150 



Cells; or, Evolution. 



which it assumes according to its place in the struct- 

 ure. If matter is everything, as it is for the mate- 

 rialist, why should not anything change into any- 

 thing, since there is only the organic cell every- 

 where — if, I say, matter is everything. Nor is it 

 surprising that Professor Haeckel, an industrious 

 disciple of materialism, should give the cell " a 

 glorious mission;" albeit some of his fellow-dis- 

 ciples, like Edmond Perrier of the same school, 

 rather enjoy a laugh at his enthusiasm. For con- 

 templating Haeckel's moneron or formless cell, and 

 the genealogical tree of phylogenesis (No. 191 below), 

 sprung from that cell and from his enthusiasm into 

 every order of species, the materialist critic sneers 

 at materialistic ingenuity, — " as if a certain living 

 being had received the glorious mission of conduct- 

 ing life to its most elevated form, all the way up the 

 ladder of animal species, without once stumbling on 

 any one of those other forms, which were destined 

 to stay down, but with which it just acknowledges 

 common ancestors and (collateral) cousins !" 



166c Let us examine what truth there may be, like 

 a germinal cell in history, to which such 

 a flourishing tree of theory may trace its 

 genealogy. Throw yourself back to the 

 time when, according to the nebular 

 hypothesis, this planet of ours, like so 

 many others, was still in a nebulous, fiery state, one 

 of intense light and heat. There was no question 

 of cells developing as yet, nor of any cells existing 



The Nebular 

 Hypothesis. 

 First and 

 Second Days 



of Moses. 



