ErOLUT/ON. 13 



Protoplasm is therefore styled by Huxley, " the 

 physical basis of life," and is seen to constitute the 

 essential parts of every living thing, animal or plant, 

 from the whale to the minnow, or the pine to the 

 sea-weed. 



We thus learn that there is not one life of animals 

 and another of plants, but that their existences are 

 similar in nature. The same " vital force" acts with- 

 in each, and is seen at work also in the mineral 

 kingdom, forming crystals and combining various ele- 

 ments into one form. As all material things are now 

 supposed to be the variation of one original sub- 

 stance, so all the forms of matter are the results of 

 one force manifested in different ways. 



Thus we come to the unity of all nature. From 

 the original existence of moving matter, the laws of 

 Evolution construct the varied universe. 



Embryology. 



Not only do we trace the connection of all forms 

 of life, by observing the relationship of living and 

 fossil species, but we have a marvellous testimony 

 to the common origin of all organic life, by the study 

 of embryology, or the development of animals from 

 the egg-speck or germ to the adult form. 



It was supposed by many in the past that the 

 germ contained the minute form of the perfected 

 animal, which merely expanded to its final shape, or 

 else had new parts suddenly added to existing organs. 



