Lif] AND SYMBOLS. 193 



forms and in their amazing numbers, for their appointed task 

 in the economy of Nature. Not a leaf that falls from the 

 bough, not a blade that withers on the lea, but is seized by the 

 tiny fangs of some special fungus organised to prey upon it ; 

 not a spot of earth can we examine where vegetable life is 

 capable of growing, but we shall find a vegetable as well as an 

 insect parasite, keeping its growth in check, hastening its decay, 

 and preserving its remains from being wasted. Ardently 

 engaged in studying the laws of those functions by which life 

 is carried on, begun, or continued from one generation to 

 another, the physiologist seeks illustrations of his favourite 

 pursuit in every living object that presents itself to his observa- 

 tion. He travels nowhere without meeting something worthy 

 of his attention, for it may be truly said that most parts of this 

 world are dwelling-places of living creatures, and that we can 

 scarcely find a spot uninhabited by beings endowed with life. 

 We find life in the air, in the water, in the eternal snows of 

 the Arctic regions, and the burning sands of the torrid zone. 

 "We find it near the summits of the loftiest mountains and in 

 the deepest caverns ; even mephitic pools, poisonous soils, and 

 boiling springs, teem with animals and plants adapted to the 

 peculiar circumstances in which they are placed, and furnished 

 with an organisation wisely contrived for their existence, a. 



Fulness of Life. >C 



Some men's natures are characterised by a remarkable fulness 

 of life. Socially, morally, intellectually, spiritually, they are 

 characterised by perennial vigour. They remind us of that 

 wondrous fulness of life which is so striking a peculiarity of 

 the palm-tree. Beside the blossom grows continually the 

 fruit, and from the fading circle of its leaves there springs with 

 restless energy the fresh green. Thus it is that everything 

 about the palm assumes the expression of inexhaustible vigour. 

 And when at last the tree lies dead beneath the weight of ages, 

 even then a thousand labyrinth filaments of parasitical plants 

 twine round the trunk, and clothe it deceivingly with an odorous 

 and many-coloured but spectral life. ST. 



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