THE IDEAL IN ANIMALS 157 



develops into a horse, and not into a donkey or a 

 cow. But the ovum of the original Equus Prje- 

 valshyi must have had in it the ideal of something 

 more than the Equus Prjevalskyi, for from the 

 original stock has sprung the great variety of horses 

 we see to-day — race-horses, cart-horses, hunters, 

 polo ponies, Shetland ponies, etc. And these are 

 still varying. And the Equus Prjevalskyi was itself 

 the outcome of a long line of development. Like 

 all other animals, including man, it must have 

 sprung from an original animal-germ. And the 

 particles of that original animal-germ must have 

 had in them the animal-spirit actuated by the ideal 

 of all the animals of the present day, including man, 

 and ready to develop as soon as favourable condi- 

 tions provided the necessary stimulus to which the 

 germ was readj?^ to respond. 



And both the original plant-germ and the 

 original animal-germ sprang from an original plant- 

 animal germ. And this, again, from the Earth 

 itself. So that the Earth must always have had 

 hidden in it the ideal of all plant and animal and 

 human life — and not only the ideal of what it has 

 reached at present, but of all it will become, and, it 

 is important to note, of all it might become in 

 future. It is the working of this ideal in the Earth, 

 from the time five hundred million years or so ago 

 when it budded off from the Sun as a fiery mist, 

 that it has, under the influence of the light and heat 

 of the Sun, and possibly also under the influences 

 from the Stellar Universe as well, produced what 

 we see to-day. The Earth-Spirit was inspired by 

 this ideal, and in the ideal was this capacity for 



