142 NATURAL HISTORY 



orreries invented by men to represent the move- 

 ments of the heavenly bodies. 



But the naturalist, with his trained senses for ob- 

 serving, is, as it were, raised from the center to the 

 surface, to look off upon a new world. And with 

 his microscope a new world bursts upon his view 

 every hour, not as a far-off star, threading its way 

 like a point of light through the heavens, so that its 

 motions alone can be determined but in the drop 

 of water, in the grain of slate, in the scale of fish, 

 and every fragment of bone. Think you that 

 argument from design had no force with Cuvier, 

 whose firm belief in final causes led him to such 

 splendid results? His genius called back the per- 

 fect forms from the bony fragments in the Paris 

 basin ; but the firm belief in special adaptation 

 was the guiding light that led him on, and he 

 never once doubted that the plan and form of each 

 organic being were fixed by an intelligent, divine 

 Lawgiver. 



Think you the force of that argument is n6t felt 

 by Agassiz, as a single scale reveals to him the 

 character of the fish? We need not debate the 



