COXCLUSIOX 



this kind of Avork is found by the navigator who 

 examines the ice in arctic seas, and it comes up 

 with two miles soundings from ocean depths. 



On the surface of the earth tlie amount of chano^e 

 produced is equally remarkable, although it leaves 

 less permanent traces behind. As a rule no decom- 

 position of organized matter takes places, no death 

 of plants or animals, without infusorial life making 

 its appearance, and disposing of no small portion 

 of the spoil. Even in our climate the mass of 

 matter thus annually affected is very large; but 

 what must it not be in moist tropical lands, where 

 every particle seems alive, and the race of life and 

 death goes on at a speed, and to an extent scarcely 

 conceivable by those who have not witnessed it. 



Thus, if we look at the world of minute forms 

 which the microscope reveals, there opens before us 

 a spectacle of boundless extent. We see life mani- 

 fested by the simplest tissues, gradually ascending 

 in complexity of organization, and in creatures 

 whose habits and appearance seem most remote from 

 our own, we find the elementary developments of 

 the organs and powers that constitute our glory, 

 and give us our power. Such studies assist us to 

 conceive of the universe as a Cosmos, or Beautifully 

 Organized Whole; and, although we cannot tell the 

 object for which a single portion received its pre- 

 cise form, we trace everywhere relations of structure 



