DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISMS. 201 



ficial. To adopt a comparison more apt than dignified, we 

 may be said to be placed here as insects in a garden of the 

 old style. Our first unassisted view is limited, and we per- 

 ceive only the irregularities of the minute surface, and single 

 shrubs which appear arbitrarily scattered. But our view at 

 length extending and becoming more comprehensive, we 

 begin to see parterres balancing each other, trees, statues, and 

 arbours placed symmetrically, and that the whole is an assem- 

 blage of parts mutually reflective. ' It can scarcely be neces- 

 sary to point to the inference hence arising with regard to 

 the origination of nature in some Power, of which man's mind 

 is a humble and faint representation. The insects of the gar- 

 den, supposing them to be invested with reasoning power, and 

 aware how artificial are their own works, might, of course, 

 very reasonably conclude that, being in its totality an artifi- 

 cial object, the garden was the work of some maker or 

 artificer. And so also, when we attain a knowledge of the 

 artificiality which is at the basis of nature, must we conclude 

 that nature is wholly the production of a being resembling ^ 

 but infinitely greater than ourselves. 



By the same light we are enabled to see more clearly than 

 ever the providential arrangement with respect to the various 

 characters of animals ; some to draw nutriment directly from 

 the vegetable kingdom ; others to keep the numbers of these 

 in check, and prevent their carcasses from cumbering the 

 earth to be, in fact, a medium for returning their constituent 

 substances to the atmosphere from which these were originally 

 extracted by the vegetation ; others again destined to a higher 

 and more intelligent enjoyment than either, and turning 

 animal as well as vegetable substances to their use. It is 

 most interesting also to trace by this light the perseverance of 

 characters and habits, and even of points in organization, 

 from grade to grade. Travelling in the east, we might see 

 the gavial acting as the scavenger of the Ganges, and the dog 

 serving the same purpose in the neglected streets of the great 

 cities : the latter, a descendant of the line of being of which 

 the former is an offshoot, merely serves on land the purpose 

 served by his relative in the river. The vulture corresponds 



