4 LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
sters which glide noiselessly along, lords of the ocean, 
down to the jelly-masses floating on the surface, and 
the banks of rocky coral built by jelly - animals 
in the midst of the dashing waves. There is no 
spot on the surface of the earth, in the depths of 
the ocean, or in the lower currents of the air, which 
is not filled with life whenever and wherever there is 
room. The one great law which all living beings 
obey is to "increase, multiply, and replenish the 
earth;" and there has been no halting in this work 
from the day when first into our planet from the 
bosom of the great Creator was breathed the breath 
of life, the invisible mother ever taking shape in 
her children. 
No matter whether there is room for more living 
forms or not, still they are launched into the world. 
The little seed, which will be stifled by other plants 
before it can put forth its leaves, nevertheless thrusts 
its tiny root into the ground and tries to send a 
feeble shoot upwards. Thousands and millions of 
insects are born into the world every moment, which 
can never live because there is not food enough for 
all. If there were only one single plant in the whole 
world to-day, and it produced fifty seeds in a year 
and could multiply unchecked, its descendants would 
cover the whole globe in nine years/"" But, since 
other plants prevent it from spreading, thousands and 
thousands of its seeds and young plants must be 
formed only to perish. In the same way one pair, 
of birds having four young ones each year, would, if 
all their children and descendants lived and multi- 
plied, produce two thousand million in fifteen years, f 
* Huxley. t Wallace. 
