REPRODUCTION 



CHAPTER ONE. 

 THE CIRCLE OF LIFE. 



1. Why Do We Call It a Circle? If you stop to think 

 of life on the earth as you have seen it year after year, 

 you realize that it changes very little. This is true whether 

 we speak of the life of mankind or of all life of every kind. 

 There is just about so much grass on the lawn, about so 

 many weeds in the fence rows, about so many insects in 

 the air during one year as another. There are just about 

 as many babies and children and young people and middle- 

 aged folks and old people and those who are passing away 

 at one time as at another. Yet we know that all of us are 

 growing older all the time. Life keeps up a procession in 

 the same direction, and yet does not get any place, or at 

 least seems to be continually getting round to the same 

 place. This sounds like a circle, but the term is rather 

 misleading. We know very well that it is not the middle- 

 aged people who themselves come back and start life over 

 again. It is a new generation that continually follows the 

 old. On account of this seeming recovery of life in the 

 face of universal deaths, we call the course of life a circle 

 or C3^cle. A given individual does not come back to the 

 starting place, but the race is always being renewed by 

 new, young individuals. 



2. What Events Compose the Circle? If then we 

 overlook the fact that there is no real circle, let us see 

 what are the principal points in this seeming round of life. 

 You knov/ that all plants and animals come into life very 



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