384 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



drop that falls in the form of rain, but there is a con- 

 stant tendency in the parts below the surface to re- 

 arrange themselves in some other order to obtain an 

 equilibrium which is no sooner obtained than it is 

 lost. All nature is thus animated; the sea is never 

 so quiet, the air is never so calm, the earth is never 

 so fixed, but that these silent and invisible, but ap- 

 preciable changes still go on. 



And these changes, we are taught by the most 

 careful observations and measurements, have much 

 more than a mere superficial and momentary cha- 

 racter. Large tracts of land are being even now up- 

 heaved, and others are depressed. But a few years 

 and what is now a flat coast-line may present a steep 

 cliff; and large tracts of land now above the water 

 may then be submerged. Streams and rivers bring 

 down mud, and by this mud choke up their own 

 channels ; but they soon make other channels, which, 

 after a time, are closed in a similar way. 



But if this is the case with regard to inorganic 

 matter, how much more strikingly is it true when we 

 consider the nature of organic life. A constant re- 

 placement of every part, both solid and fluid, which 

 is endowed with the mystic power of life, seems to be 

 the first requisite for its existence, and the essential 

 attribute of its presence. Every particle of the solid 

 frame-work which supports our bodies will, in a 

 few weeks, or at the most a few months, entirely 

 disappear, only, however, to give place to other par- 

 ticles arranged in like manner. Individuals are in 

 the same way represented by their offspring; and 

 this representation is carried out in nature, not only 

 with families of individuals, but also with those 



