80 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



where they astonished the good Peruvians so much, that 

 they obtained with them the name of "things that came 

 out of the sea." Now they are rarer in Europe than 

 in America. 



The importance of the useful domestic animals cannot 

 be overrated. The very existence of man is bound up 

 with the horse, the ox, and the sheep. Brazil lives al- 

 most exclusively by means of her horses and her cattle; 

 and Australia has developed her resources and progressed 

 in civilization only since sheep have been introduced. It 

 is strange, surely, that like the best gifts in the vegetable 

 world, the cerealia, so these domestic animals, also, are 

 presents which the east has sent to the west, and for which 

 no return has yet been made. Here, also, an invisible 

 but insurmountable barrier seems to prevent such an ex- 

 change. 



What shall we lastly say of the wanderings of man? 

 His history is still darker than that of his servants, and 

 his first home, our Eden, is truly defended, even now, by 

 an angel with a flaming sword. The place where his 

 cradle stood is utterly unknown. The first period of his 

 life is veiled in dark night ; only a few brief flashes of 

 light are, by revelation, thrown upon it, which show us 

 but a single moment in a long period, and consequently, 

 barely allow us to guess at the connection, without giving 

 us anything like continuous information. 



It is not a little singular that one of the strongest ar- 

 guments in support of the favorite idea of man's first 

 home, and the unity of his race, is derived from the an- 

 alogy between him and plants and animals. As the latter 



