294 MAN AND NATURE. 



We have now to speak of the relations of Man to the 

 living world by which he is surrounded. This topic, 

 vast in itself, admits of being treated either as a matter 

 of profound philosophy, or as one of close practical 

 concern to mankind in this resembling many other 

 questions which modern science places before us. The 

 speculative part is that which regards the intention of 

 the Creator, in bringing Man into this close conjunction 

 with other forms of life, endless in number, infinite in 

 variety. This question, hardly to be answered by any 

 philosophy, touches us more nearly when limited to the 

 animal creation only. We have already alluded to the 

 controversies now going on as to the origin of species, 

 or more generally of the different types of animal life ; 

 and as to the true nature of that ascending scale in 

 which Man holds the highest place. And connected 

 with these controversies comes in the great problem of 

 animal life existing under forms of wonderful variety, 

 and during periods of time vast beyond all esti- 

 mate, before human life was blended in the series, and 

 seemingly without any reference to this consumma- 

 tion. 



The most general expression of the connexion of 

 which we are speaking is that drawn from the law 

 common to all parts of the animal creation ; viz., 

 life maintaining itself upon life one form of organisa- 

 tion ministering to the existence of another. This is 

 the link that binds together species counted by hundreds 

 of thousands, and individualities of being which no 

 numbers can approach. To this law, by the physical 

 necessities of his nature, Man is equally subjected with 



