Volume 1

Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology / by Peter Mark Roget.

  • Roget, Peter Mark, 1779-1869.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology / by Peter Mark Roget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ficient simplicity to admit of the application of mathe- matical reasoning, and to furnish the accurate results derived from such application. Thus to whatever department of physical science our researches have extended, we everywhere meet with the same regularity in the phenomena, the same simplicity in the laws, and the same uniformity in the results. All is strictly defined, and subject to rigid rule: all is sub- ordinate to one pervading principle of order. The Great Creator of the universe has exercised in its construction the severest and most refined geometry, has traced with unerring precision the boundaries of all its parts, and has prescribed to each element and each power its respective sphere and limit. Far different is the aspect of living Nature. The spec- tacle here offered to our view is everywhere characterised by boundless variety, by inscrutable complexity, by per- petual mutation. Our attention is solicited to a vast : multiplicity of objects, curious and intricate in their 1 mechanism, exhibiting peculiar movements, actuated by mew and unknown powers, and gifted with high and re- : fined endowments. In place of the simple combinations of (elements, and the definite properties of mineral bodies, all ■ organic structures, even the most minute, present exceed- ingly complicated arrangements, and a prolonged succes- sion of phenomena, so varied and so anomalous, as to be utterly irreducible to the known laws which govern inani- ■ mate matter. Let us hasten, with fresh ardour, to explore ' this new world that here opens to our view. Turning, then, from the examination of the passive objects of the material world, we now direct our attention to the busy theatre of animated existence, where scenes of wonder and enchantment are displayed in endless variety around us; where life in its ever-changing forms meets the