CONCLUSION. 



aged forest oak ! Who also can conceive the total amount of force employed from 

 century to century in arranging the vegetation of the surface of the globe ! 



418. I therefore regard a planetary body like the earth, in its orbitual revolution 

 round the sun, as a predetermined focal centre on which the emanations of that star 

 shall be expended ; first, in producing vegetable organization, and, finally, in lending their 

 aid to the evolution of animal intellect. The forces which NEWTON revealed as urging 

 such a body forward, or causing it to glide in its elliptic path, appear only as an incidental, 

 though essential part of the mechanism of the universe, the interest of which disap- 

 pears in that higher interest which must attach to whatever stands in intimate connex- 

 ion with organization and vitality. Those many-coloured luminous wavelets which 

 are ceaselessly crossing the interplanetary spaces, go forward on an appointed errand, 

 and sooner or later discharge their final task; nor are the planets in the solar system a 

 colony of opaque globes, rotating, without purpose or end, around the central attractive 

 mass. The solar system is an orb of movement and light, full of vibrations of every 

 tint visible and invisible, and which here and there envelops and enshrouds revolving 

 points of organization and life. 



