

296 THE WORLD OF LIFE 







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ever. Modern physiologists have given us a vast body of 

 information on the structure of the cell, on the extreme 

 complexity of the processes which take place in the fertilised 

 ovum, and on the exact nature of the successive changes up 

 to the stage of maturity. But of the forces at work, and of 

 the power which guides those forces in building up the whole 

 organ, we find no enlightenment. They will not even admit 

 that any such constructive guidance is required ! 



A Physiological Allegory 



For an imaginary parallel to this state of things, let us 

 suppose some race of intelligent beings who have the power 

 to visit the earth and see what is going on there. But their 

 faculties are of such a nature that, though they have perfect 

 perception of all inanimate matter and of plants, they are 

 absolutely unable either to see, hear, or touch any animal 

 living or dead. Such beings would see everywhere matter 

 in motion, but no apparent cause of the motion. They 

 would see dead trees on the ground, and living trees being 

 eaten away near the base by axes or saws, which would 

 appear to move spontaneously ; they would see these trees 

 gradually become logs by the loss of all their limbs and 

 branches, then move about, travel along roads, float down 

 rivers, come to curious machines by which they are split up 

 into various shapes ; then move away to where some great 

 structure seems to be growing up, where not only wood, 

 but brick and stone and iron and glass in an infinite variety 

 of shapes, also move about and ultimately seem to fix them- 

 selves in certain positions. Special students among these 

 spirit-inquirers would then devote themselves to follow back 

 each of these separate materials — the wood, the iron, the 

 glass, the stone, the mortar, etc. — to their separate sources ; 

 and, after years thus spent, would ultimately arrive at the 

 great generalisation that all came primarily out of the earth. 

 They would make themselves acquainted with all the physical 

 and chemical forces, and would endeavour to explain all - 

 they saw by recondite actions of these forces. They 

 would argue that what they saw was due to the forces they 

 had traced in building up and modifying the crust of the 



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