268 NATURE AND LIFE. 



Thus, just as the infinite universe through which the 

 spheres roll is filled with invisible particles of a subtile mat- 

 ter to which physicists and astronomers give the name of 

 ether, and which supplies the only key to cosmic phenom- 

 ena, the* finite universe in which organization unfolds it- 

 self is thronged with corpuscles no less invisible, forming 

 what the illustrious Ehrenberg calls the milky-way of lower 

 organisms, and no less essential for the explanation of the 

 processes of which we have traced the general course. As 

 there is an ether wanting in life, so there is an ether en- 

 dowed with life a vital ether. Both are above denial; 

 they surpass our reason, yet reason cannot but demand 

 them. They elude the close grasp of experiment, yet ex- 

 periment does not permit them to be avoided ; they are 

 unseen, and without them there could be nothing seen. 

 The mind clings to them with the stress of all its power 

 to embrace, perhaps because it feels a secret, mysterious 

 affinity with them, perhaps because it is in substance of the 

 same essence with them. 



III. 



Our atmosphere, then, is the receptacle for myriads of 

 germs of microscopic beings, which play an important part 

 in the organized world. Penetrating agents of decay, 

 baneful toilers for disease, they lie ever in wait for the 

 chance to pierce the internal machinery of animals and 

 plants, and create slight or grave disturbances within it. 

 Life often resists or escapes them, but nothing can contest 

 with them its deserted vesture. The corpse is their natural 

 aliment, and death their chosen laboratory. There these 

 lowest of created things work out their lofty destiny in the 

 eternal drama of renewal of organic existences. 



When the thin pellicle covering sweet fruits is torn at 

 any point, an opening is made for atmospheric germs. Fer- 

 menting cells pierce the interior of the fruit, and produce 



