It is enough for us to know that in the materi- 

 al world there are adaptations which connect it in 

 the most wonderful manner with the mental, and 

 that in no respect is this so strikingly exhibited 

 as in the organization of living bodies. This 

 adaptation, on whatever laws it may depend, is 

 an undoubted and a most interesting proof of 

 the wisdom and goodness of the great Author of 

 Nature. Had the case been in any instance re- 

 versed had the imperfect organization of an 

 oyster or a worm, for instance, been connected 

 with mental faculties and aspirations, such as 

 those which belong to man, how miserable would 

 be the condition of that being, and what an argu- 

 ment might have been founded on it against the 

 existence of an intelligent and beneficent first 

 Cause. But it does appear no slight indication 

 of a Divine hand, that the relation between the 

 properties of organized bodies and their living 

 faculties should be so intimate and so uniform 

 that is, that the lowest state of the one should be 

 so constantly associated in animal life with the 

 lowest state of the other, while the more perfect 

 developement of organization is always attended 

 with such a proportional developement of the 

 living power as to originate, and plausibly to 

 support, a theory formed on the assumption that 

 the one is the necessary result of the other. 

 The gradation of organized substances is indeed 

 one of the most beautiful and delightful mani- 

 festations of the order arid harmony which sub- 

 sist in the relations of earthly things. By what 



