Ascending to the next group of rocks, we find the traces of life become more abundant, the number of species extended, and important additions made i… - Robert Chambers

Abstract perfection should always be the direction aimed at by human efforts, however imperfect they may be; and the success of sanitary legislation will be indicated by the nearness or the distance of its actual practice from this perfect idea.

In most instances, affectionate relatives and kind friends would wish to prolong the existence of the individual who has reached that age; but if we look at the happiness of mankind in general, we shall find reason to believe that, like all the other general principles of nature, this one carries the impress of an all-wise and beneficent Creator; and that if man had it in his power to alter the arrangement, it may be questioned if he could improve it. At this age the great desires of life are generally accomplished, and the tired laborer in the hardest fields of exertion, which are those of the intellect, has had some years of quiet meditation on the long battle of life to which his days of energy and hope were devoted. The world has, in general, little more use for him; and should he—however meritorious his services, however honored his gray hairs—too long remain an actual living man, seeming to fill a part of the arena in which younger and abler combatants are looking for places, the consciousness of being honored and beloved may give way before the suspicion that he has become an encumbrance to the circle he once adorned.

It appears from this inquiry that color and other physiological characters are of a more superficial and accidental nature than was at one time supposed.