be in the seed or germ of any of these latter one single
particle of living protoplasm to begin with, that single particle may
convert into animated protoplasm an indefinite quantity of inanimate
ammonia, carbonic acid, and water. The protoplasm thus created in the
first instance, and created, let us suppose, in the form of a lichen or
a fungus, is converted by decay into vegetable mould, in which grass may
take root and grow, and which, in that case, will be converted into
herbaceous protoplasm; which, being eaten by sheep or oxen, becomes
ovine or bovine protoplasm, commonly called mutton or beef; which,
again, being eaten by man, becomes human protoplasm, and, if eaten by a
philosopher, becomes part of a mass of protoplasm capable of
investigating and of expounding in lectures or lay sermons, the changes
which itself and its several components have undergone.

So far we advance with willing steps like dutiful disciples along the
path of knowledge indicated by our distinguished biological teacher, who
here, however, pulls us up short by suddenly intimating that he sees no
break in the series of transubstantiations whereby precisely such
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon as he is lecturing upon, have
become metamorphosed into him, the lecturer, and us, the lectured
audience, and cannot 'understand why the language which is applicable to
any one term of the series should not be used in regard to any of the
others.' Oxygen and hydrogen, he reminds us, are gases, whose particles,
at and also much below 32 deg. Fahrenheit, tend to rush away from each other
with great force; and this tendency we call a property of each gas. Let
oxygen and hydrogen be mixed in certain proportions, and an electric
spark passed through them, and they will disappear, and a quantity of
water equal in weight to the sum of their weights will appear in their
place. But amongst the properties of the water will be some, the direct
opposites of those of its components; watery particles, for example, at
any temperature not higher than 32 deg. Fahrenheit, tending not to rush
asunder, but to cohere into definite geometrical shapes or to build up
frosty imitations of vegetable foliage. And let the water be brought
into conjunction with ammonia and carbonic acid, and the three will,
under certain conditions, give rise to protoplasm, which again, if
subjected to a certain succession of processes, will rise by successive
stages from protoplasm that give