THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 5/ 
ought to class them—whether as animal or veg¬ 
etable, or whether as a link between the two 
orders. 
“ Mark those now under our instrument. The 
motions are generally slow, but sufficiently dis¬ 
tinct to be characterized. They now stretch 
out into an emerald wand well befitting a queen¬ 
ly hand, and anon break up into gems that 
would add new lustre to her diadem. These 
are but different stages of the progressive plant 
life, and are so singular as at once to raise the 
low order into the plane where the mind is held 
with a bewildered astonishment. That myste¬ 
rious Power which pervades everything has 
quickened even these low beginnings of vege¬ 
table life with authority to make known his 
glory and beneficence, as they push forward to 
fill some great purpose in creative goodness. In 
our subsequent researches we shall learn some¬ 
thing of the benevolence which included these 
obscure agencies in the grand scale of causes, 
as we shall find these slimy masses of pond 
vegetation feeding an animal life more minute 
than themselves, and this in turn ministering 
to a higher, until we find the benevolent pur¬ 
pose completed in that ever-open hand whose 
