1286 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



but agreeing with you, that man is the noblest study, 

 I would suggest that under the noblest there are 

 other problems- which we must not neglect. Man 

 himself is imperfectly known, because the laws of 

 universal Life are imperfectly known. His life 

 forms but one grand illustration of Biology the 

 science of Life as he forms but the apex of the 

 animal world. 



Our studies here will be of Life, and chiefly of 

 those minuter or obscurer forms which seldom at- 

 tract attention. In the air we. breathe, in the water 

 we drink, in the earth we tread on, Life is every- 

 where. Nature lives: every pore is bursting with 

 Life; every death is only a new birth, every grave 

 a cradle. And of this we know so little, think so 

 little! Around us, above us, beneath us, that great 

 mystic drama of creation is being enacted, and we 

 will not even consent to be spectators! Unless 

 animals are obviously useful or obviously hurtful 

 to us, we disregard them. Yet they are not alien, 

 but akin. The Life that stirs within us stirs within 

 them. We are all "parts of one transcendent whole." 

 The scales fall from our eyes when we think of this ; 

 it is as if a new sense had been vouchsafed to us, and 

 we learn to look at Nature with a more intimate and 

 personal love. 



Life everywhere! The air is crowded with birds 

 beautiful, tender, intelligent birds to whom life 

 is a song and a thrilling anxiety, the anxiety of 

 love. The air is swarming with insects those lit- 

 tle animated miracles. The waters are peopled 

 with innumerable forms, from the animalcule, so 



