THE LIVING WORLD 
THE BIRTH OF SPECIES. 
ATURAL HISTORY, in its largest sense, treats of all 
things in nature the animate and inanimate, the 
dynamics or forces, structure of the earth, conditions, 
mutations, and, in short, all the operative forces of 
physics, as well as the habits, character, organism and 
species of animal life. It is therefore a most compre¬ 
hensive subject, and consequently one divisible into 
numerous branches for distinct consideration, compass¬ 
ing fields for research so extensive that no single 
book can contain an exhaustive treatise on all the 
products therein. For these reasons I have chosen to con¬ 
fine myself in this work to a description of that particular 
/ branch of Natural History (Zoology,) which treats of the 
animal life on our planet, with only incidental references, 
as occasions seem to require, to the multitudes of plant, 
minute insect and infusorial life. I speak here of such 
references rather to acquaint the reader with a most inter¬ 
esting, because least understandable, fact, viz.: that the 
line of separation between vegetable and animal life is so 
indistinct that it is doubtful if the demarcation has yet 
been discovered. The development of microscopic life from decaying vegetation 
is scarcely so singular as the truth that many of the infusoria, or microscopic 
creatures, partake of a double nature, retaining semblances of vegetation while 
possessing functions of motion and digestion which characterize the animal. 
This subject, however, leads so directly to evolution and into metaphysics, 
that the general reader will feel no regrets that I have not claimed the space 
and patience to pursue its discussion here. 
Though our subject is vast in magnitude, every step is one of extra¬ 
ordinary interest, unfolding new beauties and startling wonders with the 
introduction of each species, and raising our minds from a contemplation 
of these mysteries of nature to a reverential, worshipful feeling for Him who has 
, scattered with omnipotent hand the myriads of creatures conceived and created 
for the peopling of our world. While our hearts are lifted up in grateful 
acknowledgment to the Creator, and our minds are filled with astonishment 
at the variety, structure and number of creatures that fill the sea, becloud the 
sky and make the earth a very hive of restless animates, we cannot avoid 
contemplating the world as it existed before the “Spirit of God moved upon. 
(13) 
