THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



a swarm of single cells separates itself quietly, 

 without a struggle. Everyone of these cells 

 possesses the power to re-create a being in its 

 own likeness. Two strange cells must often come 

 together before this. In the lowest forms of 

 life, however, this is not necessary. Whoever 

 can penetrate through all this water will see 

 measureless streams of these germ cells. Every 

 animal in this water firmament is like a little 

 sun that drav/s a whole milky way of new suns 

 behind it. In the blue lap of these waves mil- 

 lions and millions of these silken balls appear: 

 the waves themselves blow them asunder and 

 carry the germs to their places. 



But where is the firmament that could perma- 

 nently find place for all these stars, and where 

 the world ocean that could offer permanent room 

 for this measureless multiplying capacity of 

 life. 



The fish that swims above strews three mil- 

 lion eggs in the waves. The shell-fish on the 

 rock throws out a million of young shell-fish. 

 Let us imagine ourselves as a bacillus in this 

 water. Four million cubic miles of sea-water 

 comprise all the oceans of the earth. The bacil- 

 lus, one of the lowest of all forms of life, would 

 be a microscopic point, with a length of one 

 thousandth of an inch and a tliickness of only 

 one three hundred thousandth of an inch. We 

 think of ourselves as on a primitive creation 

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