THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 43 



continuing to operate, are certain to lead to the 

 demolition of the fabric they had raised, and to 

 the exhaustion and final extinction of its powers. 

 The individual dies ; but it is only to give place 

 to other beings, alike in nature and in form, 

 equally partaking of the blessings of existence, 

 and destined, after having, in their turn, given 

 rise to a new race of successors, to run through 

 the same perpetual cycle of changes and reno- 

 vations. 



Thus the continuance and multiplication of 

 each species may be assigned as the second of 

 the great ends which are to be accomplished in 

 the system of living nature. A portion of the 

 vital power of the parent is for this purpose em- 

 ployed to give origin and birth to the offspring. 

 The process itself, by which the germs of living 

 beings originate, is veiled in the most impene- 

 trable mystery. But we are permitted to trace 

 many of the subsequent steps in the gradual 

 developement both of vegetable and animal 

 organizations ; and certainly no part of the eco- 

 nomy of animated nature is more calculated to 

 impress us with exalted ideas of the immensity of 

 the scheme of Providence, and the vigilant care 

 with which the most distant consequences have 

 been anticipated, than the history of the early 

 periods of their existence. Nothing can be more 

 admirable than the progressive architecture of 

 the frame ; nothing more beautiful than the 



