ONLY A VINE- SLIP. 539 



forms of matter into the three following classes, with the accompany- 

 ing definitions : 



1. Chemical Elements. Substances whose molecules are com- 

 posed either of those of other chemical elements of less atomic weight, 

 or of such as are too low to be capable of molar aggregation, and 

 therefore imperceptible to sense : formed during the progress of de- 

 velopment of star-systems at temperatures higher than can be ar- 

 tificially produced, and hence too stable to be artificially disso- 

 ciated. 



2. Inorganic Compounds. Substances whose molecules are com- 

 posed of those of chemical elements or of other inorganic compounds 

 of lower degrees of aggregation : formed in the later stages of the 

 development of planets at high but artificially producible temperatures, 

 and therefore capable of artificial decomposition ; and constituting the 

 greater part of the solid crust of cooled-off bodies, their liquid and a 

 portion of their gaseous envelope. 



3. Organic Compounds. Substances whose highly complex and 

 very unstable molecules are composed of those of chemical elements, 

 inorganic compounds, or organic compounds of lower organization : 

 formed on the cooled surfaces of fully developed planets at life-sup- 

 porting temperatures. 



ONLY A VINE-SLIP. 



By T. G. APPLETON. 



THE world's life is one long day, in which events strike the hours. 

 The hours strike, time moves on, till another stroke marks an ad- 

 vance which could only be that of the present moment, and to which 

 all the minutes of the past have contributed. I seemed to hear that 

 clock of the ages strike, the other day at my table, when a charming 

 young Frenchman was explaining why he had come to America. It is 

 humiliating to man, haughty in his mastery of this world, to find a 

 successful antagonist, the least of creatures, microscopically small, and 

 nameless often, till the bafiied husbandman is obliged to write it in 

 Greek or Latin characters upon the banner of his conquering foe. The 

 Phylloxera is mightier than a German army ; for the latter, once sati- 

 ated, goes home, but the former apparently stays for ever. The Egyp- 

 tians are again upon us ; the plagues of Egypt, and perhaps, what is 

 worse, the plagues of America, move across the world, devastating as 

 they go. The contagion of evil seems to outrun that of beneficence in 

 an unfair proportion. Creatures unconscious of what they do, which 

 the microscope barely discovers, terrify whole nations, and give the lie 

 to the arrogance of man. Somewhat as the old thought is now super- 



