46 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



which act upon them from outside the 

 water or the air that bathes them the 

 impacts of etherial undulations in the 

 form of light the vibrations of matter in 

 contact with them in the form of heat 

 these are conceived of as the agencies 

 principally concerned. The analogies 

 suggested are of the rudest kind. Old 

 cannon-balls rust in concentric flakes. 

 Rocks weather into such forms as rock- 

 ing-stones. 1 But the grand illustration 

 is taken from the pebbles of the Chesil 

 beach. 2 These are to introduce us to 

 the true physical conception of the 

 wonderful phenomena of organic life. 

 May not the unity of the vertebrate 

 skeleton, through an immense variety of 

 creatures, be typified by the roundness 

 and smoothness common to the stones 

 rolled along the southern beaches of 

 England from Devonshire to Weymouth? 

 1 P. 755- 2 P. 752. 



