as indicating Affinities of Species. 397 



which, to return to ornithology, is so well exemplified in the 

 adaptation of the ptarmigan to the mountain top, and the 

 mountain top to the habits of the ptarmigan ; which suits the 

 ostrich to the arid desert, the woodpecker to the forest, and 

 the petrel to " the far sea wave." It is the majestic and 

 admirable system by which all nature works so beautifully 

 together, and to which all that our external senses reveal 

 appertains. It is the system which, exquisite and intensely 

 interesting in all its minutest details, is, if possible, even more 

 so in its complicated relations ; by which, by the unity of 

 design pervading which, all is demonstrable to be the work- 

 manship of One omnipotent and all-foreseeing Providence, 

 under the beneficent dispensation of whom nought that ever 

 exists or occurs stands isolated and alone, but all conduce 

 and work admirably together for the benefit of the whole; by 

 whose all-wise decree it is ordained, that, while the lofty and 

 sterile mountain peak attracts the clouds, which in winter, in 

 consequence, precipitate themselves upon it in the form of 

 snow, it should thus cause itself to become clad in the hue of 

 all others the most calculated to prevent its internal tempera- 

 ture from being farther reduced, and itself from thereby be- 

 coming an increased source of cold by radiation to all around; 

 while, at the same time, the concretion of snow itself, instead 

 of deluging the country round with superfluous moisture, is 

 thus retained for a time upon the heights, not only to shelter 

 the more tender organised productions of the mountain from 

 severer cold, but also to furnish, by the action of the summer 

 sun, a due supply of water, when needed, to the fountains and 

 rills which irrigate and fertilise the more level country ; there 

 having done its part, to flow on to the mighty reservoirs of 

 the ocean, again to arise in clouds, and to fulfil again its ap- 

 pointed rounds, with perpetual never ceasing energy, while the 

 world endures. 



" Look round our world ; behold the chain of love 

 Combining all below and all above. 

 See plastic Nature working to this end ; 

 The single atoms each to other tend, 

 Attract, attracted to, the next in place 

 Form'd and impelPd its neighbour to embrace. 

 See matter next, with various life endued, 

 Press to one centre still, the general good. 

 See dying vegetables life sustain, 

 See life dissolving vegetate again : 

 All forms that perish other forms supply: 

 (By turns we catch the vital breath and die,) 

 Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, 

 They rise, they break, and to that sea return, 

 Nothing is foreign : parts relate to whole ; 

 One all-extending all-preserving Soul 

 g g 3 



