cxiv INTRODUCTION. [CH. VI. 



its generation — the phenomena of its growth — all con- 

 cerning each apparently insignificant individual; there 

 is the history of the species — the value of its distinctive 

 marks — the features which link it with higher and lower 

 creatures — the reason why it takes its stand where we 

 place it in the scale of creation — the course of its distri- 

 bution — the causes of its difiusion — its antiquity or no- 

 velty — the mystery (deepest of mysteries) of its first 

 appearance — the changes of the outline of continents and 

 of oceans which have taken place since its advent, and 

 their influence on its own wanderings. Some of these 

 questions may be clearly and fairly solved ; some of them 

 may be theoretically or hypothetically accounted for; 

 some are beyond all the subtlety of human intellect to 

 unriddle. I cannot revolve in my mind the many que- 

 ries which the consideration of the most insignificant of 

 organized creatures, whether animal or vegetable, sug- 

 gests, without feeling that the rejection of a mystery, 

 because it is a mystery, is the most besotted form of 

 human pride *.'^ 



* Nat. Hist. Eur. Seas, p. 12. 



In his tarn parvis, atque tarn nullis, qujc ratio ! quanta vis ! quam 

 inextricabilis perfectio ! — Pliny. 



