36 LIFE IN NATUKE. 



It is a wonderful thing Life, ever growing old, 

 yet ever young ; ever dying, ever being born ; cut 

 down and destroyed by accident, by violence, by 

 pestilence, by famine, preying remorselessly and 

 insatiably upon itself, yet multiplying and extending 

 still, and filling every spot of earth on which it once 

 obtains a footing ; so delicate, so feeble, so dependent 

 upon fostering circumstances and the kindly care of 

 nature, yet so invincible ; endowed as if with super- 

 natural powers, like spirits of the air, which yield to 

 every touch and seem, to elude our force ; subsisting 

 by means impalpable to our grosser sense, yet wield- 

 ing powers which the mightiest agencies obey. 

 Weakest, and strongest, of the things that God has 

 made, Life is the heir of Death, and yet his con- 

 queror. Victim at once and victor. All living 

 things succumb to Death's assault; Life smiles at 

 his impotence, and makes the grave her cradle. 



Truly it seems as if there were something here not 

 only mysterious and wonderful (for that everything 

 in Nature is), but peculiar and unlike all beside. It 

 seems as if a power had its seat in living things, 

 which could maintain and extend itself by some inhe- 



