240 LAWS OF COEXISTENCE. 



strong, in order that he may seize it and tear it in pieces > 

 and his teeth must be long, sharp and pointed, for the 

 purpose of cutting and dividing it. 



Emily. And he must also possess the requisite cour- 

 age and address to circumvent and attack his victim, 

 otherwise all these advantages you have mentioned, will 

 be of no avail to him. 



Dr. B. Certainly ; without these qualities, the lion 

 and tiger would never dare to attack animals larger than 

 themselves, and consequently could not exist. 



Emily. Without the requisite courage to encounter 

 the thick-set snares of the poultry-yard, and the cunning 

 and subtlety necessary to avoid them, Reynard would 

 often go to bed supperless, and dream of, instead of 

 feasting on chanticleer and his mates. 



Dr. B. Herbivorous animals, on the contrary, which 

 can digest only vegetable food, have velocity of the 

 muscular power instead of strength, whereby they avoid 

 their enemies ; their feet are destitute of claws ; their 

 teeth are blunt ; and their moral powers are character- 

 ised by timidity and distrust. 



The laws which thus determine the relations between 

 the different functions, are equally perceptible in fixing 

 the relations between the different parts of the same 

 system. In the digestive system, for instance, the con- 

 struction of the jaws, the form of the teeth, the length, 

 convolutions, and dilatations of the alimentary canal, are 

 all determined by one another, and these relations are 

 so constant and necessary, that, like the conditions of a 

 mathematical problem, one being known, the rest are 

 quickly inferred. 



Emily. These laws of existence do indeed form a 

 necessary condition of the existence of organic beings. 

 I never was before aware that laws presided over their 

 formation, as uniformly as attraction and repulsion over 

 the operations of inorganic matter.' 



Dr. B. Tester id too of feiterino; the operations of na- 

 ture, as might perhaps at first sight seem, and prescribing 



