INfUSOUIA AND FOUAMINIFERA. 77 



through the pores serve that purpose, and even the means 

 of respiration are indistinct or non-existent. 



The life and death of these myriads of tiny, insignificant, 

 and lowly-organized beings, in past ages as well as in the 

 present, have no doubt fulfilled important functions in the 

 general economy of Nature. Certainly the great results, 

 visible and tangible, presented to us in the shape of moun- 

 tain masses, — composed, not of grains of sand, but of what 

 were once living creatures iufinitesimally small, — strikes us 

 with wonder at the strange contrast; while the profusion 

 of life continually supplied and expended in supporting life 

 in higher forms, by giving food to many a larger animal, 



whose 



" Restless tongue 

 Calls daily for its millions at a meal," 



may well give rise to reflections of a serious kind, painful 

 perhaps, though not unprofitable. 



" 'T was wisdom, mercy, goodness, that ordained 

 Life in such infinite profusion, — Death 

 So sure, so prompt, so multiform." 



