126 The Morality of Nature 



if there is continued origin of life, that origin is in a primi- 

 tive form similar to the previous primitive forms, and all 

 higher life is evolved from primitive form of similar origin 

 whether old or new. Now the forms most primitive in our 

 knowledge and understanding are still marvellously com- 

 plex. The older view of these, as being without structure or 

 specialization, is untenable now; for even a single cell, the 

 unit of organization of this life matter, develops internal 

 and external differences and aptitudes which must mean 

 divisibility into simpler form, and these simpler forms of 

 life, even if not the lowest possible, are low enough to 

 explain the phenomena of conduct. In them life action as 

 the primary conduct appears stripped of nearly all its com- 

 plexities. The power of high development by evolution 

 which must be supposed to exist potentially in them, is yet 

 dormant ; either because they are new or because the condi- 

 tions under which they have lived, have continued always, as 

 in the beginning, constant enough to call for no change. 

 This view is favored by the fact that such life appears 

 chiefly in places and circumstances which might well be so 

 constant, and may well have been just as now through all 

 the geological ages known to man. But whether these are 

 survivals or new evolutions, there they are, the creatures 

 whose substance contains the germ of potential life which 

 all the life of the world illustrates in repetition of the same 

 process. These primary creatures grow, and as they become 

 larger than normal, a portion of their substance separates 

 and becomes another distinct individual, the original con- 

 tinuing then as two; and so this goes on indefinitely unless 

 interrupted by abnormal circumstances. These creatures 



