LIFE. 



so elaborately constructed, as to deserve to be included in 

 the category of those works which the adoring Psalmist 

 says are great. 



We propose in this volume to describe the various 

 phases of animal life, commencing at the foot of the scale, 

 where we catch the first glimmering of the vital spark, 

 and tracing it step by step upwards through its various de- 

 velopments and changes, its forms and functions. But what 

 is life 1 There is a nrystery couched under that little word 

 which all the research of philosophers has not been able 

 to solve. Science, with the experience of ages, with all 

 the appliances of art, and with all the persevering inge- 

 nuity and skill that could be brought to bear upon it, has 

 ardently laboured to lift the veil; but philosophy, and 

 science, and art, stand abashed before the problem, and 

 confess it a mystery still. The phenomena, the properties 

 of life, are readily observable. We take a bird in our 

 hands; a few moments ago it was full of energy and 

 animation ; it shook its little wings as it hopped from 

 perch to perch ; its eyes glanced brightly, and its throat 

 quivered as it poured out the thrilling song which de- 

 lighted us. Now the voice has ceased, the eye is dim, the 

 limbs are stiffening, and we know that it will move no more. 

 Chemical changes have already begun to operate upon its 

 organs ; decomposition is doing its work, and soon the 

 beautiful little bird will be a heap of dust. We say that 

 its life has gone ; but what is it that has gone 1 If we put 

 the body in the most delicate balance, it weighs not a 

 grain less than when it was alive ; if we measure it, its 

 dimensions are precisely the same ; the scalpel of the 

 anatomist finds all the constituent parts that made the 



