TUBULARIA. 15 



prising life — as if exhausting every combination of matter ; astonishment 

 bewilders our conceptions of the transcendant Power which could fashion 

 them into definite shapes. It seems as if some ancient world were 

 shivered, that breath might be infused into every fragment. 



Some may ask, indeed, — Could not the attraction, the approximation, 

 and concurrence of inert particles display the form of living animals by 

 intimate or reciprocal incorporation ? Could not the vital spark be elicited 

 by some very simple process, though veiled from mortal eyes ? Life, we 

 know, is dormant in the originating being ; — matter, we know, is suscep- 

 tible of its institution there ; — nay, that we can be instrumental in awak- 

 ening it at will; — that resolving that it shall never glow, the matter 

 wherein it might have been unfolded perishes irretrievably, or it must 

 sleep in eternal night. 



Yet, what unless design could appropriate the respective parts of 

 the animal frame, what could guide the vital stream, expand the muscles, 

 lubricate the joints, or appoint the organs to do their office, such as Nature 

 requires to be done? 



How many theories vanish, how much illusion is refuted and dis- 

 pelled, in contemplating the perpetuation of the creatures filling the uni- 

 verse? A definite plan is betrayed, and a regular arrangement for its 

 execution, which cannot have sprung of simple casualties. The living 

 world contains in itself the means of replenishing the void of futurity. 



Thus the propagation of this humble zoophyte — a subject which of 

 all others might be presumed the most inexplicable, as the farthest with- 

 drawn from human notice — is not altogether beyond elucidation. Along 

 with its birth there was a provision for its permanence. 



Let us now resume a few general observations on the reproduction of 

 defective organs, such as shall replace those necessarily perishing by the 

 fall and dissolution of the head. 



It might be naturally assumed that the summit of a vacant stalk 

 contains in itself the elements of regenerating parts. But none are truly 

 there : they reside elsewhere, as we shall easily demonstrate. 



In the nascent animal, the stalk vegetates downwards from the disc : 

 no inferior parts are yet present from which the disc could vegetate up- 



