1 8 Life and Love. 



the desire for food, which its protoplasm first ap- 

 propriates, then converts into available material. 

 At a certain period in its existence the amoeba 

 obeys the universal law of life, and in place of one 

 amceba, we have two. 



The Future, appealing to the amoeba, causes it 

 to multiply its form ; and this it does in the 

 simplest way, by merely dividing in the middle 

 and becoming two. 



This is the earliest form of parentage, the 

 simplest form of reproduction. This separation 

 of one into more than one is a primal impulse 

 of living things. 



Yielding to this necessity the amoeba lives 

 on forever, or as long as the earth continues 

 to support life. 



It becomes immortal in the scientific sense 

 in which the term is used to denote a con- 

 tinuance of the physical life on earth. 

 Only it, however, and its nearest relatives, as 

 simple in structure as itself, achieve the stupendous 

 result of personal ph\-sical immortality. 



The amoeba, by di\'iding its whole substance, 

 knows no loss, no death of any part; only violence 

 can sunder it from life. 



It resolves itself into its own offspring, and 

 nothing perishes. 



But this mere dividing of the individual is not 

 always enough, even for the lowly protozoa; forms 

 almost as simple as the amceba seek to renew the 



