INVERTEBEAT^. 391 



they are continually departing ; so that the form of a liv- 

 ing body is more essential to it than its matter." Perfection 

 being the end proposed, all bottles were to be filled, all 

 nooks and crannies of nature occupied, all things were to 

 live, and "work in endless motion ;" that celestial loaferdom, 

 that far-off paradise of all men's dreams and prayers, where 

 there is eternal repose and nothing to be done, having no 

 prototype in the plan of the universe. Hence the tyrannic law 

 of form must be revealed, its instrumentality was inevitable, 

 the adaptation to the condition, for a purpose, and hence 

 this endless variety, this countless diversity of organic beings. 



But this is a strange relationship, vertebrata, inverte- 

 brata brain and no brain. 



Still stranger is the no-brain's relationship to the no-brain. 

 What possible nexus can exist between this huge mollusk* 

 with his fleshy body, and house of rock, and that epheme- 

 ral insect, with winged, etherial, and transparent body? 

 What element of sameness could ever be found between the 

 infernal arachnida, or spider, full of poison, in his trap-den 

 of insidious ropes, and that winged, floating gem, the butter- 

 fly, innocent eater of nectar and lover of flowers ? What 

 bond of organic affinity could come between that hideous 

 crustacean, with sprawling legs, satanic claws, spines, and 

 bristles, and that strange protozoon, whose " simple organi- 

 zation is reducable to the type of a cell ?" Only from the 

 bond of that essential law, only from the resistless despotism 

 of the powers which reign in the world of matter and the 

 primordial necessities of "life, substance, and form." The 

 element of generalization is, they are animals without vertebral 

 columns, brains, or spinal cords. Wondrous vortex ! miracu- 

 lous cell ! With symmetry and beauty, the circulation through 

 the imperial structure of mammal, bird, reptile, and fish 

 being accomplished, we arrive in a descending grade at 

 the consideration of an anomalous and peculiar series 

 of "vortices," real fantastic tricks, no back bone, no brain 



* Chama gigas. " Specimens have been taken that weighed up- 

 ward of three hundred pounds." CUVIER. 



