322 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



a derivation from those laws. What they are, no one at pre- 

 sent can express. The fact that all organic beings are 

 endowed with the property of Eeproduction, which mani- 

 fests itself under the forms of Growth, Gemmation, and Gen- 

 eration, must, for the present at least, be accepted as an 

 ultimate fact, not permitting dispute, not admitting explan- 

 ation. Whether new individuals or only new parts of indi- 

 viduals, are reproduced, the fundamental process is the same. 

 Whether the animal produce cells which increase as buds, or 

 as eggs, the process is the same. Whether the egg deve- 

 lop under the influence of fertilisation, or without that 

 influence, the process is the same. Whether the union of 

 two cells, followed by continuous fission, be taken as the 

 starting-point, or whether the continuous fissions proceed 

 without any union, everywhere the one law of Reproduc- 

 tion — the fundamental property of Growth — meets us as 

 the ultimate fact, the great terminal mystery ; and the 

 simplest form under which this process is knoAvn to us is 

 the spontaneous subdivision of a cell. Thus, to borrow 

 Goethe's words — 



" AU the forms resemble, yet none is the same as another ; 

 Thus the whole of the throng points at a deep-hidden law. 

 Points at a sacred riddle."* 



The sacred riddle awaits its CEdipus, and probably will for 

 ever remain unanswered. 



• Die Metamorphosen der PJlanzen. 



