106 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



ism draws its sustentation, not only from the earth, but 

 from the air and water. These sources of its susten- 

 tation are called its environment. Its correspondence 

 with environment, or the movements made in keeping 

 up this correspondence, are its mind, or psychical part, 

 while the body tissue, which makes the movements, is 

 its physical part. A study of the vegetable, and 

 lowest animal organisms, reveals the fact that the tissue 

 of their bodies is of one kind only ; that is, it is uniform 

 in structure. Its basis is protoplasm in the form of 

 minute cells. The body is formed by a multiplication 

 of these cells, from one cell, -by a process called fission, 

 or division. Although the different parts of the body 

 take different forms, yet the whole is composed of tis- 

 sues, homogeneous in structure. Such a uniform or- 

 ganism responds to its environment by a very sluggish 

 movement. Its mind, therefore, is of a very low order. 

 All vegetation is thus characterized. Animals are 

 differentiated from vegetables by a greater response to 

 their environment, and therefore more movement. 

 Vegetables are fixed by their roots to one spot, while 

 animals move from place to place. This fact gives, 

 to the animal, the larger mind. 



NERVOUS MATTER. Those animals having a variation 

 of structure called nerve matter, a white mobile tissue 

 in the form of fibres; imbedded in the muscular tissue, 

 and running from a knot of the same tissue, located in 

 the anterior end of the body, to other parts, but form- 

 ing a continuous thread, are characterized by a more 

 noticeable active movement, and consequently greater 

 mind. As animals rise higher, and more complex in 

 structure, the complexity of the nervous system increases 

 correspondingly. It is known by anatomists, physi- 

 ologists, and psychologists that the behavior of an animal 



