THE ASCENT OF THE BODY Bj 



The human embryo, to change the figure, is a 

 subtle phantasmagoria, a living theatre in which 

 a weird transformation scene is being enacted, and 

 in which countless strange and uncouth characters 

 take part. Some of these characters are well- 

 known to science, some are strangers. As the 

 embryo unfolds, one by one these animal actors 

 come upon the stage, file past in phantom-like pro- 

 cession, throw off their drapery, and dissolve away 

 into something else. Yet, as they vanish, each 

 leaves behind a vital portion of itself, some original 

 and characteristic memorial, something itself has 

 made or won, that perhaps it alone could make or 

 win — a bone, a muscle, a ganglion, or a tooth — 

 to be the inheritance of the race. And it is only 

 after nearly all have played their part and dedi- 

 cated their gift, that a human form, mysteriously 

 compounded of all that has gone before, begins 

 to be discerned in their midst. 



The duration of this process, the profound an- 

 tiquity of the last survivor, the tremendous height 

 he has scaled, are inconceivable by the faculties 

 of Maa But measure the very lowest of the suc- 

 cessive platforms passed in the ascent, and see 

 how very great a thing it is even to rise at all. 

 The single cell, the first definite stage which the 

 human embryo attains, is still the adult form of 



