THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIVING PLANTS. 125 



themselves little beauty or apparent use. Taking another step 

 in the ascending scale, we see animate beings feeding on the 

 herbage ; and they, by their death and dissolution, complete the 

 circuit by giving back to the soil those intangible particles of silex, 

 lime, iron, &c., with other constituent substances ; and Nature, 

 in her invisible laboratory, will work up these materials into 

 new forms of usefulness and beauty ; and so the endless chain 

 of destruction and re-construction works on, without noise or 

 respite, and though many of its links are out of sight, it may 

 be hoped that even on these, further investigation may shed fresh 

 and ever increasing light. As Nature awakens in our minds 

 a constantly deepening desire to look into her mysteries, so 

 shall we be the more imbued with a sense of the exceeding 

 beauty and excellence of her handiwork. 



