LOWLY VEGETABLE FORMS. 475 



are mouldering into soil ; seas are filling up ; rivers and streams are 

 continually shifting their outlines; and lakes are converted into fertile 

 meadows and the sites of luxuriant forests, by means of the vast armies 

 of Nature's pioneers. Hard inorganic matters are reduced to impalpa- 

 ble atoms ; waters and gases are decomposed and moulded into new 

 forms and substances having new properties, by vegetable growth. 

 Minute as these plants are, they are intimately related to the giant 

 forms of the universe. It has been observed that as the great whole 

 is indissolubly connected with its minutest parts, so the germination 

 of the minutest lichen and the growth of the simplest moss are directly 

 linked with the grandest astronomical phenomena; nor could the 

 smallest fungus or conferva be annihilated without destroying the 

 equilibrium of the universe. It is with organic Nature as with the 

 body politic or the microcosm of the human frame, if " one member 

 suffer all the members suffer with it," and the loss of one class or order 

 would involve that of another, till all would perish. Our comfort and 

 health, nay our very existence, more or less immediately depend on the 

 useful functions which they perform. Before we can have the wheat 

 which forms our daily bread, or the grass which yields us, through the 

 instrumentality of our herds, our daily supply of animal food, or the 

 cotton and lint which form our clothes, countless generations of lichens 

 and mosses must have been at work preparing a soil for the growth of 

 the plants which produce these useful materials. And as on the dry 

 land, so in the great waters, this wonderful chain of connection exists 

 in all its complexity. Before the reader can peruse these pages by the 

 light of the midnight lamp, or the gay party can indulge their revels 

 under the brilliant glare of spermaceti tapers, myriads of minute dia- 

 toms and Confervce, floating in the waters of the sea, must have formed 

 a basis of subsistence for the whales and seals whose oil is employed 

 for these purposes. Man's own structure is nourished and built up by 

 the particles which these active plants have rescued from the mineral 

 kingdom, and which once circulated through their simple cells ; and 

 thus the highest and most complex creature, by a vital sympathy and 

 a close physical relation, is connected with the lowest and simplest 

 organism, to teach him humility, and inspire him with a deep interest 

 in all the works of his Maker ! 



" Nothing in this world is single ; 

 All things, by a law divine, 

 In one another's being mingle." 



It may be asked by a class of individuals, unfortunately too nu- 

 merous, What is the use of these minute plants ? In the business lan- 

 guage of the world things are called useful when they promote the 

 profit, convenience, or comfort, of every-day life ; and useless when 

 they do not promote, or when they hinder, either of these desired ends. 

 But this definition is extremely partial and one-sided. There are 



