INFUSOKIE8. 163 



usually look like green or yellow powder, when 

 they decay forming a little soil, in which others 

 more conspicuous find sufficient nutriment, and so 

 one succeeds another till a sufficient portion of soil 

 covers the rock, &c. to afford the means of life 

 and growth to more perfect plants, and often to 

 arborescent ones. An analogous process takes 

 place in the water. The matiere verte of French 

 authors makes its appearance, and other Hydro- 

 phytes, in conjunction with the Infusories, form 

 as it were a first soil for the support and main- 

 tenance of animal life, both for those which 

 derive their nutriment from vegetables, and 

 those that feed on beings of their own class. 

 Thus a maintenance is provided for higher forms, 

 and, at last, for the highest ; and a table is 

 spread, both on the earth and in the waters, for 

 every living thing, from that which the eye can- 

 not discover, to man, the head and king of all. 



How wonderful and adorable is that Almighty 

 Being, who thus made all things dependant upon 

 each other, and based the visible world, in the 

 three great departments into which we see it 

 divided, upon an invisible basis, and in which 

 cohesion and life are maintained by those powers 

 which God has placed as rulers in the physical 

 world, and by which he still acts upon the uni- 

 verse of existences. 



