THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



gan — ^the compass, reading the time from the 

 stars, and hghting his path with an electric 

 searchHght. All this happened because there 

 lay a limitless abundance of possibiHties in that 

 little lump of cell stuff. If one does not alter 

 the conditions, then the great fundamental law 

 of persistence that holds the f urtherest star for- 

 ever in its course will retain its full value. But 

 if the conditions are changed the slumbering 

 mass of force in this cell may come to a com- 

 plete awakening. More and more it develops, 

 strengthened by demand, until form after form 

 struggles up, the star-fish and the medusa, the 

 shell-fish and the fish, each one a glorious ad- 

 justment, a developed possibility of the first cell. 

 Finally we come to man, the comprehensive 

 crown of all adjustment, the most absolutely ad- 

 justed form of earth, who rules the steamer 

 above from which the deep sea lead hangs down 

 five and a half miles deep. 



But all this enormous power has lain in a sim- 

 ple cell? In a microscopic lump of protoplasm 

 without organs? This point of slime could have 

 held all the fancies of an existing world ocean? 



The shining deep sea animals have been 

 frightened away by some disturbance. Now it 

 is a completely black night down below. In vain 

 the gaze peers after something. Night lies also 

 on all our questions, the night of mystery. 

 Shuddering the sensitive hand reaches for some- 

 43 



