Plain Facts for Old and Young | Page 8

existing living being or beings.
It may be queried, If it be true that life is but a manifestation of the
ordinary forces of matter,--which are common to both dead and living
matter,--being dependent upon arrangement, then why may it not be
that dead matter may, through the action of molecular laws, and
without the intervention of any living existence, assume those peculiar
forms of arrangement necessary to constitute life, as supposed by the
advocates of the theory in question? It is true that some who recognize
the fact that life is the result of organization maintain the doctrine of
spontaneous generation; that is, the production of life without any
agency other than the recognized forces of nature being brought about
simply by a fortuitous combination of atoms. Although this doctrine
cannot be said to be inconsistent with the theory of life presented, yet it
is by no means a legitimate or necessary result of it; and observation
proves its falsity.
The testimony of all nature, as almost universally admitted by scientific
men, is that life originated through a creative act by the first Great
Cause, who gave to certain bodies the requisite arrangement or
organization to enable them to perform certain functions, and delegated
to them the power to transmit the same to other matter, and thus to
perpetuate life. The Creator alone has the power to originate life. Man,
with all his wisdom and attainments, cannot discover the secret of
organization. He may become familiar with its phenomena, but he
cannot unravel, further, the mystery of life. The power of organizing is
possessed only by the lower class of living or organized bodies, those
known as vegetable organisms or plants. A grain of wheat, a kernel of
corn, a potato, when placed under favorable conditions, takes the inert,
lifeless particles of matter which lie about it in the earth and air, and
organizes them into living substances like itself.

To man and animals the Creator delegated the power to form their own
peculiar structures from the vitalized tissues of plants. Thus, both
animal and vegetable life is preserved without the necessity of
continued acts of creative power, each plant and each animal
possessing the power not only to preserve its own life, but also to aid,
at least, in the perpetuation of the species. The record of creation in
Genesis harmonizes perfectly with this view, it being represented that
God formed (organized or arranged) man, animals, and vegetable
productions from the earth.
Simplest Form of Generation.--Deep down beneath the waters of the
ocean, covering its bottom in certain localities, is found a curious slime,
which, under the microscope, is seen to be composed of minute
rounded masses of gelatinous matter, or protoplasm. By watching these
little bodies intently for a few minutes, the observer will discover that
each is a living creature capable of moving, growing, and assuming a
variety of shapes. Continued observation will reveal the fact that these
little creatures multiply; and a more careful scrutiny will enable him to
see how they increase. Each divides into two equal parts so nearly alike
that they cannot be distinguished apart. In this case the process of
generation is simply the production of two similar individuals from
one.
A small quantity of slime taken from the surface of a stone near the
bottom of an old well, or on the seaside, when placed under the
microscope, will sometimes be found to contain large numbers of small,
round, living bodies. Careful watching will show that they also
multiply by division; but before the division occurs, two cells unite to
form one by a process called conjugation. Then, by the division of this
cell, instead of only two cells, a large number of small cells are formed,
each of which may be considered as a bud formed upon the body of the
parent cell and then separated from it to become by growth an
individual like its parent, and, like it, to produce its kind. In this case,
we have new individuals formed by the union of two individuals which
are to all appearance entirely similar in every particular.
Sex.--Rising higher in the scale of being, we find that, with rare

exceptions, reproduction is the result of the union of two dissimilar
elements. These elements do not, in higher organisms, as in lower
forms of life, constitute the individuals, but are produced by them; and
being unlike, they are produced by special organs, each adapted to the
formation of one kind of elements. The two classes of organs usually
exist in separate individuals, thus giving rise to distinctions of sex; an
individual possessing organs which form one kind of elements being
called a male, and one possessing organs for the formation of the other
kind of elements, a female. The sexual differences