INDEPENDENCE OF THE HIGHER ANIMALS OF EXTERNAL AGENTS. 13 



them. In judging from a narrow circle of observation, or from an imperfect experience, 

 men are led to regard these as fortuitous affairs. Are they not rather brought about 

 by unfailing and unchangeable causes ! From century to century, the sun pours forth 

 his undiminished stores of light and heat ; the former, out of inorganic material, con- 

 structs molecules that are organized, and from them builds up the myriads of vegetable 

 forms which are destined for supporting animal life ; the latter, controlling the move- 

 ments of inorganic matter, divides into climates the earth's surface, volatilizes water 

 from the sea, sets the wind in motion, and directs the form, duration, and movement of 

 the clouds. The primitive force which is at work, producing these vital and mete- 

 orological phenomena, undergoes no change in intensity from year to year; it is there- \ 

 fore expended in producing the same amount of effect. It is through this that the 

 droughts of one country are contemporaneous with the abundant showers of another 

 the famine which threatens one place is compensated by harvests in another. As 

 natural laws were never meant for operation on individuals, but for action on systems 

 and masses, incidental vicissitudes, such as those of which we are speaking, should 

 never guide us in our judgment of final results. Operating with an unerring certainty, 

 and with an unchangeable force, the sun carries on his plastic works, as the earth, in 

 her daily rotations, submits herself to his beams. From this it comes to pass, that 

 though there may be variations in the lot of particular nations or particular individuals, 

 the common interests of all are protected, the common rights of all are upheld. From 

 the very beginning of things, every class of variation has been determined where par- 

 ticular climates shall fall, where particular temperatures shall be observed, what shall 

 be the speed of vegetable growth, what tribes of animals shall be given and the thing 

 remains fixed and unalterable. 



38. One of the most striking results of organic chemistry is the relationship which 

 it discovers between animals and plants ; the former constituting an apparatus for ox- 

 ydation, the latter an apparatus for deoxydation. Compared together, a relation of 

 antagonism exists between them. Plants, from inorganic matter, construct their vari- 

 ous tissues and parts ; these are consumed by animals, and forced back into the inor- 

 ganic state. It is therefore plain that the sun is the great formative agent, and ani- 

 mals are the destroyers. If we consider the successive races of organized beings, be- 

 ginning from the lowest and passing to the higher tribes, it would seem as if the gener- 

 a idea under which Nature has been acting is, that as the more complex structures were 

 evolved to emancipate them from the direct control of external physical forces. The 

 vegetable kingdom, unendued with locomotive powers, deriving its existence directly 

 from external agents, is completely under their control. If the summer is too brilliant, 

 or rains do not fall, a plant withers and dies. In the same manner, the lower races of 

 animals have their existence determined by the action of physical causes ; if these be 

 favourable, they flourish ; if unfavourable, they must submit to an inevitable lot. To 

 tribes that are higher, to a certain extent, the rigour of these laws is remitted, and a 

 certain amount of independence secured ; the African lion can retire to a shade in the 

 middle of the day ; yet still he is held in a state of subjection, and instinctively submits 

 to the operation of an overruling power, and is kept to the sands of his desert from 

 cool and temperate climates. The sunbeam is his chain. In man alone the emanci- 



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