HIS ZOOLOGICAL RELATIONS. 47 



however it may be received, we can form no rational 

 conception. Again, should it be advanced, as is some- 

 times done, that the creation of a monad is as incom- 

 prehensible as that of a man, then to this we decidedly 

 answer, No. To argue otherwise were to maintain 

 that the comprehension of a complex machine, com- 

 posed of many wheels and levers, were as easy as the 

 understanding of a single wheel or of a single lever. 

 Scientific research on the cell-growth of vegetable 

 and animal structures has made us acquainted, in 

 some measure, with the development of these primary 

 organisms, and how they are influenced by heat, 

 light, electricity, and other forces. We can form some 

 conception, however faint, of the simple uni-ceUular 

 germ, under the operation of these subtle forces ; but 

 of the complex structure of man by a similarly direct 

 process, the human reason is utterly unable to con- 

 ceive. We can follow, however, the successive stages 

 of ascent, under a plan of development, and if we 

 cannot fully explain the cause, we can indicate at 

 least the process through which the modification was 

 effected. And this, be it observed, is something 

 gained — a step, however short, towards the solution 

 of the problem of vital development. We sajvital deve- 

 lopnent, for in this place we are not called upon to offer 

 any opinion as to the origin of life, which may ever 

 lie darkly and far beyond the discrimination of science. 



