OF ORGANIC BODIES. 19 



from which they have gradually advanced, and by pow- 

 ers peculiarly their own, have been wrought into forms 

 of symmetry and beauty. Life comet h only from life. 

 Minerals are not produced in this way they originate 

 merely from the aggregation or corning together of parts, 

 every one of which is as perfectly formed, and enjoys 

 the same properties as the combined mass. 



Emily. Do you really mean, that those minute beings 

 found in vegetable infusions and stagnant waters which 

 can hardly be perceived without the aid of a glass, all 

 came from eggs that have been layed and hatched by 

 parents resembling themselves ? 1 had always thought 

 they were produced by the process of decomposition. 



Dr. B. Then I believe you have always thought 

 wrong. Recollect, these beings are minute only to our 

 imperfect eyes. You observed those on the dust of the 

 fig by the Solar iYlicroscope, and is it reasonable to sup- 

 pose that such beings as nicely and wonderfully con- 

 structed, so far as we can see, as insects of much larger 

 size, and as uniformly resembling one another in appear- 

 ance have been produced, not by parents like them- 

 selves, but at hap-hazard iroin the diversified substances 

 that compose the dust of the fig ? On the contrary, it 

 seems much more philosophical to believe that these 

 creatures, as well as a vast many others which were once 

 thought by some to be spontaneously created, originate 

 like all other animals. Lately, however, the microscope 

 has brought to light some facts, which, if well established, 

 will show that the creative energy does not act univer- 

 sally in this way. But we had better reserve our re- 

 marks on these discoverie- for some other occasion. 



Emily. And the termination of organic beings is as 

 distinctive, I suppose, as their origin. Nothing like 

 death, I believe, happens to minerals. 



Dr. B. Yes; death sooner or later happeneth to 

 every living thing and this constitutes one of the great 

 laws of organization. Do you not see how death is a 

 necessary consequence of life ? 



