40 
the microscope, it will be seen to possess all those properties of 
active and incessant motion by which protoplasm is invariably 
distinguished. 
To this point, then, the researches of Science have been able 
to attain. But mark this, that between the speck of protoplasm, 
which is the germ of the man that is to be, or of the mouse, or of 
the mushroom, Science has not hitherto been able to discover any ~ 
difference. Whether a touch more of brimstone gives the ferocious 
creature, or a touch more of phosphorus the intellectual animal, is 
a secret which is not revealed to us. We see, then, how far the 
vision of Science has been able to pierce ; how infinite is the gulf 
beyond, into which Science has not been able—perhaps, never may 
be able—even vaguely to peer ! 
The next point of coincidence between the animal and the 
vegetable world to which I wish to refer, is not, so far as we know, 
one of general application, but one which is confined to a few 
species of plants. We have been accustomed to look upon the 
world of plants as affording no instance of what, in the animal 
world, we are accustomed to regard as a form of cruelty—the life 
of one animal being sacrificed in order to supply the wants of 
another. Yet this is not so, for there are some plants, of which 
the Common Sun-dew may be given as an instance, which, though 
possessing the outward characteristics of the vegetable, yet, in some 
of their habits and modes of life, bear considerable resemblance to 
the carnivorous animals. These plants subsist largely upon insects, 
which they catch, and kill, and eat, and digest; and they would 
eagerly eat a piece of meat, if presented to them in a sufficiently 
small particle. These plants, inasmuch as they do not, like the 
generality of other plants, draw most of their sustenance from the 
soil, do not require to have, and so have not, roots as well 
developed as most other plants. What they do require is water, 
in order to form their digestive secretions. As in man the digestive 
operation is performed by means of a juice, which is called the 
gastric juice, so in these plants digestion is performed by means of 
a secretion which, in its constitutents, is hardly to be distinguished 
from the gastric juice in man. But in order to have juice you 
ot 
