The Physiological Unit. i 73 



any single unit. When two cells the sperm-cell and 

 the germ-cell are brought together and their enclosed 

 physiological units have been brought into contact, on 

 Mr. Spencer's theory, the decaying vigour is revived 

 and a new evolution initiated. These units bring 

 each of them into the contact and new relation that 

 ensues the hereditary characteristics of a series carried 

 back through myriads of ages. In all that succession 

 nothing has been lost. Throughout the vast series 

 of births and deaths no part of the family wealth 

 has been squandered : each bequeathed to its sucessor 

 the heritage of ancestral experience unimpaired, en- 

 hancing it with that gained in the space of its own 

 existence, and the physiological units that, coming to- 

 gether in generation, form the germ of the animal 

 begotten, are thus the sum of all the immense com- 

 plexity of moving systems of atoms and molecules 

 from the first beginning of cosmic history till now. 

 But is this science or fancy ? Are we seriously dealing 

 with knowable facts, or building up a universe exist- 

 ing only in the scientific imagination ? Whatever the 

 the reply may be, it is plain the cosmos is not made 

 more intelligible to us than before. The evolutionist 

 has only carried the most distinctive phenomena of 

 organic life back to a mysterious region occupied by 

 myriad whirling molecules whose oscillations and 

 combined motions, though they include the cause of 

 all the visible universe, lie for ever far below the range 

 of observation. 



