STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 13 



skeletons of strange, uncouth animals, -which roamed 

 the fens and struggled through the woods before 

 man was. Our surprise is heightened when we 

 learn that the very quarry itself is mainly com- 

 posed of the skeletons of microscopic animals ; the 

 flints which grate beneath our carriage wheels are 

 but the remains of countless skeletons. The Apen- 

 nines and Cordilleras, the chalk cliffs so dear to 

 homeward-nearing eyes — these are the pyramids of 

 by-gone generations of atomies. Ages ago these 

 tiny architects secreted the tiny shells which were 

 their palaces ; from the ruins of these palaces we 

 build our Parthenons, our St. Peters, and our Lou- 

 vres. So revolves the luminous orb of Life ! G-en- 

 erations follow generations; and the Present be- 

 comes the matrix of the Future, as the Past was of 

 the Present — ^the Life of one epoch forming the pre- 

 lude to a higher Life. 



When we have thus ranged air, earth, and water, 

 finding every where a prodigality of living forms, 

 visible and invisible, it might seem as if the survey 

 were complete. And yet it is not so. Life cradles 

 within Life. The bodies of animals are little worlds, 

 having their own animals and plants. A celebrated 

 Frenchman has published a thick octavo volume 

 devoted to the classification and description of "The 

 Plants which grow on Men and Animals ;"* and 

 many Germans have described the immense variety 



* Charles Eobin : Histoire Naturelte des Vigeiaux Parasites 

 qui crmssent sur I'Homme et sur les Animamc Vivants. 1863. 



A* 



