THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



259 



higher forms of h'fe. They have remarkable powers 

 of removing mineral matters from the waters and 

 of fixing them in solid forms. So in the fitness of 

 things Eozoon is just what we need, and after it 

 has spread itself over the mud and rock of the 

 primeval seas, and built up extensive reefs therein, 

 other animals may be introduced capable of feed- 

 ing on it, or of sheltering themselves in its stony 

 masses, and thus we have the appropriate dawn of 

 animal life. 



But what are we to say of the cause of this new 

 series of facts, so wonderfully superimposed upon 

 the merely vegetable and mineral ? Must it remain 

 to us as an act of creation, or was it derived from 

 some pre-existing matter in which it had been 

 potentially present ? Science fails to inform us, but 

 conjectural "phylogeny" steps in and takes its 

 place. Haeckel, one of the prophets of this new 

 philosophy, waves his magic wand, and simple 

 masses of sarcode spring from inorganic matter, 

 and form diffused sheets of sea-slime, from which 

 are in time separated distinct Amoeboid and Fora- 

 miniferal forms. Experience, however, gives us no 

 facts whereon to build this supposition, and it re- 

 mains neither more nor less scientific or certain 



