232 Natural Theology. 



crystal they depend upon its permanence. We ha\ e 

 not here stepped beyond the limits of mathematical 

 law, but it is obscured by more deviations than in 

 the most complicated crystal. What myriad forms 

 start up on every side ! Let us sketch an outline 

 of the picture, that we may see how utterly hopeless 

 all attempts at science would be had not an Ordain- 

 ing Intelligence fitted all things for the intellectual 

 nature of man, 



Here we see the plant of single cell, cradled in 

 the northern snow ; its kindred lurking in every 

 pool the fungus, scavenger among plants, feeding 

 on decaying fibre the lichen and the moss, pictur- 

 ing the broad rocks with fairy groves and rings 

 the grasses weaving their carpets of green and 

 yielding their riches in almost every portion of the 

 earth the fir, dwarf birch, and willow, braving the 

 mountain storms, or creeping almost to eternal 

 snows the pine, whispering its sad meanings in 

 dark and gloomy forests the oak, spreading its 

 arms in strength the orange and citron, loading 

 the air with perfume the broad palm, lifting its 

 feathery leaves in quiet grandeur to the sky, and 

 the algae binding the ocean with one eternal fringe 

 of rich and varied hues. Mingled with all these are 

 thousands of other plants that adorn every land- 

 scape, as rich in product, as curious in structure, 

 and as varied in form. And all these are minister- 

 ing to a higher form of life the animal kingdom, 

 that, starting so near the vegetable kingdom that 

 we cannot draw the dividing line between the two, 



