FINAL CAUSES. 13 



of species has been discovered, each animalcule 

 being provided with appropriate organs, endowed 

 with spontaneous powers of motion, and giving 

 unequivocal signs of individual vitality. The 

 recent observations of Professor Ehrenberg have 

 brought to light the existence of Monads, which 

 are not larger than the 24,000th of an inch, and 

 which are so thickly crowded in the fluid as to 

 leave intervals not greater than their own dia- 

 meter. Hence he has made the computation 

 that each cubic line, which is nearly the bulk of 

 a single droj), contains 500,000,000 of these 

 monads, a number which equals that of all the 

 hmnan beings existing on the surface of the 

 globe* 



Thus, if we review every region of the globe, 

 from the scorching sands of the equator to the 

 icy realms of the poles, or from the lofty moun- 

 tain summits to the dark abysses of the deep ; if 

 we penetrate into the shades of the forest, or into 

 the caverns and secret recesses of the earth ; 

 nay, if we take up the minutest portion of stag- 

 nant water, we still meet with life in some new 

 and unexpected form, yet ever adapted to the 

 circumstances of its situation. Wherever life 

 can be sustained, we find life produced. It 

 would almost seem as if Nature* had been thus 



* In order to avoid the too frequent, and consequently irre- 

 verent, introduction of the Great Name of the Supreme Being 

 into familiar discourse on the operations of his power, I have, 



