THE VITAL FORCE. 73 



sunk lower. May we not well believe that the 

 remaining portion, through that sinking, has risen 

 higher? To this very secretion we may trace the 

 force by which the vital condition of the insect is 

 elevated to a correspondence with the demands of the 

 higher organization it is destined to assume. By 

 the operation of this simple law, the creature itself 

 is furnished with protection and warmth, and fitted 

 for its new life, while man's activities are evoked 

 and his pleasures multiplied. 



And looking beyond particular instances to the 

 general relations of organic life, we see how beauti- 

 fully it is adapted, as it were, to lean upon the general 

 breast of nature, and be by it continually supported 

 and renewed. It is a channel through which the 

 ever-present energy of nature works an open course 

 in which its forces may flow. All nature, indeed, to 

 the eye that traces its hidden powers and deeper 

 workings, is visibly pressing around the plant and 

 compelling it to live and grow. It has simply to 

 receive and to be passive ; its labour is done for it. 

 It toils not, neither does it spin ; but it yields itself 

 freely to obey. 



