“How foolish!” exclaimed the others. “We have no knowledge of such stirrings or new consciousness. Why should you have? No one has ever seen light. There never has been light and there never will be light. When will you cease to trouble us?” And all the statoblasts murmured their assent to this, and gathering more closely about their offending brother, crushed him into silence.
And slowly the dawn broke, and there was light upon the face of the earth, and the statoblasts saw it and saw each other, and looked upon each other and said:
“We knew that it would come.”
II.
The earth slept.
Age upon age came and went. The light grew stronger. Great green growths shot heavenward, lived their appointed time, fell back to earth and mingled with its mold. The rain fell and covered the heated world, and its vapors steamed up and fell back in rain again. The seas heaved and dashed, and approached and receded, age upon age.
“Brothers! Brothers!” cried one amœboid cell to the rest, “I feel a strange impulse within me—a stirring as of power. Brothers, I believe that we have a wonderful destiny before use. I believe that we shall have power of motion.”
“Nonsense,” replied the others. “Why do you trouble us? We are at rest. We never have moved. We never shall move. There is nothing to move for if we did move.”
And all the cells breathed their assent to this, and grew more closely around their brother and pressed upon him and smothered him into silence.
And the ages rolled by, and presently motion came to the cells and they darted to and fro in the water, saying to each other: “We knew that we should move, in time.”