Vertebrates, then, were derived from a primal vertebrate, articulates from a primal articulate, and so for other departments. But whence were these _primals_ derived? Are there any intermediate links between, any deeply concealed common plan of structure underlying these primary groups, showing a common origin? It must be confessed that, in their _mature_ condition, there seems to be but little evidence of such. These primary groups seem to be built on different plans, to be fundamentally of different styles of architecture. Therefore Darwin, in the true spirit of inductive caution--that true scientific spirit which keeps strictly within the limits of evidence--commences with four or five distinct primal kinds, from which by divergent variation all animals were descended. Nevertheless, the truly scientific biologist must ever strongly incline to believe that these also came from some _primal animal_, and even that both animals and plants were derived from some primal form of _living thing_; that as, in the taxonomic series, the animal and vegetal kingdoms in their lowest forms merge undistinguishably into one another; as in the ontogenic series the animal and plant germ are one, so also in the phylogenic series the earliest organisms were simply living things, but not distinctively animal nor vegetal. Science, therefore, whose mission is to trace origins as far back as possible, must ever strive to find connecting links between the primary groups. Some such have been supposed to have been discovered. Some find the origin of vertebrates among the molluscoids (ascidians); some find the origins of both vertebrates and articulates among marine worms (annelids). This point is still too doubtful to be dwelt upon here. It may be that we seek in vain for such connecting links among existing forms. It may well be that the point of separation of these great primary groups (unless we except vertebrates) was far lower even than these low forms. Both phylogeny and ontogeny seem to indicate this. In the earliest fauna known, the primordial (for if there was life in the archæan it was not yet differentiated into a fauna), all the great departments, except the vertebrates, seem to have been represented. In embryonic development, too, the point of connection or even of similarity, between the great departments, is found, as we shall see hereafter, only in the earliest stages--i. e., lower down than any but the lowest existing forms, viz., the protozoa. CHAPTER VII. PROOFS FROM EMBRYOLOGY, OR COMPARISON IN THE ONTOGENIC SERIES.