On the surface of the earth the amount of change produced is equally remarkable, although it leaves less permanent traces behind. As a rule no decomposition of organized matter takes place, no death of plants or animals, without infusorial life making its appearance, and disposing of no small portion of the spoil. Even in our climate the mass of matter thus annually affected is very large; but what must it not be in moist tropical lands, where every particle seems alive, and the race of life and death goes on at a speed, and to an extent scarcely conceivable by those who have not witnessed it. Thus, if we look at the world of minute forms which the microscope reveals, there opens before us a spectacle of boundless extent. We see life manifested by the specks of jelly containing particles not aggregated into structure, and we see it gradually ascending in complexities of organization. In creatures whose habits and appearance seem most remote from our own, we find the elementary developments of the organs and powers that constitute our glory, and give us our power. Such studies assist us to conceive of the universe as a Cosmos, or Beautifully Organized Whole; and, although we cannot tell the object for which a single portion received its precise form, we trace everywhere relations of structure to means of existence and enjoyment, and are led to the conviction that all the actions and arrangements of the organic or inorganic worlds are due to a definite direction and co-ordination of a few simple forces, which implicitly and unerringly obey the dictates of an Omniscient Mind. PRINTED BY J. E. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS 5, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD LYTTON. _In one handsome Volume, Foolscap Quarto, cloth gilt, price 25s._ WOMANKIND IN WESTERN EUROPE, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., F.S.A. _Illustrated with numerous Coloured Plates and Wood Engravings._ "It is something more than a drawing-room ornament. It is an elaborate and careful summary of all that one of our most learned antiquaries, after years of pleasant labour on a very pleasant subject, has been able to learn as to the condition of women from the earliest times. It is beautifully illustrated, both in colours--mainly from ancient illuminations--and also by a profusion of woodcuts, portraying the various fashions by which successive ages of our history have been marked."--_The Times._ _In one handsome Volume, Super-royal Quarto, cloth gilt, price 21s._ RURAL CHURCHES THEIR HISTORIES, ARCHITECTURE, AND ANTIQUITIES. BY SIDNEY CORNER. _With Coloured Illustrations from Paintings by the Author._