THE ASCENT OF THE BODY 83 



purposes installed throughout the system. Tele- 

 graph wires have next been stretched in every 

 direction to keep up connection between the end- 

 less parts ; and other cells developed into bony 

 pillars for support. Finally, the whole delicate 

 structure has been shielded by a variety of protec- 

 tive coverings, and after months and years of further 

 elaboration and adjustment the elaborate fabric is 

 complete. Now all these complicated contrivances 

 — ^bones, muscles, nerves, heart, brain, lungs — are 

 made out of cells ; they are themselves, and in 

 their furthest development, simply masses or suites 

 of cells modified in various ways for the special 

 department of household work they are meant to 

 serve. No new thing, except building material, has 

 entered into the embryo since its first appearing. 

 It seized whatever matter lay to hand, incor- 

 porated it with its own quickening substance, and 

 built it in to its appropriate place. So the struc- 

 ture rose in size and symmetry, till the whole had 

 climbed, a miracle of unfolding, to the stature of a 

 Man. 



But the beauty of this development is not the 

 significant thing to the student of Evolution ; nor is 

 it the occultness of the process nor the perfection 

 of the result that fill him with awe as he surveys 

 the finished work. It is the immense distance Man 



