LIFE OX THE EARTH. 131 



workmanship in its origin of myriads of foraminifera. 

 That city of Eichmond, in Virginia, of the bloody 

 struggle around which I have recently been a personal 

 witness, stands upon a foundation of infusorial shells. 



It is the destiny of life, whether animal or vege- 

 table, to be everywhere the food of life. Death is the 

 transmigration, not of being but of the material of 

 being into new forms and modes of existence. This 

 great natural law, which makes animal life in its every 

 shape depend for evolution and maintenance upon life 

 already existing, extends from man downwards to the 

 lowest grades of the animal creation strikingly exem- 

 plified in those parasitic creatures now so numerously 

 catalogued as to form a distinct portion of natural 

 science. And a notable, though inexplicable, part of 

 this great scheme of nature is the constant and obvious 

 provision in the animal world for the maintenance of 

 succession even at the expense of individual life. 

 Among the insects it is common to see the individuals 

 propagating life perish as soon as this function is ful- 

 filled/ 



Without stopping to refute BufFon's strange doctrine 

 (supported, indeed, by one recent authority), that the 

 absolute quantity of life has been, and must ever be, 

 the same on the globe, it is well to note here how 

 largely physical conditions, as well as human necessi- 

 ties and intelligence, influence its distribution over the 

 earth. Natural history is profuse in examples to this 

 effect, both in the animal and vegetable world. Even 

 as regards human life we are continually admonished 

 as to those accidents and conditions of existence, 



K 2 



