THE ASCENT OF THE BODY 89 



the platform which represents the whole life- 

 achievement of myriads of generations of created 

 things, and the next day or hour is immeasurable 

 centuries beyond them. 



Through all what zoological regions the embryo 

 passes in its great ascent from the one-celled 

 forms, one can never completely tell. The changes 

 succeed one another with such rapidity that it is 

 impossible at each separate stage to catch the 

 actual likeness to other embryos. Sometimes a 

 familiar feature suddenly recalls a form well-known 

 to science, but the likeness fades, and the develop- 

 ing embryo seems to wander among the ghosts 

 of departed types. Long ago these crude ancestral 

 forms were again the highest animals upon the 

 earth. For a few thousand years they reigned 

 supreme, furthered the universal evolution by a 

 hair-breadth, and passed away. The material dust 

 of their bodies is laid long since in the Palaeozoic 

 rocks, but their life and labour are not forgotten. 

 For their gains were handed on to a succeeding 

 race. Transmitted thence through an endless series 

 of descendants, sifted, enriched, accentuated, still 

 dimly recognizable, they re-appeared at last in the 

 physical frame of Man. After the early stages of 

 human development are passed, the transformations 

 become so definite that the features of the con- 



