.'}6 THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 



quence of the law of mutation ; and the same 

 causes that originally effected the developement 

 and growth of the system, and maintained it in the 

 vigour of its maturity, by continuing to operate, are 

 certain to lead to the demolition of the fabric which 

 they had raised, and to the exhaustion and final 

 extinction of its powers. The individual dies ; but 

 it is only to give place to other beings, alike in 

 nature and in form, equally partaking of the 

 blessings of existence, and destined, after having, 

 in their turn, given rise to a new race of successors, 

 to run through the same perpetual cycle of changes 

 and renovations. 



Thus the continuance and multiplication of each 

 species may be assigned as the second of the great 

 ends which are to be accomplished in the system of 

 living nature. A portion of the vital power of the 

 parent is for this purpose employed to give origin 

 and birth to the offspring. The process itself, by 

 which the germs of living beings originate, is veiled 

 in the most impienetrable mystery. But we are 

 permitted to trace many of the subsequent steps 

 in the gradual developement both of vegetable and 

 animal organizations ; and certainly no part of the 

 economy of animated nature is more calculated to 

 impress us with exalted ideas of the immensity of 

 the scheme of Providence, and the vigilant care 

 with which the most distant consequences have 

 been anticipated, than the history of the early 

 periods of their existence. Nothing can be more 

 admirable than the progressive architecture of the 

 frame; nothing more beautiful than the setting up 

 of temporary structures, which are required only at 

 an early stage of growth, and which are afterw^ards 



