522 THK rf:pu()i:>uctive functions. 



seeds of decay and of death ; and however great 

 may be the powers of their vitality, we know that 

 those powers are finite, and that a time must come 

 when they will be expended, and wlien their re- 

 newal, in that individual, is no longer possible. 



But although the individual perishes. Nature has 

 taken special care that the race shall be constantly 

 preserved, by providing for the production of new 

 individuals, each springing from its predecessor in 

 endless perpetuity. The process by which this 

 formation, or rather this apparent creation, of a 

 living being is effected, surpasses the utmost powers 

 of the human comprehension. No conceivable 

 combinations of mechanical or of chemical powers 

 bear the slightest resemblance, or the most remote 

 analogy, to organic reproduction, or can afford the 

 least clue to the solution of this dark and hopeless 

 enigma. We must be content to observe and gene- 

 ralize the phenomena, in silent wonder at the mar- 

 vellous manifestation of express contrivance and 

 design exhibited in this department of the economy 

 of created beings. 



Throughout the whole, both of the vegetable and 

 animal world, Nature has shown the utmost soli- 

 citude to secure not only the multiplication of the 

 species, but also the dissemination of their numbers 

 over every habitable and accessible region of the 

 globe ; and has pursued various plans for the 

 accomplishment of these important objects. 



The simplest of all the modes of multiplication 

 consists in the spontaneous division of the body of 

 the parent into two or more parts ; each part, when 

 separated, becoming a distinct individual, and soon 

 acquiring the size and shape of the parent. We 



