246 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



and have we any right to assume that any proto- 

 type mass of protoplasm could contain such infinite 

 capacity for variation as is implied by all the species 

 of plants and animals now existent ; and admitting 

 such infinite capacity, can we conceive of such pro- 

 longed and extreme difference of environment as 

 would produce the differentiation now prevailing ? 



If there were in such an elementary particle of 

 protoplasm such infinite possibility of variation — 

 if environment has been so hard at work selecting 

 and perfecting these variations — how is it that at 

 the present day, after millions of years, we find 

 elementary particles of protoplasm still quite un- 

 altered from their hypothetical primordial condi- 

 tion ? How is it that the amoebae in the blood, sub- 

 jected as they are to an environment as variable as 

 the blood, still remain amoebae and nothing more ? 

 How is it that the pathological microbes, which, by 

 reason of their enormous progeny and of their 

 constant struggle for existence, ought to exhibit 

 great variations, remain true to a type apparently 

 primaeval ? 



Here is an amoeba ! Here is a man ! Can 

 any sane thinker affirm that one amoeba has been 

 stationary for millions of years, while the other 

 has become fish, monkey, man ? If this have 

 actually occurred, then there must have been enor- 

 mous molecular differences from the first ; and to 



