portion is microscopically constructed, even the excessively minute parts are in exquisite harmony with the grand plan of the universe; and we cannot but conclude, that if to destroy one atom of dead matter the intervention of Deity is requisite, there must have been at the initiation of life an actual and a special interference of creative power: for life is not the servant of matter, but ruler; subordinating, guiding, moulding. Plato, one of the most thoughtful of ancient heathen, thus reasoned "Was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created and having a beginning? Created. I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things which are apprehended by opinion and sense are in process of creation and created. Now that which is created must of necessity be created by a cause. . . . He put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, and framed the universe to be the best and fairest work in the order of Nature."1 Coming to our own day, Charles Darwin says-"To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes like those determining the birth and death of an individual." Very well, then, the natural had its origin in the supernatural, life and death are traced through secondary causes to Divine Will. Even the simplest living beings can be produced only from germs originating in other previously living organisms; Life is to science an ultimate fact, for which it can only conjecturally account. Another student writes, that he may lead us "to the power of apprehending the unity which underlies the diversity of animal structures; to show in those structures the evidence of a predetermining will; producing them in reference to final purpose; and to indicate the direction and degrees in which organisation, in subserving such will, rises from the general to the particular." Here we have the initial fact-production, and the design of it: the initial fact rendered law possible, 2 "Origin of Species." 1 "Timæus:" translated by Rev. B. Jowett. Anatomy of Vertebrates,” vol. i. p. v. Introd.: Owen. Specific Nature of Life. 239 the design bound that law as an elastic band round the universe, making Providence to be general and particular. As to the specific nature and continuance of life, the best arguments are facts given by accurate observers :-"It has been deemed no mean result of comparative anatomy to have pointed out the analogy between the shark's skeleton and the human embryo, in their histological conditions; and no doubt it is a very interesting one." This analogy is not inconsistent with the observed tendency of offspring to differ from the parent; nor with the stranger fact-"This tendency and its results are independent of internal volition and external influence." Thus we are led to the great truth-" Every species is such ab initio, and takes its own course to the full manifestation of its specific characters agreeable with the nature originally impressed upon the germ. A perch, a newt, a dog, a man, do not begin to be such only when the embryologist discerns the dawnings of respective specific characters. The embryo derived its nature, and the potency of self-development according to the specific pattern, from the moment of impregnation; and each step of development moves to that consummation as its end and aim." "An orderly succession according to law, and also progressive or in the ascending course, is evident from actual knowledge of extinct species;" but none can say why circulation in the embryo of lizard, of fowl, of beast, is like a fish in its simplicity, but far from being identical. "It is proved that no germ, animal or vegetal, contains the slightest rudiment, trace, or indication of the future organism—since the microscope has shown us that the first process set up in every fertilised germ is a process of repeated spontaneous fissions, ending in the production of a mass of cells, not one of which exhibits any special character; there seems no alternative but to conclude that the partial organisation at any moment subsisting in a growing embryo, is transformed by the agencies acting on it into the succeeding phase of organisation, and this into the next, until, through ever-increasing complexities, the ultimate form is reached."5 Ibid. Introd. p. xxxv. 1 "Anatomy of Vertebrates," vol. i. p. 245: Owen. The fact is established, the operation of derivative secondary causes is due to a great master Principle: by whose will and power the waters teem with swarms of living things, and birds fly above the earth :— "Young fresh blood . . . Keeps ever circulating still In water, in the earth, in air, In wet, dry warm, cold, everywhere Faust. Living beings possess at least six leading characteristics. 1. Assimilation-the power of taking in external materials and converting them into substances for building up fresh tissue and repairing waste. By this a living body grows. 2. Alteration-certain periodic changes, in definite order, by which they lose portions of their substance and die: partial death is the accompaniment of all life. 3. Reproduction—Living bodies have, directly or indirectly, the power of giving origin to germs which develop into the parent's likeness. 