56 THE CELL-SOUL 



originally the simple neutral cells of the epithelium 

 of the ectoderm or exterior germ-layer, and these 

 cells, again, like all the cells of many- celled animal 

 bodies, originated in the repeated division of one single 

 original cell, the ovum- cell. 



The individual development or ontogenesis of each 

 of these many-celled animal-forms, brings this histo- 

 logical process of development so clearly and evidently 

 before our eyes that we can but directly infer from it 

 the truth of the phylogenesis, or gradual historical evo- 

 lution of the soul-organs. The association of cells and 

 the division of labour among them are the modes by 

 which, in the first instance, the compound many-celled 

 organism has originated, historically, from the simple 

 one-celled organism. And an impartial comparative 

 consideration teaches us in the clearest way that a 

 functional-activity of the soul-cells exists in the lowest 

 one-celled animals as well as in the highest and many- 

 celled ; in the infusoria as well as in man. Volition and 

 sensation, the universal and unmistakable signs of soul- 

 life, may be observed among the former as well as in 

 the latter. Voluntary motion and conscious sensation 

 (of pressure, light, warmth, &c.) come under our obser- 

 vation so undoubtedly in the commonest forms of in- 

 fusorial animals 'for instance the Ciliata, that one of 

 their most persevering observers, Ehrenberg, asserted 

 undeviatingly to the day of his death that all Infusoria 



