100 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
between animal and vegetable life have not yet 
been so clearly defined as to make them fixed 
and readily distinguishable. Diatom and des- 
mid have been alternately placed on either side, 
now exalted to the higher plane of animal ex¬ 
istence, and now degraded to the lower order 
of vegetation. And although the keener in¬ 
spection of modern science may have brought 
the question nearer to a settled conclusion, 
there is still enough to stimulate further inves¬ 
tigation. 
“As we have gazed, however, now wonder¬ 
ing whether the objects holding our attention 
were plant or animal, other forms came into 
view, of whose character there could be no 
doubt: they were^ living creatures, as much so 
as the one gazing upon them. But how mi¬ 
nute, how strange, how active, and how incom¬ 
prehensibly numerous! and all forming but the 
life-world of a single drop of water! ‘ O Lord, 
how wonderful are thy works!’ Often in one 
drop of ditch-water will be found more than 
forty different forms of infusorial life, and these 
so multiplied as to be literally countless. Tiny 
as they are, each one has all the organs of a 
distinct animal life; and circumscribed as is 
