406 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



dreadful cold of an eternal winter. With every thousand feet we 

 rise above the level of the sea, we seem to have advanced nearer 

 and nearer to the pole. 



This wonderful change of form, which decorates the various 

 regions of the earth with such an endless variety of organised 

 existence, alike prevails in the realms of ocean. Here we find 

 every larger sea-basin nourishing its peculiar inhabitants, and 

 discover at various vertical distances beneath the surface of the 

 sea, changes in organic nature similar to those we observed at 

 different distances above its level. 



Thousands of extinct animal and vegetable forms, which have 

 successively flourished and disappeared, teach us the important 

 lesson, that all created beings are made but for a season. It is 

 only during a determined epoch of planetary life that each genua 

 or species finds that combination of outward circumstances, under 

 which it is able to attain its highest perfection. But imper-> 

 ceptibly, in the course of ages, the external world modifies its 

 nature; families once flourishing in a different atmosphere 

 decline and wither ; they are no longer able to maintain them- 

 selves against new forms of life starting up in all the vigour of 

 youth, and disappear from the scene, supplanted by races which 

 must one day vanish in their turn. 



Organic life is no less dependent on place than it is on time. 

 Of the numberless animal and vegetable forms that people the 

 earth, each finds in only one spot the scene of "its greatest size 

 and its greatest profusion. Some endowed with a more pliable 

 or energetic nature occupy a large space upon the surface ot. 

 the globe; we find them in the enjoyment of healthy exist- 

 ence scattered far and wide over whole hemispheres, while 

 others are obliged to content themselves with the narrowest 

 birthplace, and are not seldom confined to a single bay, 01 

 a single mountain side. 



A great part of the magic charm of nature is owing no doubt 

 to this deep and mysterious connexion between the soil and its 

 productions. Here all is harmony ; we feel it in our hearts ; and 

 our eye delights in the consonance of forms and colours, as our 

 ear in the concord of sweet sounds. And where is the mortal 

 artist whose paintings could rival the ever-changing panorama 

 which the Master of all worlds unfolds through all zones, from 

 pole to pole ? His pictures constantly fade away ; but they are 



