XIX 
THE CURVE OF LIFE 
O Huxley it seemed that one of the most 
a significant characteristics of living crea- 
tures was their “cyclical development.” From a 
microscopic egg-cell an embryo plant develops; 
the ovule becomes a seed, the seed a seedling; by 
insensible steps there is formed a large and varied 
fabric of root and stem, leaves and flowers. But 
no sooner has the edifice attained completeness 
than it begins to crumble. The grass withereth 
and the flower thereof fadeth, and soon there is 
nothing left but the seeds, which begin the cycle 
anew. It is, Huxley said, “a Sisyphzan process, 
in the course of which the living and growing plant 
passes irom the relative simplicity and latent 
potentiality of the seed to the full epiphany of a 
highly differentiated type, thence to fall back to 
simplicity and potentiality again.’ So is it also 
among animals. The microscopic egg-cell divides 
and redivides, and there is built up an embryo. This 
may develop steadily and directly into the likeness 
of its kind; or it may give rise to a quite divergent 
phase—a larva of some sort—such as caterpillar or 
tadpole, which by and by undergoes metamorphosis 
and gets shunted on to the direct line of ontogeny. 
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