20 THE PRESENT CONDITION 



and the diversity of the physiological functions which 

 are exerted by each. 



If I were to take an oak tree, as a specimen of the 

 plant world, I should find that it originated in an 

 acorn, which, too, commenced in a cell ; the acorn is 

 placed in the ground, and it very speedily begins to 

 absorb the inorganic matters I have named, adds 

 enormously to its bulk, and we can see it, year after 

 year, extending itself upward and downward, attract- 

 ing and appropriating to itself inorganic materials, 

 which it vivifies, and eventually, as it ripens, gives off 

 its own proper acorns, which again run the same 

 course. But I need not multiply examples, — from the 

 highest to the lowest the essential features of life are 

 the same, as I have described in each of these cases. 



So much, then, for these particular features of the 

 organic world, which you can understand and com- 

 prehend, so long as you confine yourself to one sort of 

 living being, and study that only. 



But, as you know, horses are not the only living 

 creatures in the world ; and again, horses, like all 

 other animals, have certain limits — are confined to a 

 certain area on the surface of the earth on which we 

 live, — and, as that is the simpler matter, I may take 

 that first. In its wild state, and before the discovery 

 of America, when the natural state of things was 

 interfered with by the Spaniards, the Horse was only to 

 be found in parts of the earth which are known to 

 geographers as the Old World; that is to say, you 

 might meet with horses in Europe, Asia, or Africa; 

 but there were none in Australia, and there were none 

 whatsoever in the whole continent of America, from 



