i ‘ PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 321 
the plant world, I should find that it originated in 
‘an acorn, which, too, commenced in a cell; the 
acorn is placed in the ground, and it very speatlity 
begins to absorb the inorganic matters I have 
named, adds enormously to its bulk, and we can 
“see it, year after year, extending itself upward 
fond downward, attracting and appropnatiud to 
itself inorganic materials, which it vivifies, and 
eventually, as it ripens, gives off its own proper 
acorns, which again run the same course. But I 
need not multiply examples,—from the highest to 
the lowest the essential features of life are the 
‘same as I have described in each of these cases. 
— $So much, then, for these particular features of 
‘the organic world, which you can understand and 
comprehend, so long as you confine yourself to one 
sort of living ota and study that only. 
But, as you know, horses are not the only living 
ereatures in the world; and again, horses, like all 
ther animals, have certain limits—are confined 
‘to a certain area on the surface of the earth on 
ch we live,—and, as that is the simpler matter, 
i take that first. In its wild state, and before 
‘the discovery of America, when the natural state 
of things was interfered with by the Spaniards, the 
orse was only to be found in parts of the earth 
wih are known to geographers as the Old 
World ; that is to say, you might meet with 
orses in Europe, Asia, or Africa ; but there were 
one in Australia, and there were none whatsoever 
VOL, II roy 
