148 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION. 



ever, we deal a death blow to another of those sensationalisms 

 of science, which are so destructive to the acquirement of a 

 correct knowledge of the power^and functions of natural law. 



Various particles of animal and vegetable matter, in the 

 nature of coral elements, settle on a rock or sea bottom. 

 As their numbers increase, they acquire a greater magnetic 

 influence, and attract other particles. But, as atoms, they have 

 the repelling power of the magnet, and like to either the 

 philosopher's tree, or the natural one, they throw out roots on 

 the rock, or sea bottom, and branches in the ocean ; looking 

 almost exactly like a leafless tree in winter. The shape, size, 

 and colour, of the formation, is naturally guided by the condi- 

 tion, quantity and quality of the surrounding materials. All 

 coral does not contain insects, and while some, from its coarse 

 nature, may provide convenient abodes for a species of animate 

 jelly, yet, even supposing that this jelly is as high in the intel- 

 lectual scale as the oyster which it is admitted not to be it 

 has no more the power of design, the gift of aspiration, the 

 longing for the light and the glories of the sunshine, than the 

 barnacle, or a piece of seaweed ; and no more influence in deter- 

 mining the size, shape, colour and extent of its coral home, 

 than a mouse has over the castle it dwells in. 



Compare with this view what the late lamented Agassiz 

 said about polypes in his Cambridge Lectures, in 1873': 

 " Here then are animals remaining united by the lower parts 

 of their body, but having distinct heads, and distinct internal 

 cavities, yet in which the juices elaborated by digestion in one 

 individual feed the common stock. This may go on till 

 hundreds of thousands, nay millions, of individuals share the 

 result of functions of life and digestion, performed only by a 



