Sophisms* 91 



tion now under review, he says, " In Professor 

 Haeckel's speculation on Phylogeny, or the 

 genealogy of animal forms, there is much that 

 is profoundly interesting, and his suggestions 

 are always supported by sound knowledge and 

 great ingenuity. Whether one agrees or dis- 

 agrees with him, one feels that he has forced 

 the mind into lines of thought in which it is 

 more profitable to go wrong than to stand 

 still. 



"To put his views into a few words, he 

 conceives that all forms of life originally 

 commenced as Monera, or simple particles of 

 protoplasm ; and that these Monera originated 

 from not living matter. Some of the Monera 

 acquired tendencies towards the Protistic, others 

 towards the Vegetal, and others towards the 

 Animal modes of life. The last became animal 

 Monera. Some of the animal M&nera acquired 

 a nucleus, and became amoeba-like creatures ; 

 and out of certain of these, ciliated infusorium- 

 like animals were developed. . These became 

 modified into two stirpes : A, that of the 

 worms ; and B, that of the sponges. The latter 

 by progressive modification gave rise to all the 

 Ccelenterata ; the former to all other animals. 

 But A soon broke up into two principal stirpes, 

 of which one, a, became the root of the Anne- 



G 



