THE OKlCilN Ob' Lll'E 



255 



minifer, we have reference to the vital functions of 

 its gelatinous sarcode, to the complexity and beauty 

 of its calcareous test, or to its capacity for effecting 

 great material results through the union of indi- 

 viduals, we perceive that we have to do, not with 

 a low condition of those powers which we designate 

 life, but with the manifestation of those powers 

 through the means of a simple organism ; and this 

 in a degree of perfection which we, from our point 

 of view, would have in the first instance supposed 

 impossible. 



If we imagine a world altogether destitute of life, 

 we still might have geological formations in pro- 

 gress. Not only would volcanoes belch forth their 

 liquid lavas and their stones and ashes, but the 

 waves and currents of the ocean and the rains and 

 streams on the land, with the ceaseless decompos- 

 ing action of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, 

 would be piling up mud, sand, and pebbles in the 

 sea. There might even be some formation of lime- 

 stone taking place where springs charged with 

 bicarbonate of lime were oozing out on the land 

 or the bottom of the waters. But in such a world 

 all the carbon would be in the state of carbonic 

 acid, and all the limestone would either be diffused 



