Marvels of Pond-Life. 147 



in our climate the mass of matter thus annually- 

 affected is very large j 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 spec- 

 tacle of boundless extent. We see life manifested by 

 the specks of jelly containing particles not aggregated 

 into structure, and we see it gradually ascending in com- 

 plexities of organization. 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, al- 

 though we cannot tell the object for which a single 

 portion received its precise form, we trace everywhere 

 relations of structure to means of existence and en- 

 joyment, and are led to the conviction that all the 

 actions and arrangements of the organic or inorganic 

 worlds are due to a definite direction and co-ordination 

 of a few simple forces, which implicitly and unerringly 

 obey the dictates of an Omniscient Mind. 



PRINTED BY J. E. ADLAED, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. 



