51 



how universal the beauty ! But let us be more analytic and 

 illustrate in due order the deeper impressions which fill the 

 mind after the crowd of details sinks to rest, for these must 

 form part of the materials which Biology gives over to 

 Philosophy to build with. 



3. A Multitude of Individualities, yet a Systema Naturae. 



When we look at Nature with a fresh eye, in a new coun- 

 try, or in some novel experience such as dredging, we have 

 a transient impression of overwhelming confusion, as if 

 Aladdin's cave had been suddenly burst open before us. 

 Many miss this in ordinary circumstances because familiarity 

 breeds the contempt of inattention, and also because a very 

 large number of living creatures are cryptozoic. For every 

 conspicuous plant there are often a score inconspicuous, and 

 for every readily visible animal there must be a hundred 

 unseen. It is not of individuals that we are thinking, but 

 of individualities, of species. There are at least 25,000 

 named backboned animals, ten times as many named back- 

 boneless animals, and about as many plants. There are 

 about 100,000 Dicotyledonous Flowering Plants. Darwin 

 speaks of finding twenty different kinds of flowering plants 

 on a patch of turf four feet by three, and there may be as 

 many different kinds of animals on one stone brought up 

 from the sea-floor. 



The study of marine animals has been enthusiastic and in- 

 tense for many years, but those who know most about it will 

 agree with what the poet Spenser said long ago : 



" But what an endlesse worke have I in hand, 

 To count the seas abundant progeny. 

 Whose fruitful seede farre passeth those on land, 

 And also those which wonne in th' azure sky ; 

 For much more eath, to tell the starres on hy, 



