THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



is a sea-cow, although in the form of a fish. 

 Though it has the form of a fish, it is in fact a 

 true mammal. On its tightly stretched mother 

 breast, a young is nursing, that for a month 

 after its birth is nourished by the mother's milk, 

 and in case of danger is protected with violent 

 rage. If the strength of the mother is not suffi- 

 cient for this protection, the father hastens to 

 help. So the bond of co-operation is formed be- 

 tween parents and children and also between the 

 parents themselves. Long hands are reached out 

 through this bond, the true love-bond through- 

 out the animal world. At a certain stage it is 

 necessary that for the starting point of a new 

 being two cells nmst unite. This union in it- 

 self is not a true social act. It is a normal 

 union, yet in a wholly different form from that 

 found in the siphonophore or the coral polyp. 

 Rather it resembles an act of eating, only with 

 this wide-as-heaven difference, that a harmo- 

 nious interchange of the powers of life takes 

 place, instead of one individual killing another 

 in order to live on its corpse. In all cases this 

 fundamental fusion of cells, this union of sper- 

 matozoa and egg-cell, remains unchanged from 

 the infusoria to man, a peaceful, harmonious, 

 but in its peculiar way, a highly isolated and 

 strange act. Out of this act grows gradually a 

 second significant thing; the great many-celled 

 creatures that for the production of spermato- 

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