162 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 



it always contains a multitude of animalcules 

 and very minute plants, which the fishes are 

 continually swallowing." 



When Creative Wisdom covered the earth 

 with plants, and peopled it with animals, he laid 

 the foundations of the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms with such as were most easily con- 

 vertible into nutriment for the tribes imme- 

 diately above them. The first plants and the 

 first animals are scarcely more than animated 

 molecules, 1 and appear analogues of each other ; 

 and those above them in each kingdom represent 

 jointed fibrils. 2 It is singular and worthy 

 of notice, that the Creator after the creation 

 of inanimate matter, probably first imparted the 

 living principle to bodies of the same form 

 with the molecules and fibrils into which that 

 matter is resolvable, thus uniting, by common 

 characters, things essentially distinct, and pre- 

 serving unbroken that wonderful chain which 

 links together all created things. 



Every body, who has eyes, is aware, that 

 vegetation takes place upon almost every 

 substance, upon the bark of trees, upon naked 

 rocks, upon brick walls and tiled roofs, and even 

 upon glass when not constantly cleaned. The 

 first plants, that take on these their station, 



1 For instance, Globulina and Monas. 



2 Qscillatoria and Vibrio. See Appendix, note 



