64 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
so bounteously distributed over it. In the words of Lamartine, “ " ' 
know what produces life, but we know not what it is and this ig ,)0 ’ 
ranee is perhaps the powerful attraction which provokes our curiossi^ 
and excites us to study. 
Every living being is animated by two principles, between which 11 
silent but incessant combat is being carried on — life, which assimilate 
and death, which disintegrates. At first, life is all powerful — it lords ^ 
over matter; but its reign is limited. Beyond a certain point its vigo°* 
is gradually impaired ; with old age it decays ; and is finally extinguish^ 
with time, when the chemical and physical laws seize upon it, and 
organization is destroyed. But the elements, though inert at fi^ 1 
are soon reanimated and occupied with a new life. Every plant, ever) 
animal is bound up with the past, and is part of the future, for evetf 
generation which starts into life is only the corollary upon that whkj 1 
expires, and the prelude of another which is about to be borne. 1$ 
is the school of death ; death is the foster-mother of life. 
Life, however, does not always exhibit itself at the moment of ^ 
formation. It is visible later, and only after other phenomena. 
order to develope itself, a suitable soil or other medium must be p'' r 
pared, and other determinate physical and chemical conditions provided 
The presence and diffusion of living beings are no chance products ; tM 
follow rigorously an order of law. Speaking of the higher forms 0 
animal life, the Duke of Argyll says, in his able and satisfactory 
“ The Reign of Law,” — “ In all these there is an observed order in 
most rigid scientific sense, that is, phenomena in uniform connexi (,il 
and mutual relations which can bo made, and are made, the basis 0 
systematic classification. These classifications are imperfect, ^ 
because they are founded on ideal connexions where none exist, h’ 1 * 
only because they fail in representing adequately the subtle and p eI " 
vading order winch binds together all living things.” 
The knowledge of fossils has thrown great light upon the reg 11 ^ 
and progressive development of organization. The evolution of livB 1 ' 
beings seems to have commenced with the more rudimentary forms ; ^ 
more ancient rocks, until very recently, had revealed no traces of 
and what has been revealed tends to confirm this view. In the Ca®* 
brian rocks of Bray Head, county Wicklow, the Oldhamia is a zoopb)^ 
of the simplest organization, and the Rhizapods found near the bott oll) 
of the Azoic rocks of Canada are the lowest form of living typ eS ' 
