CHAPTER XXX. 
THE PROGRESSION OF LIFE, 
The story of life, from its early dawn to the 
present day, is full of interest, if not surprises. Its 
beginning is humble, its structures the simplest, the 
numbers of individuals countless. The lowest and 
earliest geological forms are those of the rhizopods, 
whose remains are the chief constituents of miles of 
rock. 
What are life’s secrets before the rhizopods ? (see 
Fig. 111.) How science would like to discover them ! 
But it has no key to unlock the door of her abiding. 
As with one bound, life leaps into myriad forms of 
existence. Whence ? She tells us not. 
The jelly-like speck of matter called ameba is the 
lowest animal life man has been able to discover. But 
this is matter already highly organized. There is a 
wide chasm between such a speck and a crystal, which 
seems to be the next highest form of matter. The 
particles of the crystal have assumed definite shape in 
accordance with some determining law. But it can 
not move, only as it is made to do so by light or heat. 
The ameba, however, already possesses the power of 
locomotion, of respiration, of digestion and assimila- 
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