Summary and Conclusion 405 



in its most primitive form ; and rise by the same evolution, 

 of capacity from potentiality to realization. 



And it is of great moment that, in the present status of 

 this highly developed life-plasm; its fundamental form, that 

 in which it reappears at each new birth; is the same form 

 that it possessed in the long past earlier stage of its organi- 

 zation as a single living cell. The germ-cell today, at the 

 beginning of each new generation, presents itself stripped 

 of all the somatic body, bared of all the past, and having 

 only the structure and substance of the single-celled immortal 

 creature, which it was millions of years before, and which 

 it now is again; except that within it, carried in minute 

 differentiation of the protoplasm of its nucleus, is a mys- 

 teriously condensed record of its ages of experience; a 

 treasured heredity, to be used by it in perpetuating its ability, 

 and in restoring the material machine, by which its existence 

 may be continued. 



Now all this is simple fact. We have used some few 

 imagined links to connect up some of our imperfect chains 

 of positive knowledge, but there is no such weakness in this 

 particular chain. The potential immortality of the germ- 

 plasm is a proposition based upon observable undeniable 

 fact. 



Next it is important to note that this immortality is not 

 absolute, but only potential. Matter is not guaranteed in 

 life perpetual by natural law, but only empowered. Con- 

 tinued enjoyment of life is not a certainty, but it is a possi- 

 bility, which depends upon the way in which that life 

 maintains itself, in the face of hostile circumstances. 



Every living thing stands a testimony to the fact that it, 



