THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 7 



spared by the hand of time, to reveal to us the world's 

 eventful history. 



If Ave review the living forces of our planet, we soon 

 perceive that their power is boundless. When they are 

 unleashed within its bowels, the whole face of the earth 

 is shaken. At one time they raise up the Alps and 

 Himalayas, their summits towering into the region of the 

 clouds. At another, almost cleaving the globe from pole 

 to pole, the Andes and America rise from the bosom of 

 the sea; then the staitled waves, tumultuously pouring- 

 over the ancient Avorld, produce one of the more recent 

 catastrophes, the great deluge. Thus the supreme Power 

 decreed ! 



When, after having viewed the imposing phenomena 

 which are taking place on the surface of the earth, we 

 look down upon its tiniest inhabitants, we see revealed, 

 in unexpected magnificence, all the wisdom of Providence; 

 ere long the spectacle of immensity in what is infinitely 

 little, astonishes us no less than the immeasurable power 

 displayed in the grand scenes of creation. Animated 

 nature seems to imitate the ancient pantheism, which 

 distributed portions of the divinity to every molecule of 

 created matter; she equally reveals herself everywhere: 

 armed Avith the microscope the eye discovers her traces in 

 every interstice of matter. 



Fontenelle was Avont to censure the ancient verbose 

 scholasticism, which he rightly called the philosophy of 

 words. The learned secretary of the Academy Avanted to 

 see the intellect occupied solely Avith facts — Avith the philo- 

 sophy of things. We are about to prove ourselves foUoAvers 

 of his precepts by restricting ourselves to the results of 

 observation. 



Nothing gives a more brilliant idea of the universal 



