THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 45 



CHAPTER V. 



THE MONAD. 



What a mysterious abyss is expressed by this single 

 "word monad ! Like a sand in movement this impalpable 

 dust of animalcules, this first expression of creative power, 

 is only revealed to us by the microscope, and Ave still only 

 perceive it as a mass, for its individuality often escapes us. 

 The extreme minuteness of the monad seems to point it 

 out as an element of the most hidden phenomena of life. 

 How often have philosophers looked upon animal life of 

 the highest order as being merely the representative of an 

 agglomeration of monads ! 



In point of fact these Microzoa were looked upon by 

 Buffon and some other naturalists as organic molecules, the 

 agglomeration of which, presided over by fixed laws, con- 

 tributed to the formation of plants and animals. After the 

 time of the immortal overseer of the Jardin du Eoi, Oken 

 upheld the same opinion, maintaining that large animals 

 were aggregates of monads ; an idea which, as the reader 

 will perceive, seems to be only a repetition of the famous 

 hypothesis of atoms which we owe to Leucippus; which, after 

 having flourished in antiquity, is seen shedding its latest 

 gleams of light upon the writings of Kepler and Descartes.^ 



The monads, true living atoms, are so extremely small, 

 that they can only be seen by the help of the greatest 



1 The supporters of the famous atomic system, which pLayed such a great part 

 in both ancient and modern philosophy, maintained that the ceaseless production 



