352 LAUGEL'S PROBLEMS OF NATURE AXD LIFE. 



here the phrase of ' De minimis non curat lex, ' for 

 the objects are too small and evanescent to furnish the 

 evidence required for conviction. But the question is 

 still under judgment ; and the enquiry, even without 

 any positive issue, will probably disclose collateral 

 secrets in that great volume of nature which is now 

 so diligently explored. 



We have no room to speak of those many recent 

 discoveries in zoology and fossil geology illustrating 

 at once the ancient conditions of the earth, and the 

 multitudinous forms of life which have successively 

 existed and been extinguished on its surface. Vast as 

 is now the catalogue of animal species, or what are called 

 such, every year is adding to it. Nothing, indeed, more 

 startles contemplation than the quantity of life upon 

 the earth. Around us, above us, below us air, ocean, 

 lake, river, mountain, plain, and forest all nature 

 teems with it, from the whale, elephant, buffalo, and 

 eagle down to the monads and vibrios of infusorial life. 

 And in this contemplation we must include the great 

 law of nature which makes animal life, in its every shape 

 and grade, depend for evolution and maintenance upon 

 life already existing a law strikingly attested even in 

 those parasitic creations now so numerously catalogued 

 as to form a distinct portion of natural science. Death 

 is the transmigration, not of being, but of the materials 

 of being, into new forms and modes of existence. And 

 connected with this law we are called upon to recog- 

 nise another fact in the general scheme of creation, 

 viz., the obvious and constant provision for the main- 

 tenance of succession, even at the expense of individual 



