Animals. 83 



generation, we should still consider their perfect 

 adaptation in the scale of organic beings as evidence 

 of design. Many of them are so minute that they 

 can feed upon nothing but organic solutions or the 

 finest forms of organic matter just ready to decom- 

 pose and pass into inorganic gases. They thus 

 stand ever between the organic and inorganic 

 world, the lowest scavengers of nature, to live upon 

 its organic particles, while they themselves he- 

 come the food of other larger and higher forms of 

 animal life, and they of others, until the mighty 

 whale, the largest animal on the -lobe, and man, the 

 highest in rank, both are indirectly indebted tor a 

 portion of their food to the labors of these unseen 

 :ns of life that turn back inorganic matter into 

 hi^h^r channels, preventing the formation of poi- 

 sons and ministering to the wants of higher beings. 

 M- one step hi-hrr, we have the great divi- 

 sion of radiate animals, the builders of coral domes 

 and islands the soft jelly-fishes and the starfish 

 tribe. This group alone will furnish material for 

 study for ages to come, but enough is now known 

 of its general adaptations to excite the wonder of 

 every naturalist. 



One little body floating through the water fastens 

 on some solid substance, and straightway, by the very 

 law of its growth, a coral tree or coral dome begins 

 to rise. He divides and subdivides or buds till the 

 community numbers thousands. And to each kind 

 is given a distinct form. And these forms so mingle 

 together that coral reefs rise above the ocean and 



