38 THE BIOC08M08 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



we may conceive a spirit entering the same 

 and moulding it into living shapes, as the 

 fabled Prometheus formed the clay into hu- 

 man beings. Here, however, he forms all 

 animate Nature, and vegetal also, into the 

 vast ladder of organisms from the simple uni- 

 cellular microbe to the supremely complex 

 body, in which he finally moulds himself. Such 

 is the creative artist in creation, shaping him- 

 self upwards (really none other than oiir 

 Psyche) till at last he brings forth the highest 

 artistic shape, that of himself embodying the 

 whole line of shapes below him. Embryolo- 

 gists tell us that the human embryo starts 

 with the single cell and evolves through many 

 lower kinds of animals, probably represent- 

 ing the entire gamut of animal ity down 

 the geologic ages. A German investigator 

 tells us that he can trace a hundred rem- 

 nants of inferior creatures in our organism. 

 It looks as if Psyche, having built the ladder 

 on which she has ascended step by step, has 

 drawn it up after her into the highest story 

 of her human temple. 



Something continuous, though invisible, 

 runs through and holds together this long gal- 

 lery of separate living shapes an ever-cre- 

 ating and advancing continuity, not accessible 

 to the senses or to the microscope; and just 

 here the trouble of the scientist comes in, 



