104 THE NEXT GENERATION 



In a certain town in Ohio, on a certain day, there were 

 born a colt, a lamb, a puppy, and a human baby. Each one of 

 these young animals looked and acted as all its ancestors had 

 looked and acted when they were of the same age. We are 

 so accustomed to marvels of this sort that we accept them as 

 a matter of course. 



Perhaps we forget that germ cells of various kinds look so 

 much alike that no one but the keenest scientist with his 

 strongest magnifying glass could have told beforehand which 

 pairs of those cells were to develop into colt, lamb, puppy, 

 and baby. Nevertheless, lodged within the cells themselves, 

 before they began to develop, were all the different characters 

 that were to belong to each one of the four small creatures. 

 And these different characters represented different ancestors 

 all the way back to the beginning of things. Size and shape, 

 color and character, texture of wool and of hair, brain power 

 and muscle power, keenness of vision and of scent, structure 

 of body and type of disposition — each quality of each animal 

 was stored up for use and packed into the small compass of 

 its own particular pair of germ cells. 



All this, then, is what germ cells do as their share of the 

 work of life. They help on the cause of the next generation. 



Other cells multiply within the body and serve the body 

 itself without reference to the next generation. Not so with 

 germ cells ; it is true that they live within the body, but it 

 is equally true that they exist there without any reference 

 whatever to the welfare of the body to which they belong. 

 In no wise do they exert themselves for the maintenance 

 of its activities. On the contrary, they are set apart ; they 

 remain in organs of their own. The sole purpose of their 

 existence is to help construct a new member of the next 

 generation. 



