98 THE B10COSMOS PRELIMINARY. 



microscope or any chemical re-action. In- 

 deed, there is no little discussion among biol- 

 ogists whether this protoplasmic mass should 

 be called living, though it is hardly dead or 

 inorganic. Various intermediate terms have 

 been suggested in order to avoid the difficulty, 

 which predicates something living before life ; 

 for life is regarded as belonging to the cell- 

 organism as a whole and not to any of its 

 parts or members, least of all to the most ex- 

 ternal part or member. Yet if the cell as a 

 whole be alive, each member of it must share 

 in such life, in order to be a member (as our 

 hand or finger is alive till cut off). 



But amid all these questions we come back 

 to the main process of the cell, which, accord- 

 ing to our conception, should start with the 

 nucleus as central and germinal, then pass 

 to its self-separation or genetic act, which is 

 finally completed by the protoplasm or body. 

 Thus the process of cell-life is a continual 

 generation of itself; its function and, seem- 

 ingly, its sole function is a ceaseless repro- 

 duction of its kind, and so it is the prototype 

 of the genetic continuity of all living things 

 through the species. The individual cell be- 

 gets the individual cell, and just that is its 

 business verily the primal business of life, 

 which is to keep itself alive and going. The 

 plant and animal, each of which is a large 



