began.

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CHAPTER II. GENERAL LAWS OF ORGANIZATION.

GENERAL LAWS OF ORGANIZATION.

The organic world is separated into two great divisions, animal and vegetable, or into animate and inanimate beings. In regard to the vegetable kingdom, as it is termed, it is not necessary to say a word; those desirous of obtaining a thorough knowledge of animal life, however, had better begin their studies with the more elementary and simple forms of vegetable being. Many persons suppose that the whole animate existence is linked together by connecting or continuous gradations. In a certain sense this may be said to be so; nevertheless, absolutely considered, each family or form of being is a complete and independent creation. There are resemblances and approximations as well as gradations, yet each is perfect in itself, and makes up an entire world of its own. The Almighty Creator, in His infinite wisdom, has provided against chance, or accident, or human caprice, and placed each and every one of His works in a position of such absolute independence, that one of them, or more, perhaps, might utterly perish, and yet the beauty and harmony of nature would remain unimpaired. It is certain that some species of animals belonging to the existing order have utterly disappeared, and it is quite probable that some species of men have perished; but the grand economy of nature is unaffected by it. It is thought that the aborigines of this continent will, in time, utterly perish, and yet no one supposes that that event will disturb the operations of nature or deface the fair form of creation. This shows that 35there is no continuous or connecting link even among species of the same family or form of being. If there were such—if all the forms of life were continuous and connecting gradations—then it is evident that the destruction of one of these connecting links would cast the whole economy of being into utter confusion. In a watch, or any other elaborate machinery of human contrivance, a single wheel, or cog, or link, however minute, torn from its place, involves the disruption, if not absolute destruction, of the whole machine. And so it is in the economy of 

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