IS LIFE UNIVERSAL? 151 



nating, leaf-pushing, flower-unfolding organisms of 

 its vegetable covering. The celebrated Spanish 

 botanist, Cavanilles, first conceived the thought of 

 'seeing grass grow' by setting the horizontal thread 

 of a micrometer, attached to a powerful telescope, at 

 one time upon the tip of the shoot of a bamboo, at 

 another upon that of a fast-growing American aloe 

 (Agave Americana), precisely as the astronomer 

 brings a culminating star upon the cross-wires of 

 his instrument. In the aggregate life of nature, 

 organic as well as sidereal, Being, Maintaining, and 

 Becoming are alike associated with motion." 



Here we will pause, and abstain from argument 

 Let the thought stand as a suggestion merely, a 

 whim of fantasy. It is at least a noble and ele- 

 vating one. The dissevered unity of nature is re- 

 stored. The lower rises to the higher rank; the 

 higher wins a new glory in descending to the lower 

 place. Unbroken stands the scheme before us. Life 

 infinite and boundless; throbbing in our veins with 

 a tiny thrill of the vast pulse that courses through 

 the infinitude of space; the joy and sorrow in our 

 hearts calling us to an universal sympathy, guaran- 



