Human Life. 193 



merable directions, were handed on and on, serv- 

 ing not only the one form whence they originated, 

 but innumerable succeeding and advancing forms 

 as well. 



Slowly, yet surely, the admirable support of the 

 backbone came into existence. Once evolved it 

 was not rejected for some other method of sup- 

 port, but, able to serve a multitude of forms, it 

 lent its aid to swimming, flying, creeping, jumping, 

 running, walking creatures in vast profusion. In 

 man it has the essential characteristics possessed 

 by it in all other mammals. And so we see life 

 one beautiful whole, united by the strongest and 

 deepest ties of structure and function. And when 

 we approach the most important physical fact of 

 all life, the fact of reproduction, we find it too but 

 one great cosmic truth, working alike from lowest 

 to highest, increasing in complexity as the life 

 ascends, until it culminates in the life of the higher 

 mammals. And here, too, in his physical life, man 

 shows his kinship to all other life. What is true of 

 the reproductive phenomena of the higher mam- 

 mals is true in every particular of him as well. 

 Sperm and egg-cell work out the human destiny as 

 they do that of lower life-forms. Human life, like 

 all other life, stands upon a physical superstructure. 

 To behold the marvels of his own form, man needs 

 but look out into the world of life about him and 

 see there the reflection of himself. His physical 

 needs are the same as those of his humbler neigh- 

 «3 



