108 LIFE PHENOMENA: SOME NOTES ON NITELLA, ETC. 
illustrations of life from even such- lowly conditions as 
these, without it being deemed needful or at all necessary 
to refer to those higher and more complicated conditions 
where states of consciousness, and intellect, and reason reign 
supreme; and we may find even here ample sufficiency of 
ground whereby we may support ourselves against the 
current, and, to the minds of some, the seemingly fascinating 
opinions of “modern thought.” 
There is a something intricate and grand in all life 
phenomena, and, withal, there is a “ something” in such phe¬ 
nomena which has baffled the wisdom and conceptions of all 
bygone ages, and which still remains enshrouded with the 
profoundest mystery. The question still remains un¬ 
answered. What is the cause ? What is it that could give 
to that first germ—that nucule of Nitella—which was to 
reproduce its exact simile, the power to commence its first 
life activity, and to do so according to a fixed and definite 
plan ? It must have been directed and guided in this ; it 
must surely have been controlled and regulated in these 
activities, or we could never expect to get produced the 
exact simile. There surely must be no chance agency at 
work here ! What is it, then, that commences and causes 
this process to proceed thus, and to proceed thus according 
to a determined plan, and for a definite purpose, and for the 
obtainment of definitely defined results ? The process must 
be carefully, contiifuously, and cautiously maintained, or our 
exact required simile would not be produced. And what is 
the cause of all this? Must it still be chance? Or will 
we give the benefit of the doubt to some blind physical or 
chemical force to accomplish it all thus? Or must there be 
a force or power at work, superior to and apart from these ? 
which could thus guide, and control, and govern for the 
precise obtainment of precise and definite ends? The 
nucule, you know, must develop into the full cell, perfect 
in size, perfect in conditions, perfect in construction, and 
perfect in appearance; it must have a similar circulatory 
phenomenon to that of the parent cell enclosed within a 
similar delicate cellulose wall. No other conditions but 
these can be accepted. Then cell after cell must be further 
produced, placed each in their proper situations, and each 
and all possessing the same required properties One cell 
must only produce one cell for a certain limited time ; then, 
at a definite spot, a whorl of cells must be produced, all 
proceeding from one cell-stem, which, previous to this, had 
only produced one cell, but which now is caused to produce 
a whorl. What could cause this change ? These cell- 
