6 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



never been ; it is with thee the precursor of 

 a momentous eternity. 



It has been often said, wherever life can be 

 there life is. The minutest drop of water is to 

 some beings an ample sea ; everywhere around 

 us, on the land, in the water, in the air, the 

 results of the creative flat are made manifest ; 

 and the number and diversity of organic beings 

 overwhelm us with astonishment. The huge 

 whales of the ocean present us with the largest 

 of animal forms, and the giant trees of the inter- 

 tropics with the most stupendous of vegetable 

 productions ; but, on the other hand, it has not 

 been determined at what degree of minuteness 

 a boundary is put to organization. The most 

 powerful microscopes are limited in their sphere, 

 yet they have opened to us domains of organic 

 life, the existence of which without their aid 

 would never have been suspected. By the term 

 life, as we here use the word, we mean orga- 

 nized beings in contradistinction to inorganized 

 matter, even in a state of crystallization. 



It may, however, be asked in the outset, What 

 do we understand by life in the abstract, that is, 

 irrespective of organization ? We shall answer 

 the question as best we can — craving our reader's 

 indulgence, if, in the explanation of subjects of an 

 abstract nature, we are occasionally necessitated 

 to employ language of a scientific character. 



Life, it must be admitted, prosecute our 

 researches into it as we may, is a deep mystery. 

 Setting man aside, we know not what any 



