ever varying conditions of life, transcend in an incomparable manner the contrivances and adaptations which the most fertile imagination of man could invent.'

In preparing the present summary of recent advances in this department of natural history, I have resorted freely to quotation, because of the obvious rule, that it is better for scientific interest, for proper understanding, and for regulation of all subsequent reasoning on the facts, that we have the observations presented as nearly as possible by those who made them, and that we have more general inferences in the very words of those whose minds have been filled and swayed by impressions made in the field of observation itself. In now proceeding to consider the bearing of these advances on religious thought, I shall keep as far as possible by the same rule, desiring that science may interpret itself, and translate its own special conclusions into their fit place within a scheme of the universe. And whatever there may be here of material for detailed inference, it will be taken by religious men as abundantly clear, that science in slowly unfolding to general view Fertilization. p. 285.

these secrets of nature, renders a lasting and most valuable service to religion. Our religious convictions and emotions rest on a wider intellectual basis according to the fulness with which we understand the marvels of adaptation and contrivance which lie covered from ordinary observation under the attractive surface of nature.

Altogether beyond such a general admission as this, however, it must be obvious that in the mass of deeply interesting material now before us, there lies a considerable number of truths needing to be gathered into generalized form, bearing upon the laws of nature applying to living organism. As records of details are extended before us, the marvels of structure are obvious. The multifarious contrivances become quite startling, until we are ready to lose our reckoning in the very multiplicity of facts narrated. In order to make sure of general result, we need to draw off somewhat from details,-to be content even to lose sight of many of them,-in order to gain a position, sufficiently removed for a sight of general relations. In attempting this it is clear that there are certain truths bearing on the preservation and development of spe

cies in the vegetable kingdom, and an analogous set of truths as to the animal kingdom, and above these, possibly still more important for general appreciation of the universe as a whole, a body of truth as to the relations of plants and animals.

As to the first of these, it seems obvious that within the single field of observation presented by orchids,-comparatively narrow, in view of the wide domain of the vegetable kingdom, and yet astonishingly extensive, on account of the richness of detail,—there is a large body of evidence to support the theory of origin of species by selection and adaptation. Whether all the orchidea now found in existence have sprung from one order of plant, or from several, the testimony appears ample to support at least the following conclusion as presented in the words of Mr. Darwin, "that the now wonderfully changed structure of the flower is due to a long course of slow modification,-each modification having been preserved which was useful to the plant, during the incessant changes to which the organic and inorganic world has been exposed.""

Fertilization, p. 246.

By a line of inference exactly similar, a like conclusion must be reached as to insect life. For, important as the observations are, bearing on the transference of pollen from the place where it is generated to the place where it is wanted, we must notice that the whole work is done in consequence of search for honey by flies, moths, ants, wasps, and bees. It naturally follows that all these insects have been going through some measure of adaptation, as well as the plants. The same law must have been operating in their history while prosecuting the unceasing search for food. It may be exceedingly difficult to fill up the line of progress, or trace the causes in operation, which could favor the conclusion that all the insects named have sprung from a common stock. Still more perplexing might it be to maintain the argument that these very insects have sprung according to a sure law of descent, from vegetable life itself. But there is ample evidence to warrant the inference that in length of proboscis, formation of limbs, and other features in their structure, modifications have resulted from the struggle needful to reach the nectar secreted in the flowers.

But it is clearly impossible to stop here in our inferences. There is interdependence of lower and higher organisms, to which a distinct place needs to be assigned in our theory of the universe. Even if it be granted, as it readily will be by those who have studied the results of recent research, that there is a vast body of evidence to prove that there is development of species by adaptation and selection, it is equally evident that this is not the only law affecting the existence of different orders of organized beings. Just as clear as it is that pollen and seed are both required to provide for the continuance of plant life, so clear is it that plants are needed to support insects, and insects to propagate plants. Proceeding on the same lines of reasoning as have been already employed, we must inquire how this interdependence is to be accounted for under natural law? The struggle for existence is clearly performing an important part in the development of plants, and also of animals; and so long as we regard these two orders singly, it seems obvious how changes in structure may be accounted for; but observations have become so interlaced, that a new problem has been raised in con