122 NATURE AND LIFE. 



the torrid zone, is dazzling in its splendor. At the north 

 we find gray tints, dead and of little variety, usually close 

 upon white, by reason of the almost constant reflection 

 from snow. 



Not only the color of organized beings, but their shape, 

 too, is linked with the action of light, or rather of climate. 

 The flora of the globe gain increasing perfection as we go 

 from the poles toward the equator. The nearer these beings 

 approach the highest degree of heat and light, the more 

 lavishly are richness, splendor, and beauty, bestowed on 

 them. The energy and glory of life, perfect forms as well 

 as brilliant arraying, are the distinguishing mark of the 

 various and manifold races in tropical regions, giving this 

 privileged world its characteristic aspect. Nature is here 

 grandly imposing in the radiance of her virginity, unsul- 

 lied and unsubdued by man's presence and arts. A pure 

 emanation from the sun, she here lives wild and splendid, 

 gazing unshrinkingly, like the Alpine eagle, on the eternal 

 and sublime source which inundate her with heat and 

 glow. Look, now, at the region of the pole ! A few 

 dwarfish shrubs, a few stunted and herbaceous plants, com- 

 pose all its flora. Its animals have a pale covering and 

 downy feathers ; its insects, sombre tints. All around them 

 are the utmost limits of life ice invades every thing, the 

 sea alone still breeds a few acalephs, some zoophytes, and 

 other low rudimentary organizations. The sun comes 

 aslant and seldom. At the equator he darts his fires, and 

 gives himself without stint to the happy Eden of his predi- 

 lection. 



IV. 



It remains to note the relations of light to that being 

 most sensitive to its influence, and best able to express its 

 effects, man himself. The new-born child seeks the day by 

 instinct, and turns to the side whence light comes, and, if 



