DISEASES OP THE OX AND SHEKP. 635 



are DOt merely made of clay which is animated for a short time, 

 and then crumbles into the dust wherefrom it arose, but that 

 we, howsoever humble and insignificant, have yet a great future 

 before us, a far higher form of existence than this present com- 

 paratively speaking trivial one. This unswerving acceptation of 

 the widest of all truths is by no means weakened by the fact 

 that, as indeed has been suggested by no less an authority than 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer, even the very best ultimate definitions of 

 life which can be put into words apply to the wondrous pheno- 

 mena presented by the solar system as a whole, and we might 

 add to those of nearly all complex aggregates such as the earth 

 itself, perhaps only a little less accurately than they do to living 

 beings. 



However, notwithstanding that this is true, it remains incon- 

 testable that the classification into living things on the one side 

 and inanimate objects on the other is at once the most significant 

 and the most indispensable of all the distinctions which men, as 

 a matter of fact, do draw. Yet we have been led to the idea that 

 the lowest living things rather support the view that in ages long 

 gone by even living matter itself may possibly have originated 

 by insensible steps from inanimate material, and that by degrees 

 this life may have become more and more complex until, accord- 

 ing to an ordained law of advancement, even human beings were 

 at length evolved. Yet it is clear that this is by no means an 

 entirely satisfactory conclusion, and to those who think most 

 deeply on the great question of life and its meaning, it cannot 

 but be manifest that there must be some explanation of our 

 presence here in this world which has not yet been grasped. At 

 times, and frequently when we are quite alone, the conviction 

 will force itself irresistibly upon our minds that, though we can 

 in a large measure explain the actual steps and processes 

 whereby we human beings are daily and hourly brought into this 

 sphere, still there remains a much larger and more far-reaching 

 truth than any as yet arrived at by the mind of man. 



Of all the magnificent sights which may be seen around us, 

 the view of a storm-tossed sea is perhaps the most impressive. 

 In absolute solitude to walk along the sea-shore, and listen to 

 the solemn voice of the mighty ocean, to hear the majestic 

 tones of the loud and triumphant psean, as the crashing waves 

 roll and thunder with infuriated yet moderated harmony, and 



