Nor is this all. For " this nucleated vesicle is 

 itself a type of mature and independent being 

 in the infusory animalcules, as well as the start- 

 ing-point in the foetal progress of every higher 

 individual in creation, both animal and veget- 

 able." 



What then? Granting all that is here as- 

 sumed, we are as far as ever from a solution of 

 the problem proposed. That problem is, to 

 show the course of " Nature's great progression," 

 as asserted, "from the formless to the formed, 

 from the inorganic to the organic." But to be- 

 gin with -the nucleated vesicle as "the funda- 

 mental form of all organisation," is to begin, 

 not at the beginning, but at the end. " The 

 starting-point" here alleged, is on the wrong 

 side the gulf. We want to know how it was 

 reached. We want to see, not the first thing 

 " formed," but the bridge that spans the chasm 



