262 ZOOPHYTES. 



A great, and intricate, a complex and perfect system is finished, such 

 as no adventitious operation of laws merely physical could have produced. 



The more we contemplate the symmetrical structures presented be- 

 fore us, the more do we find to admire : the more we probe into their 

 nature and purpose, the greater our wonder. Every organ is disposed in 

 its proper place, to discharge its proper functions : and the means of self- 

 preservation devised from their united influence. Life is reposited in the 

 common mass, along with that secret virtue during its subsistence, for 

 continuing the race after the parents may have perished. 



So many disclosures by the living world itself, must fill the contem- 

 plative mind with reverential awe and admiration. So many wise provisions, 

 such extraordinary precautions, added to the anticipations of futurity, go- 

 verning all in ceaseless harmonious order, could have no other source than 

 the will of a Celestial Power. 



I can penetrate no otherwise into the origin of animated nature pre- 

 sented before me. Inscrutable mystery veils the rest. 



Conviction impells me to impute the whole to a Superior Being. 

 Imagination cannot figure either the means, the time, or the purpose. 



Let us therefore rest content with what is exposed to human view, 

 in ascribing the only rational source of the Creation, to the will of its 

 Supreme Author. 



RETROSPECT. 



Amidst the wonderful multiplicity of his works, it has pleased the 

 Creator to diversify the appearance of living creatures in endless variety. 



While a certain mode of life from form, from site and sustenance, is 

 adapted for one, so is a different mode of life from form, from site, or sus- 

 tenance, appropriated for another. Hence do aspect and habits impress 

 themselves on those of mankind endowed with discriminative observation. 



The numerous genera and species disseminated throughout the globe. 