4. Motion-Every living body is the seat of energy, by which the inertia of matter is overcome; is master of physical forces; and this power in man, wielded by intelligence, brings the dead matter of the universe into obedience to his will. 5. The life of all living beings seems to reside in a substance termed "protoplasm," or "bioplasm," differentiated more or less, which bears to it about the same relation that a conductor does to the electric current; but in no way possesses life as an inherent property. 6. The great majority of all living beings are organised— that is, possess organs or parts which perform functions. Do not live because they are organised, but are organised and have structure because they live. There is something in the action and nature of vital energies different from anything observed in physical: it is not organism which gives life, but life which causes organism. As there are six leading characteristics of life, so are there six different types of animal structure. At first sight we suppose that every kind of animal has its own peculiar plan; we Types of Animal Structure. 241 do not imagine that a lobster and a butterfly are built upon the same type, yet they really are: all known animals spring from this unity; and, in spite of their great and many outward differences, are arranged into six kingdoms. I. PROTOZOA (πρwτos, first; Zwǹ, life). Are generally of a very minute size, composed of a nearly structureless, jelly-like substance. Infusoria, rhizopods, and sponges. They are not definitely segmented, have no nervous system, no digestive apparatus-beyond, occasionally a passage in the midst of their protoplasm. The simplest, called Monera, are small living corpuscles; nothing more than shapeless, mobile, little lumps of protoplasm. Take a rhizopod from the outside of this creature, which has no limiting membrane, numerous thread-like processes protrude. Originating from any point of the surface, each may contract again and disappear; or touching some fragment of nutriment, draw it, when contracting, into the general mass--thus serving as hand and mouth. This structureless body may join and become confluent with its fellow bodies; and, in brief, is at once all stomach, all skin, all mouth, all limb, all lung. 2. CŒLENTERATA (koïλoç, hollow; vrepov, intestine). Sea-anemones, corals, sea-jellies, sea-pens. They rise considerably above the Protozoa in organisation. They have a body-wall composed of two principal layers, an intestinal cavity, and a mouth leading into it. They have no organs of circulation; but a rudimentary nervous system; the mouth is surrounded by tentacles arranged in a star-like manner. The common hydra is generally taken as a type of the lowest division. It can live when the duties of skin and stomach have been interchanged by turning it inside out. 3. ANNULOIDA (annulus, a ring; &doç, form). Sea-urchins, star-fishes, sand-stars, some internal parasites as the tape-worm, with some minute aquatic creatures. The digestive canal is completely shut off from the cavity of the body; there is a distinct nervous system; a system of branched water-vessels, usually communicating with the interior; the body of the adult, often "radiate," is never composed of a succession of definite rings. 4. ANNULOSA and Molluscoida. R Animals with bodies composed of numerous segments, or rings; and nervous system, forming a knotted cord, along the lower surface of the body. Worms, leeches, crabs, lobsters, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, insects. 5. MOLLUSCA (mollis, soft). Shell-fish, snails, cuttle-fish, nautilus. Soft bodies, hard shells; no distinct segmentation of the body; and a nervous system of scattered masses. 6. VERTEBRATA. Animals with a vertebral column. The body composed of definite segments-each composed of two tubes: a dorsal containing the neural axis, and a ventral containing the viscera, blood-vessels, etc.-arranged longitudinally one behind the other. The main masses of the nervous system are placed dorsally. The limbs are never more than four in number. Fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. These modern classifications, with man at their head, are very simply arranged in the Divine account of the genealogical tree. Moving creatures in the water, creeping things on land, animals of length, birds, beasts, cattle, man. Marine life, first created, is represented by the earliest fossils; and in the order of creation-plant, fish, bird, mammal: one generation hands a lamp of higher life to the next. To mark off the groups simply as beasts, birds, fishes, creeping things, is to make their differences of appearance, modes of life, and relative importance conspicuous. Creative energy, we may be sure, did not act by breach of natural law, but with power put forth diversely: plant, fish, bird, mammal, were introduced not collectively or simultaneously, but at different periods in the day of life. The earliest possessed characters in combination such as we, nowadays, find separately developed in different groups of animals. It is pleasant to have the kinship of all things authoritatively stated the water brought forth, the earth brought forth; the vegetable had seed in itself, the animal possessed life after his kind. Not only are all living animals reducible to five or six fundamental plans of structure; but amongst the vast and varied series of fossil forms not one has yet been found with peculiarities entitling it to be placed in a new sub |