e Annulosa. Next come the creatures called Rotifers, which are very
minute. Then come the Crustacea, so called from their crustlike shell.
This group includes the crabs, lobsters, etc., and closely resembles
the insects. In fact, some of the best authorities believe that the
insects and the crustacea spring from the same parent form, and some of
the Yogi authorities hold to this belief, while others do not attempt
to pass upon it, deeming it immaterial, inasmuch as all life-forms have
a common origin. The western scientists pay great attention to outward
details, while the Oriental mind is apt to pass over these details as
of slight importance, preferring to seek the cause back of the outward
form. On one point both the Yogi teachers and the scientists absolutely
agree, and that is that the family of insect life had its origin in
some aquatic creature. Both hold that the wings of the insect have been
evolved from organs primarily used for breathing purposes by the
ancestor when it took short aerial flights, the need for means of
flight afterwards acting to develop these rudimentary organs into
perfected wings. There need be no more wonder expressed at this change
than in the case of the transformation of the insect from grub to
chrysalis, and then to insect. In fact this process is a reproduction
of the stages through which the life-form passed during the long ages
between sea-creature and land-insect.

We need not take up much of your time in speaking of the wonderful
complex organism of some of the insect family, which are next on the
scale above the crustacea. The wonders of spider-life--the almost human
life of the ants--the spirit of the beehive--and all the rest of the
wonders of insect life are familiar to all of our readers. A study of
some good book on the life of the higher forms of the insect family
will prove of value to anyone, for it will open his or her eyes to the
wonderful manifestation of life and mind among these creatures.
Remember the remark of Darwin, that the brain of the ant, although not
much larger than a pin point, "is one of the most marvelous atoms of
matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of man."

Closely allied to the crustacea is the sub-family of the _mollusca_,
which includes the oyster, clams, and similar creatures; also the
snails, cuttle-fish, slugs, nautilus, sea-squirts, etc., etc. Some are
protected by a hard shell, while others have a gristly outer skin,
serving as