184 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



seeds of plants, also, erratic migration is invo- 

 luntary, although appointed and governed, both 

 as to time and extent, by the predetermined 

 plan of Wisdom in creation. To man it was 

 appointed to replenish the earth and to subdue 

 it ; and in fulfilling this decree in all ages, man 

 uses his judgment as to whether he shall quit 

 his native home or not, and also as to the new 

 home in which he shall settle. With him the 

 whole affair is voluntary ; he is not instinct- 

 driven. He fits out ships or vessels of some 

 kind, he explores distant regions, having various 

 motives for so doing, and sometimes perhaps is 

 cast away on a distant shore — driven thither by 

 the stress of winds and waves. Where induce- 

 ments incline his will, he founds colonies ; where 

 the prospect of gain invites him, thither he 

 repairs; and not unfrequently has one portion of 

 mankind been forced, by the irruption of fierce 

 hordes of barbarians, exulting in conquest, and 

 intent upon the extension of territory, to retreat 

 before them, leaving their country a spoil. Thus 

 have the waves of the human race rolled on 

 from east to west, from north to south — nations 

 blending with nations — the conquerors with the 

 conquered — languages fused together — new 

 nations and new languages becoming developed 

 in the course of time, till, in the contemplation 

 of the subject, the student in history and philo- 

 sophy becomes lost in a maze of confusion — " a 

 mighty maze, but not without a plan," — for 

 every movement of this complex machine, this 

 strife and turmoil of jarring elements, this flux 



