EARTH-LIFE ASSIMILATION. 



background of our Biocosmos as a so-called 

 postulate, somewhat like ether in the Diacos- 

 mos (as already noted). The formation of 

 that primal life-stuff, speculative on one side 

 yet very real on the other side, out of which 

 stream all living things, down to the minutest 

 cell, has to be pre-conceived as the starting- 

 point of biological science. On this subject 

 we have dwelt sufficiently in other parts of 

 this book (see p. 139, et passim). 



Even the quantity of this elemental pre- 

 cellular life-stuff has been estimated. And 

 we may conjecture how much of it arose at 

 the start, and whether it is being exhausted; 

 where and when it began may be conceived 

 but cannot yet be proved. Now into this orig- 

 inal protoplasm of Life, Evolution enters and 

 differentiates it in many ways. 



2. Earth-life as Separative. Here again 

 we shall have to repeat the pervasive fact of 

 individuation, which springs out of the pri- 

 mordial life-stuff of the Earth, and enters into 

 every living individual the first separative 

 act of the Biocosmos. Earth-life individuates 

 itself into the millions of separate plants and 

 animals, the Earth itself being the proto- 

 typal creative individual of them all, their 

 universal individual we may think it (if we 

 can). Now it is this individuated plant or 



