ultimate particles of which matter is composed may well be regarded as
alike and mere duplicates of one another. And this, as we have seen, is
just what modern discoveries in radioactivity are teaching us regarding
the make-up of the substances that we call matter.

But an objection at once arises. How can these primordial units of which
matter is composed behave so differently, if they are really alike, mere
duplicates of one another?

We may not as yet be able to tell just why and how; but we have in the
cells of which all plants and animals are composed an analogy which is
almost perfect, if not quite.

These component units of organic matter, the individual cells, as will
be explained later, seem physically and even chemically mere duplicates
of one another. They may not all be of the same size; but they are all
composed of protoplasm, and the protoplasm of plants cannot be
distinguished from that of animals by any physical or chemical tests
known to modern science. The protoplasm in the brain of a bird is the
same as that in its toes; and no metaphysical subtilties about heredity
have ever explained why the one does a different work from the other.
The plain fact is that different cells, composed of identical protoplasm
and structurally alike, _act very differently_; and there is no
scientific reason based on innate properties that gives us even a
glimmer of a reason why. We have searched a long time along this road;
but there is no prospect of finding an explanation; we are merely
running up a _cul-de-sac_ with no view beyond. From the materialistic
point of view, nobody knows why protoplasm acts as it does, _least_ _of
all, why some masses of protoplasm act one way, and exact duplicates act
differently_. But if, on the other hand, we look beyond the facts and