THE ASCENT OF THE BODY, 69 



definite stage which the human embryo attains, is still 

 the adult form of countless millions both of animals 

 and plants. Just as in modern England the million- 

 aire's mansion — the evolved form — is surrounded by 

 laborers' cottages — the simple form — so in Nature, 

 living side by side with the many-celled higher ani- 

 mals, is an immense democracy of unicellular artizans. 

 These simple cells are perfect living things. The 

 earth, the water, and the air teem with them every- 

 where. They move, they eat, they reproduce their 

 like. But one thing they do not do — they do not rise. 

 These organisms have, as it were, stopped short in the 

 ascent of life. And long as evolution has worked 

 upon the earth, the vast numerical majority of plants 

 and animals are still at this low stage of being. So 

 minute are some of these forms that if their one- 

 roomed huts were arranged in a row it would take 

 twelve thousand to form a street a single inch in 

 length. In their watery cities — for most of them are 

 Lake-Dwellers — a population of eight hundred thou- 

 sand million could be accommodated withhi a cubic 

 inch. Yet, as there was a period in human history 

 when none but cave-dwellers lived in Europe, so was 

 there a time when the highest forms of life upon the 

 globe were these microscopic things. See, therefore, 

 the meaning of Evolution from the want of it. In a 

 single hour or second the human embryo attains 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, 



