ANIMATED NATURE. 



129 



we perceive only the irregularities of the minute surface, 

 and single shrubs which appear arbitrarily scattered. But 

 our view at length extending and becoming more compre- 

 hensive, we begin to see parterres balancing each other, 

 trees, statues, and arbors placed symmetrically, and that 

 .he whole is an assemblage of parts mutually reflective. 

 It can scarcely be necessary to point to the inference hence 

 arising with regard to the origination of nature in some 

 Power, of which man's mind is a faint and humble re- 

 presentation. The insects of the garden, supposing them 

 to be invested with reasoning power, and aware how arti- 

 ficial are their own works, might of course very reasonably 

 conclude that, being in its totality an artificial object, the 

 garden was the work of some maker or artificer. And so 

 also must we conclude, when we attain a knowledge of 

 the artificiality which is at the basis of nature, that nature 

 is wholly the production of a Being resembling, but infi- 

 nitely greater than, ourselves. 



Organic beings are, then, bound together in develop- 

 ment, and in a system of both affinities and analogies. 

 Now, it will be asked, does this agree with what we know 

 of the geographical distribution of organic beings and of 

 the history of organic progress as delineated by geology > 

 Let us first advert to the geographical question. 



Plants, as is well known, require various kinds of soil, 

 forms of geographical surface, climate, and other condi- 

 tions, for their existence And it is everywhere found, 

 that, however isolated a particular spot may be with regard 

 to these conditions — as a mountain top in a torrid coun- 

 try, the marsh round a salt spring far inland, or an island 

 placed far apart in the ocean — appropriate plants have 

 there taken up their abode. But the torrid zone divides 

 the two temperate regions from each other by the space 

 of more than forty-six degrees, and the torrid and tempe- 

 rate zones together form a much broader line of division 

 between the two arctic regions. The Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans, and the Persian Gulf, also divide the various por- 

 tions of continent in torrid and temperate zones from each 

 other. Australia is also divided by a broad sea from the 

 continent of Asia. Thus there are various portions ot 

 the earth separated from each other in such a way as to 

 preclude anything like a general communication of the 

 seeds of their respective plants towards each other. Hence 

 arises an interesting question — Are the plants of the vari- 



