rward_. There had been no forward nor
backward before, nor any sides or top to me. Now a back, a
dorsal aspect, came into being, and the vital centre was
thrust forward within the cell, so as to be farthest away
from the danger. It is in this way that the potential centre
of an organism came to be in the front, in the head, looking
forward and always pointed away from the danger--protected to
the last.

"As I flowed forward, the sticky fluid substance of my body
sucked into the oozy bottom. I spatted myself as flat as
possible, seeming to press the tenderest parts closest to the
bottom. And it is in this way that the vital parts of
organisms came to be underneath, on the ventral aspect,
protected from above by the sides and back. As the Fear
increased, I gained in strength and speed of locomotion, the
same parts of my form protruding rhythmically, faster and
easier, until I did not need to concentrate so intensely upon
the moving-act. Doubtless I covered ages of evolution in the
dream. It is in this way through the stimulus of Fear that
the rudiments of organs of locomotion were begun. And they
came in the Beginnings on the ventral side, because that side
was pressed close to the earth. Every sense, volition,
reasoning power--everything--was generated and fostered by
Fear in the Beginnings. So Fear is really the Mother of our
first overcoming of Inertia.

"I do not recall being devoured by that creature of the Ray;
and yet it seems as if half the life in the Bottoms was
clutched in the torture of that danger. The other half was
gorging.... Gorge, gorge, with unappeased appetite, body
bulging to the bursting point, the Devourers all about me,
the larger engulfing the smaller, not with mouths, but
literally enclosing their prey with the walls of their
bodies, so that the smaller flowed into the larger. And often
the engulfed would be of greater length than the engulfer....

"There was a sound made by the gorging, a distinct sound born
of gluttony, not audible, but to be felt by my sensitive
surfaces, a sort of emanation, not from the gorgers, but born
from the engrossing intensity of the gorging act. I shall
always remember it, a distinct 'ummmmmmm,' constant, and
rising and falling at times to a trifle faster or lower