THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
8l 
comes the guiding motive in all our studies, 
the sooner will true happiness reward our 
efforts. 
“ Having, as I trust, got our feet firmly fixed 
on the ascending ladder, let us keep them there, 
ever looking upward, for the ‘ way of life is 
above to the wise.’ 
“ In our previous studies we have been deal¬ 
ing with the lowest forms of vegetable life, and 
have found them mysterious and beautiful; but, 
however attractive they have been, they must 
yield to the richer glories of the ‘ first-born of 
life,’ which we are now to consider. 
“ Take an atom of dust from any alluvial 
deposit, found on the surface or in the deepest 
strata, and it will be found mainly made up of 
the skeletons of the dead. Choose a splinter 
of marble, a piece of chalk, or any of the strat¬ 
ified rocks, or even of the hardest flints, and lo! 
we are inspecting the cemetery of incomprehen¬ 
sible millions, whose well-preserved skeletons 
attest the fact of a marvellous multiplication 
of a past life. These remains, although so mi¬ 
nute, may almost lay claim to be the founda¬ 
tion-stones of the earth’s superstructure. Fos¬ 
sil diatoms are found everywhere, and attract 
