82 Natuml Theology. 



vision. The microscope may open wonders in a 

 drop. And when we multiply the multitudes of 

 animate beings that dart across the microscopic 

 field by the drops in the pool or on the ocean's sur- 

 face, from which our drop was taken, computation 

 is impossible and imagination fails to conceive of 

 the numbers that swarm upon the earth. What 

 variety in form, whafcvaried structure and mode of 

 life are found among these atoms of the animal 

 kingdom ! We cannot expect yet to understand all 

 their uses and relations. But not one can be found 

 that has not perfect adaptation to the place it 

 inhabits. It glides or rows through the yielding 

 element apparently as intent on pleasure, certainly 

 as intent on securing the means of living, as the 

 highest tribes of land or water. There is adapta- 

 tion of means to ends in the structure of each one 

 of this multitude of different forms, so that we might 

 find evidence of design even in the structure of 

 organisms so minute and simple as these. But if 

 they were all of one form, and that the most simple 

 which can be found among them, we should still 

 recognise in their very existence an evidence of 

 wise design in the adjustments of the different 

 ranks of the animal kingdom. They confessedly 

 stand at the lowest step of sensitive life. They have 

 wonderful powers of multiplication. They or their 

 germs may even float in the air, so that multitudes 

 are ready to spring into existence wherever the 

 proper conditions of their life can be found. And 

 if we believed, with some, in their spontaneous 



