136 Protoplasm. 



gulf which Mr. Huxley's protoplasm is as 

 powerless to efface as any other material ex- 

 pedient that has ever been suggested since the 

 eyes of men first looked into it the mighty 

 gulf between death and life." * 



IO. " Protoplasm is the clay of the potter, 

 which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, 

 separated by artifice, and not by nature, from 

 the commonest brick or sun-dried clod." On 

 this it has been justly observed that " Mr. Huxley 

 puts emphatically his whole soul into this sen- 

 tence, and evidently believes it to be, if we may 

 use the word, a clincher." But the answer is 

 easy. The assertion that all bricks, being made 

 of clay, are the same thing, is one that involves 

 its own limitation. Yes, undoubtedly, we answer, 

 if they are made of the same clay. The bricks 

 are identical if the clay is identical ; but, on 

 the other hand, by as much as the clay differs 

 will the bricks differ. And, similarly, all 

 organisms can be identified only if their com- 

 posing protoplasm can be identified. But when, 

 from indefinite generalizations, we descend to 

 definite particulars, this identification is found 

 to be impossible. 



Mr. Huxley's entire theory may be summed 

 1 Dr. Stirling : "As Regards Protoplasm," p. 41. 



K 



