THE DISCOVERY 



19 



whole earth is but the compact mold of dead 

 things. 



When Michelet revived this idea of Thales 

 that the sea was the beginning of life, that its 

 very atmosphere, so to speak, was an opalescent 

 mucus, alive and capable of development in it- 

 self, the thought was considered somewhat fan- 

 tastic ; but since then have not the scientists put 

 hands upon this very conception and used it 

 as an illustration in argument? Is not the 

 opalescent mucus of Michelet the protoplasm 

 of the evolutionist? And the sea is filled with 

 it. Often when sailing in the tropics the 

 watcher lying along the bowsprit sees down 

 through the blue-green water drifts and skeins 

 without number of this thin mucilage, reced- 

 ing by steps into the abyss and extending for 

 many miles in every direction. The poles pos- 

 sess it in common with the tropics. The sea 

 life lives upon it and is perhaps bred from it. 

 It is the lowest form of life. No other ele- 

 ment than water could produce it or support it 

 in such quantity. 



And yet with these powers of life, these po- 

 tentialities of creation, how sublimely uncon- 

 scious in its workings seems the sea! Great 

 spawns of life go out from it, species by the 

 hundreds of thousands; they disappear like 



Michelet 

 and the 



ista. 



Mucus and 

 protoplasm. 



