202 LIFE IN NATURE. 



which the organic world displays. And thus, think- 

 ing that these characters of beauty and of order per- 

 tain exclusively to that region (where alone it is 

 visible to us), we have naturally concentrated our 

 admiration upon it, and have been almost forced to 

 think admirable also the ends which are thus sub- 

 served. We have been compelled to accept organic 

 life as excellent in its results and apparent objects, as 

 well as in its means ; thinking the wonder and 

 beauty of those means were introduced for those 

 results alone ! But how much more beautiful a 

 thought is open to us when we look on the organic 

 part of nature as, in these respects, but an exhibition 

 of the whole : and what relief it brings to the moral 

 constraint with which we have forced ourselves 

 to regard the universal rapine and utter selfhood 

 of the animal creation ! Instead of possessing a 

 superadded and especial excellence of order and 

 adaptation, the organic world does but bring the 

 universal order and excellence of nature into our 

 little sphere of vision; there it is displayed on a 

 scale small enough for us to see, and we see it 

 beautiful. Forgetting this, we have extended to the 



