178 CYCLES OF EXISTENCE. PART n. 



ber; the latter are often so extremely small that they are 

 invisible to the unaided eye, and are not to be counted 

 even by thousands. It appears that beings, whether 

 animal or vegetable, are prolific in the inverse ratio of 

 their size. The incredible multitudes of the lowest 

 grades of vegetable life, the rapidity of their growth, 

 the shortness of their existence, and their enormous 

 fruitfulness, make them powerful agents in preparing 

 soil for the higher classes which are nourished by their 

 decay. But no sooner do even the monarchs of the 

 forest fall than the work of destruction begins; the 

 light and heat which in their chemical form brought 

 them to maturity, now in their physical character ac- 

 celerate their decay; the moss and the lichen resume 

 their empire, and live at the expense of the dying and 

 the dead, a cycle which perpetuates the green mantle of 

 the earth. 



Notwithstanding the important part these inferior 

 beings perform in the economy of nature, they were im- 

 perfectly known till they became a test for the power of 

 the microscope. Then indeed not only were the most 

 wonderful organisms discovered in the ostensible tribes 

 of the Cryptogamia, but a new and unseen creation was 

 brought under mortal eye, so varied, astonishing, and 

 inexhaustible, that no limit can be assigned to it. This 

 invisible creation teems in the earth, in the air, and in 

 the waters, innumerable as the sand on the seashore. 

 These beings have a beauty of their own, and are 

 adorned and finished with as much care as the creatures 

 of a higher order. The deeper the research, the more 

 does the inexpressible perfection of God's works appear, 

 whether in the majesty of the heavens, or in the infini- 

 tesimal beings on the earth. 



