94 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



— other types having here and there diverged 

 and developed along lines of their own — it is 

 certain that the materials for his body have been 

 brought together from an unknown multitude of 

 lowlier forms of life. 



Those who know the Cathedral of St. Mark's 

 will remember how this noblest of the Stones of 

 Venice owes its greatness to the patient hands of 

 centuries and centuries of workers, how every quar- 

 ter of the globe has been spoiled of its treasures 

 to dignify this single shrine. But he who ponders 

 over the more ancient temple of the Human Body 

 will find imagination fail him as he tries to think 

 from what remote and mingled sources, from what 

 lands, seas, climates, atmospheres, its various parts 

 have been called together, and by what innumer- 

 able contributory creatures, swimming, creeping, 

 flying, climbing, each of its several members was 

 wrought and perfected. What ancient chisel first 

 sculptured the rounded columns of the limbs ? 

 What dead hands built the cupola of the brain, 

 and from what older ruins were the scattered pieces 

 of its mosaic-work brought ? Who fixed the win- 

 dows in its upper walls ? What winds and weathers 

 wrought strength into its buttresses ? What ocean- 

 beds and forest glades worked up its colourings? 

 What Love and Terror and Night called forth the 



