OF LIVING FORMS; OR, MORPHOLOGY. 75 



engine arise, or a watch grow into shape ; who, while 

 he called into existence wheel, or lever, or pipe, and 

 fitted them into orderly connection to achieve his ends, 

 could yet show us that the natural forces, the properties 

 involved in the things themselves, accomplished all ; 

 and could demonstrate to us for each useful or beau- 

 tiful result a chain of causation reaching to the heart 

 of all things : were not that more wonderful infi- 

 nitely more ? 



And so if we could discover for the exquisite 

 forms of living things, for that marvellous grace of 

 vegetable life which fills us with a wonder ever new, 

 and a delight that familiarity cannot deaden for the 

 astonishing adaptations of structure in the animal 

 frame, which, though yet but half-revealed, even 

 science dwells on with a reverent awe if for these 

 things we could discover a cause that would link 

 them with the heart of all things, should we not be 

 glad ? Should we not wonder, and admire, and feel 

 that a secret not less than sacred had been revealed 

 to us? 



Life is lovely every way. Even if we look upon it 

 as an isolated thing, existing apart from the rest of 



