of the Liassic period, lay the huge skeleton of
the Ichthyosaurus, a warm-blooded marine existence, with huge saucer
eyes of singular telescopic power, that gleamed radiant "with the
eyelids of the morning," "by whose neesings alight doth shine"--the
true leviathan of Job. In the same extinct sea is found the skeleton
of the Plesiosaurus, a marine lizard of equal size, and warm-blooded,
whose swan-like neck and body graced the serene seas of the
pre-adamite world. Another was that of the Pterodactyl, the antique
aragon, a winged fish. The task of sustaining these existences was too
great for old Ocean, and the monsters dropped from the upper end of
the chain into the encrusting mud, the petrified symbols of failure.
So one day man may drop into the limbo of vanities, among the
abandoned tools in the Creator's workshop.

But, however high or low the degree in the scale, one distinguishing
feature marks the vital creation in vegetable or animal--an
intelligence capable of adjusting itself to the elements about it, and
electing its food. The sunflower, even, does not follow the sun by a
mechanical law, but, growing by a fair, bright sheet of water, looks
as constantly at that shining surface for the beloved light as
ever did the fabled Greek boy at his own image in the fountain.
The tendrils of the vine seek and choose their own support, and the
thirsty spongioles of the root find the nourishing veins of water.
Growth, says a naturalist, is the conscious motion of vegetable life.
But this theory of kinship, imperfect in the plant, becomes plain
and distinct in the animate creation. However far removed, the wild
dolphin at play and the painted bird in the air are cousins of man,
with a responsive chord of sympathy connecting them.

It is this feeling that sends an exhilarating thrill through the
submarine explorer when a school of porpoises frisk by with undulating
grace, the marine type of a group of frolicking children. It is the
instinctive perception that it is a pure enjoyment to the fish, the
healthy glow and laugh of submarine existence. But for that sense of
sympathetic nature the flying-fish, reeling porpoise and dolphin would
be no more to him than the skipping shuttle in a weaver's loom, the
dull impetus of senseless machinery. Self-generated motion is the
outward and visible sign of vitality--its wanton exercise the symbol
and expression of enjoyment. The poor philosopher who distinguished
humanity as singula