

35 



insensible steps do we pass from mineral sub- 

 stances to the lowest tribes of vegetables and 

 animals, and from these again to the highest 

 tribes of both, till, following the latter in the 

 ascending scale, we arrive at immortal man ! 

 Thus, among vegetables, how gradual is the as- 

 cent through the humble acotyledonous plants 

 the algse, fungi, lichens, hepaticse and musci to 

 the filices and other monocotyledonous orders, 

 and through these again, to the dicotyledonous, 

 till we reach the most stately of these ; and, 

 among animals, how imperceptible is our pro- 

 gress through the invertebral animals the zo- 

 ophytes, worms and insects, on the one hand, 

 and the vertebral animals the fishes, reptiles, 

 birds and mammalia, on the other, till we fin- 

 ish with the most exalted example of animated 

 nature ! 



" Each moss, 



Each shell, each crawling insect holds a rank, 

 Important in the plan of Him who framed 

 This scale of beings holds a rank, which lost 

 Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap 

 Which Nature's self would rue." 



It is undoubtedly a pleasant and instructive 

 task to follow these relations, and to trace the 

 manner in which they act and react on each 

 other, and there does not appear to be any good 

 reason why they may not be considered in the 

 light of cause and effect, in the only truly philo- 

 sophical sense of these terms implying an uni- 

 form and invariable sequence. But I do trust 



