72 Traces of Unity in the 



of the annellus. And so, as in an experiment, it is 

 possible to find in the eye of the eagle a key to the 

 door which must be unlocked and opened and passed 

 through, before it is possible to get near enough to gain 

 a clear glimpse of the archetypal form which underlies 

 the vertebra and the annellus. 



A bodiless vertebra or annellus, however, does not 

 wholly represent the notion of the archetype which is 

 suggested by an examination of the coats of the eye of 

 the eagle. This notion is suggested, no doubt, but only 

 secondarily. It is, in fact, ushered in by that of a 

 hollow spheroid, or cell, with laminated or laminable 

 walls, which cell may become changed, first into a cup 

 by the formation of a mouth-like opening, and then 

 into a broad ring by the addition of another opening at 

 the bottom of the cup, the mouth of the cup which pre- 

 cedes the ring copying the polype in its disposition to 

 radiation. Without going very far out of the way it is 

 also possible to see, in some measure at least, why it 

 should be so, and to provide answers to many questions 

 which naturally present themselves when the eye is 

 made the text of the inquiry. What, it may be asked, is 

 the significance of the ciliary processes, of the curtain of 

 the iris, of the pupil ? What is the significance of the 

 foramen of Sommering ? What of the eyelids, and eye- 

 lashes, and eyebrows ? What of the lens, of the 

 humours? What, indeed? Is it that the ball of the 

 eye is subject to the same law as that which obliges the 

 sea-urchin and many other radiate forms to open out at 

 opposite poles, the pupil being the mouth and the foramen 

 of Sommering the rudiment of the vent ? May the eye- 

 ball be looked upon as a polype whose mouth is upon 

 the point of opening, is to some extent actually opened 

 in the pierced cornea of the cephalopod, and whose 



