372 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Uni 



exposing diamonds to heat in a certain way they can be changed 

 to coke. Here then we have an agent, an element, that element 

 carbon, assuming three forms. Chemically the element carbon 

 is the same ; physically it is not the same. We see the same 

 truth exemplified in everyday life. The same moral principle 

 may assume a variety of forms. Self-sacrifice, for example, 

 may take the form of a humble act done by one obscure peasant 

 for a neighbour, or may shine in a king's deed of chivalry 

 which is the admiration of the world. In the former shape 

 the principle is not recognised as being so valuable ; as also the 

 coke is not so precious as the kohinoor. But in coke and 

 kohinoor, as we have seen, the essence is the same ; so in both 

 the act and deed just referred to, the principle of self-sacrifice 

 would be the same, and the difference in the form only. 



s. x. 



The Universe a Progressive System. 



It is now generally admitted by all the greatest philosophers 

 of modern times, that this earth at its origin was an immense 

 mass of vapours and incandescent gases, forming what astro- 

 nomers call a "nebula," or "nebulous matter." And its history 

 to the present day is a history of constant progress from a lower 

 to a higher state. Illustrations of some of the marvellous methods 

 by which Nature evolves improvements out of apparently chaotic 

 conditions are within our knowledge, and afford some clue to 

 the kind of upward and onward movement which has been going 

 on throughout the world ever since the dawn of time. Let us 

 take as an instructive example the present position of the 

 reptile race, and its apparent use in the plan of Nature. The 

 chief residence of the reptile race is to be found in hot climates, 

 and in low, swampy ground, where the morasses are ever filling 

 with decaying vegetable matter, and exhale a soft thick miasma, 

 as deadly to the white man as the fumes of arsenic, and injurious 

 even to the dark-skinned native, who can breathe unharmed a 

 fetid atmosphere that would smite down his white master as 

 quickly and surely as if he were struck with a bullet, and who 

 only attains his fullest development under these conditions. In 

 these dread regions, their seething putridity, concealed by all the 



