100 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



splendor of his capacities, and will discern in his long 

 progress through the past a reasonable ground of faith 

 in his attainment of a nobler future." 



We have sketched hastily and in rude outline the 

 anatomical structure of the successive stages of man's 

 ancestry ; let us now, in a very brief recapitulation, con- 

 dense this chronicle into a historical record of progress. 



We began with the amoeba. This could not have 

 been the beginning. In all its structure it teUs us of 

 something earlier and far simpler, but what this earlier 

 ancestor was we do not know. Rather more highly or- 

 ganized relatives of the amoeba, the flagellata, have 

 produced a membrane, and swim by means of vibratile, 

 whiplash-like flagella. We must emphasize that these 

 little animals correspond in all essential respects to the 

 cells of our bodies ; they are unicellular animals. And 

 the ceU once developed remains essentially the same 

 . structure, modified only in details, throughout higher 

 animals. And these unicellular animals have the rudi- 

 ments of all our functions. Their protoplasm and 

 functions seem to differ from those of higher animals 

 only in degree, not in kind. And the more we con- 

 sider both these facts the more remarkable and sug- 

 gestive do they become*. 



Cells with membranes can unite in colonies capable 

 of division of labor and differentiation. And mago- 

 sphsera is just such a little spheroidal colony. But 

 the cells are still all alike, each one performs all func- 

 tions equally well. But in volvox division of labor 

 and differentiation of structure have taken place. Cer- 

 tain cells have become purely reproductive, while the 

 rest gather nutriment for these, but are at the same time 

 sensitive and locomotive, excretory and respiratory. 



