THE HEREDITY OF RICHARD ROE. 123 
complex than the Constitution of the United States, 
with a far more perfect system of checks and balances, 
When we can understand all that takes place in a single 
cell we shall “know what God is and what man is.” It 
is not, like the Constitution of our nation, a simple 
written document with definite powers and definite limi- 
tations. It may rather be compared to the unwritten 
constitution of civilization, and a single cell may hold 
in potentiality even all that this supposed constitution 
may embrace. It is not easy, for example, to understand 
how Richard’s tone of voice, or the colour of his hair, 
or his ear for music, or other hereditary qualities can 
be thus hidden. But so they seem to be, and if Science 
should stop whenever she came to a problem we cannot 
think out, the growth of knowledge would be hemmed 
in more closely than it is now. 
When Nature is getting the germ cells ready, the 
hereditary material or chromatin is increased in each 
one and then again divided and subdivided, till in the 
ripened cell but half the usual amount is present.* The 
cell is then ready to unite with its fellow to form a per- 
fect cell, from which, under favourable circumstances, 
the great alliance of cells which constitute the body of 
Richard Roe can be built up. 
Nature makes her divisions evenly enough, but never 
quite equally. She is satisfied with an approximate 
equality, better satisfied than if she 
could make a perfect division. She 
knows no straight lines, she never made 
a perfect sphere, and she takes the cor- 
ner away from every angle. It satisfies her desire for 
likeness to have her children almost alike. Exact sym- 
metry would exclude variation, for which she cares 
Inequality of 
Nature’s 
divisions. 
* This explanation is probable but not certain. 
