202 EVOL UTION AND NA TUBAL THEOL G Y. 



the size of a large animal. It would be en- 

 dowed with the speed of lightning, clothed in 

 mail that no weapon could ever pierce, and 

 gifted with sufficient strength to tear up the 

 very mountains. Such a creature would be 

 practically secure from all attack, and its powers 

 of destruction would enable it to devastate the 

 world. Even among the Vertebrata, the ferocity 

 of the larger species is not proportioned to their 

 size, and Wood * remarks that if a mole were as 

 large as a tiger, it would be by far the more 

 formidable animal. 



Again, we find that all small animals (which 

 are necessarily exposed to much greater destruc- 

 tion than larger ones, individually, though not 

 specifically,) usually produce a great number of 

 young, while the larger animals bring forth but 

 one or two. It is said that a microscopic ani- 

 malcule multiplies so fast that it might produce 

 a hundred and seventy thousand billions of 

 young in four days.f The greater liability to 

 injury to which the lower organisms are exposed, 

 is often compensated for by a very short life, 



* " Natural History," vol. i. p. 424. 

 f Spencer's " Biology," vol. ii. p. 622. 



