212 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



Living in the same element as fish, and feeding 

 very much as fishes feed, a similar outward form 

 has been given to them because that form is the 

 best adapted for progression through the water. 

 But that form has been, so to speak,/;// on round 

 the Mammalian skeleton, and covers all the organs 

 proper to the Mammalian Class. Whales and Por- 

 poises, notwithstanding their form, and their habi- 

 tat, and their food, are as separate from Fishes as 

 the Elephant, or the Hippopotamus, or the Giraffe. 

 And when we remember that the immense 

 variety of Organic Forms in the existing world 

 does not exhaust the adaptability of their Plan, 

 but that the still vaster varieties of all the extinct 

 creations have circled round the same central 

 Types, it becomes evident that these Types have 

 had from the first a Purpose which has been well 

 and wonderfully fulfilled. As a matter of fact, 

 we see that the original conception of the frame- 

 work of Organic Life has included in itself pro- 

 visions for applying the principle of adaptation 

 in infinite degrees. Its last development is in 

 Man. In His frame there is no aborted member. 

 Every part is put to its highest use : — highest, 



