SOCIETY OF CENTEAL ILLINOIS. 249 



And now with dexterity lay the top crust 

 And away to the oven, thence soon to appear 

 In a clond of rich fragrance the table to cheer. 

 'Tis the Yankee's delight; but to make it complete 

 There's an old and wise adage I beg to repeat, 

 That the best apple pie, if it's served without cheese, 

 Is like giving a kiss and — omitting the squeezel 



DUMPLIXG XO. VII, AND LAST. 



When Jupiter had his "swell wedding," we're told, 

 Hesperian maidens brought apples of gold 

 By the apronf ul, love for the gay bride to prove, 

 And a smile of approval to win from old Jove. 

 But what, pray, are apples of gold to compai'e 

 With the "Astraciian" juicy, or "Mcintosh" rareV 

 Three cheers for King Apple, red, golden and streaked, 

 Elliptical, spherical, spheroid or peaked, 

 Sub-acid, mild, bitter, or spiced like sweet pickle, 

 Or sours that would sharpen the teeth of a sickle,— 

 Hurrah for King Apple I for pleasure or gain. 

 For health and for beauty— O, long may he reign! 



XATURE AS A MECHANIC. 

 BY DR. LYMAlf HALL, CHAMPAIGN. 



If asked what nature is, 1 would say it is art by a master mech- 

 anic not well understood; but many structures can be comprehended. 

 Mechanic I would define as the art to build by exact rules; none of 

 its rules are defective; when a mechanic builds a form it is perfect in 

 all its parts. 



Art, in order to build, must have a design or form to construct, 

 and then of absolute necessity must have material with which to 

 build. It is in the material universe I will search for a something to 

 work with. 



Thales, and his contemporaries believed fire, air, water and earth 

 were the premordial elements capable of mutual transmutation into 

 each other, and so combining as to construct all nature, hence they 

 believed and proclaimed this axiom, ''That all things are convertible 

 into all things." 



The Stoics maintained that there are two first principles, God and 

 matter; not that they regarded God as an element, but rather as the 

 active principle, while matter was a passive state. In all their teach- 

 ing they had many great truths that have stood the scientific tests 

 that has been applied to their teachings. 



At the present time there is known to science, in round num- 

 bers, about sixty elements known as molecules; and they, in their 

 mechanical combination, build all the varied forms which go to make 

 up nature, and however varied the forms of nature are, but very few 

 of the simple elements enter into the mechanism of form, in man, 



