LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 53 



unceasingly subject to those great elementary forces gra- 

 vitation, heat, light, electricity, and chemical action which 

 are ever in operation around us. They are the instruments 

 in those wonderful organisations which it has been the will of 

 the Creator to bring into being ; and they have subordinately 

 become instruments in our hands for interpreting these higher 

 manifestations of the creative power. 



It would be impossible within the limits of this article to 

 analyse the several works prefixed to it, or even to denote the 

 especial objects and merits of each. It will be seen that 

 several of them relate more especially to those lower forms 

 of animal life which lie close to the boundary if certain 

 boundary there be between the animal and vegetable world. 

 This particular portion of natural history has of late risen into 

 high popularity, and the works devoted to it display an 

 exuberant enthusiasm in the research. While the astronomer 

 is soberly dealing with the great elements of space and time, 

 which make the material of his science, the modern naturalist 

 is rioting in rapturous language about the beauty of his 

 zoophytes, and the microscopic marvels of infusorial life. 

 The real beauty of many of the objects, the scenery with 

 which they are often associated, and the curiously delicate 

 methods of research employed, will explain in some part this 

 ardour of pursuit. Nor can we deny a sentiment of grandeur 

 as belonging to objects even thus minute, when so infinite in 

 number and variety. That which human calculation cannot 

 reach, has in itself a certain element of the sublime, be the 

 subject what it may. But, connected with this study, we 

 have also the many mysterious questions which regard the 

 manner of generation and existence of these simpler forms 

 of animal life, and their relation to other beings of higher 

 order ; topics well fitted to take strong hold on the mind 

 of every thoughtful man. 



On some of these questions we shall have to speak hereafter. 



