THE BALANCE OF LIFE IN THE AQUARIUM. 439 



death has been very busy (for plants of large growth soon perish in 

 the absence of sunshine, and occasional attendant accidents will carry 

 off some of the finny pets), how life has been ^dually active on the 

 other side, for such an aquarium will be a hundred times richer in 

 those spontaneous growths we have already spoken of, and visible 

 forms of infusoria and true zoophytes will abound, and every class will 

 be more fully represented, down even to the twilight monad. 



Though this paper must have an end, there is no end to the teach- 

 ing of the aquarium. It is a watery microcosm of living and dead 

 wonders, and we need not marvel that the balance of life and death 

 may be observed in its succession of changes, because all the physical 

 forces of the universe are locked up within a single bead of dew, and 

 all the functions of organic creation are comprised in the economy of a 

 monas termo. If God so ordains that life shall be constantly soaring 

 from the tomb, if the story of the Phoenix ceases to be a fable, need 

 man, the victim of doubts and fears, ever fail in his trust of that blessed 

 promise, that " this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corrupti- 

 ble shall put on incorruption ? " Science may fix his mind on the ap- 

 preciation of God's wisdom and power as he reads the handwriting of 

 the Almighty in Nature, but through faith in another revelation must 

 we hope to exclaim, triumphantly, "O death, where is thy sting? 

 O gi'ave, where is thy victory ? " Or, to pass from divine to human 

 consolations, we may take up the apostrophe of the great Raleigh, and 

 say : " O eloquent, just, and mighty Death ! what none have dared, thou 

 hast done; what none have attempted, thou hast accomplished; thou 

 hast gathered all the might, majesty, and meanness of mankind, and 

 hast covered them with these two words, l hicjacet.' > " Nature's chil- 

 dren have a dread of death, but Nature herself is in friendly compact 

 with the master of silence. If the types which are the ideas of God 

 have survived from the oldest rocks to this present hour, will not the 

 spirit which lives on ideas, and evolves them as the aquarium evolves 

 its throng of animalcules, live forever ? It is not hard to believe with 



Tennyson 



" That nothing walks with aimless feet, 

 That not one life shall be destroyed, 

 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 

 When God hath made the pile complete." 



" The pile " will be complete when God's purpose is fulfilled in man, 

 to whom it is given to hope after eternal life, and with eyes of faith to 

 pierce through the veil, and behold the wondrous things of eternity. 



Hecreative Science. 



