TRANSMUTABLE. 171 



monidae feeding within the live body of caterpillars, 

 is not an instance of created instinct, but a 

 consequence of one general law leading to the 

 advancement of all organic beings, and to the 

 dreadful, unnatural, and untrue result, "Multiply, 

 vary, let the strongest live, and the weakest die.' 7 



Did the man that could express such an idea 

 as this ever see "the storm tempered to the shorn 

 lamb?" Did he ever look at a drop of water, 

 and see there myriads upon myriads of simple 

 monads, whose only existence can be shewn by 

 the highest powers of the microscope, as minute, 

 hardly visible specks ; but living there in manifest 

 enjoyment, though surrounded by thousands of 

 other "stronger forms than themselves?" 



Did he ever see the gentle ephemera emerge 

 from its chrysalis, spread its gossamer wings to 

 the sun, live its allotted half-hour upon earth, 

 and then die? 



Did he ever see the brilliant beetle, all decked 

 in green and gold, opening its wing-cases in the 

 summer sun, but the moment a footstep was 

 heard, falling to the ground, to all appearances then 

 only a small mass of the clod on which it laid? 



Did he ever look at the wonderful structure 

 of even the least, and most perishable of living 

 things, and see there the Hand which gives to 

 one a shell, to another a coat of mail, to another 

 a sting, and to another the colour of the tree, 

 or the rock, or the heather, on which it lived. 



Did he ever contemplate nature, and the pro- 

 tection thrown by its Maker upon the smallest 



