[3] 



a stone, a crystal, a sponge, a tree, or a man be the 

 result. This much is certain, however, that not one of 

 these bodies can ever be produced except by an evolu- 

 tionary process subject to the universal and unchange- 

 able law which fixes the sequence. 



Animal life, as distinct from all other life, is a com- 

 paratively late development or manifestation in the 

 sequence of universal phenomena. This world on which 

 we live had existed as a compact body for millions of 

 ages before life assumed the character of animal life ; 

 and so gradual was the process of evolution from the 

 primal condition of homogeneity, through all the mani- 

 fold stages of life, until the condition of animal life was 

 reached, that it is impossible to fix a particular moment 

 when such life became manifest. So it is with every 

 stage of the evolutionary process ; there are no starting- 

 places for particular species, the whole being one con- 

 tinuous unfolding of phenomena, without arrest of any 

 kind. 



It is equally impossible to fix a particular point or 

 moment for the manifestation of the crystal life as it is 

 for that of the animal or the vegetable life. All are but 

 gradual unfoldings of the universal potentiality. Crystal 

 life is the highest development of what is popularly but 

 erroneously termed inanimate nature, and differs not one 

 iota from Moneron life, which is the lowest form of 

 animal life, in its constituent elements, the only differ- 

 ence between the two being in the mode of combination 

 of the elementary particles composing each. The crystal 

 elements combine in such proportions as to cause the 

 mass to hold together like other solid bodies, its bulk 

 being increased by the deposition of fresh particles upon 

 its outer surface ; while the Moneron elements combine 

 in such a manner as to render the body soft and yielding, 

 so that it can absorb nutriment from without to within 

 and multiply by fission. The elements of both are iden- 

 tically the same : the manner of combination causes the 

 differences between them. Many learned men declare 

 that, if this were true, we ought to be able to take the 

 five elements viz., Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Car- 

 bon, and Sulphur in the necessary proportions, and, by 

 uniting them, form animal life. This, they say, has been 



