40 THE UNIVERSE. 



not attack it vigorously enough to capture it, as Captain 

 Bouyer was afraid it might upset the boats, by clasping them 



in its formidable limbs armed 

 with suckers. This encounter 

 strongly impressed the captain, 

 and led him to end his narrative 



19. Fossil Ammonites. with these WOrds : 



" Now that I have seen this strange animal with my own 

 eyes I can no longer refuse credence to the tales of navi- 

 gators. I suspect the sea has not yet told all it has to 

 tell, and holds in reserve some remnants of its perished 

 races ; or that, in its ever active crucible, it still elaborates 

 unheard-of forms, with which it may appall the mariner, and 

 supply a theme for mysterious legends of the ocean." 



CHAPTER V. 



THE MONAD. 



WHAT a mysterious abyss is expressed by this single word 

 monad ! This first expression of creative power is only re- 

 vealed to us by the microscope, and we still only perceive 

 it as a mass, for the individual monads often escape our 

 sight. The extreme minuteness of the monad seems to 

 point it out as an element of the most hidden phenomena 

 of life. How often have philosophers looked upon animal 

 life of the highest order as being merely the representative 

 of an agglomeration of monads ! 



These minute beings were looked upon by Buffon and 



