EARTH-LIFE IN GENERAL. 



III. EARTH-LIFE. 



The two extremes of living things may be 

 taken as the microscopic cell and the Earth- 

 life; the smallest and the largest become 

 therein counterparts, and are the first an"! 

 last, between which all vital existence is mov- 

 ing. The shapes of life, in so far as they are 

 visible, appear to be set in this frame-work 

 embracing least and greatest, between begin- 

 ning and conclusion. It is the grand living 

 stream of existence as a whole which we are 

 now to summon before us; it seems to be bub- 

 bling up from unseen depths in the smallest 

 points of life which unite, organize and asso- 

 ciate in a vast line of varying forms, till they 

 pour back again to the unseen depths of the 

 Earth-life. 



Now is there any connection between the 

 appearance and the disappearance of this liv- 

 ing river before us is it simply emptying 

 back into the invisible underworld of its 

 origin the contents of its visible upper world, 

 to be made over again into life? Some such 

 cycle has long been conceived, and on certain 

 lines rendered probable. The dissolution of 

 organisms into tlipir chemical constituents 

 would seem to be a preparation for their vital 



