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THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



249 



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broader and more intense way where there is little 

 organization ; and a highly strung and complex 

 organism is not so much a necessary condition of a 

 higher life as a mere means of better adapting it to 

 its present surroundings. Those philosophies which 

 identify the thinking mind with the material organ- 

 ism, must seem outrageous blunders to an Amceba 

 on the one hand, or to an angel on the other, could 

 either be enabled to understand them ; which, how- 

 ever, is not very probable, as they are too intimately 

 bound up with the mere prejudices incident to the 

 present condition of our humanity. In any case, the 

 Protozoa teach us how much of animal function may 

 be fulfilled by a very simple organism, and warn 

 us against the fallac)- that creatures of this simple 

 structure are necessarily nearer to inorganic matter, 

 and more easily developed from it than beings of 

 more complex mould. 



A similar lesson is taught by the complexity of 

 their skeletons. We speak in a crude, unscientific 

 way of these animals accumulating calcareous matter, 

 and building up reefs of limestone. We must, how- 

 ever, bear in mind that they are as dependent on 

 their food for the materials of their skeletons as we 

 are, and that their crusts grow in the interior of the 



