JoLY — The Abundance of Life. 77 



On the inliereut immortality of life, Weismann finally states : — 

 *' Eeproduction is, in truth, an essential attribute of living matter, 

 just as the growth which gives rise to it . . . Life is continuous, 

 and not periodically interrupted : ever since its first appearance 

 upon the earth, in the lowest organism, it has continued without 

 break ; the forms in which it is manifest have alone undergone 

 change. Every individual alive to-daj- — even the highest — is to 

 be derived in an unbroken line from the first and lowest forms."' 



At the present day the view is very prevalent that the soma 

 of higher organisms is, in a sense, but the carrier for a period of 

 the immortal reproductive cells (Ray Lankester)^ — an appendage 

 due to adaptation, concerned in their supply, protection, and trans- 

 mission. And whether we regard the time-limit of its functions 

 as due to external constraints, recurrently acting till their effects 

 become hereditary, or to variations more directly of internal origin, 

 encouraged by natural selection, we see in old age and death 

 phenomena ultimately brought about in obedience to the action of 

 an environment. These are not inherent in the properties of living 

 matter. The body which, in its present constitution, must perish, 

 bears to the succession of life, which periodically gives rise to it, a 

 more insignificant temporal relation than the leaf which withers 

 from the oak. But, in spite of its mortality, the body remains a 

 striking manifestation of the progressiveness of the organism, for 

 to this it must be ascribed. To it energy is available — denied 

 to the protozoon. Ingenious adaptations to environment are 

 more especially its privilege. A higher manifestation, however, 

 was possible, and was found in the development of mind. Tliis, 

 too, is a servant of the cell, as the genii to the lamp. Through it 

 energy is available — denied to the body. This is the masterpiece 

 of the cell. Its activity dates, as it were, but from yesterday, and 

 to-day it inherits the most diverse energies of the earth. 



Taking this view of organic succession, we may liken the indi- 

 vidual to a particle vibrating for a moment and then coming to 

 rest, but sweeping out in its motion one wave in the organic 

 vibration travelling from the past into the future. But as tliis vi- 

 bration is one spreading with increased energy from each vibrating 



^ Loc. cit., p. 159. 



2 Geddes and Thomson, " The Evolution of Sex," chap, xviii. 



