SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 251 



Magnetism being the agent that makes the atoms or molecules 

 love each other, they unite to form compounds, as in the great prob- 

 lem, water made of oxygen and hydrogen, one acting magnetically 

 as a metal, the other a non-metallic agent. Water, as our earth is 

 built, is the most important material in her wonderful edifice. 

 Without it, nature would be incapable to carry forward her art of 

 construction and creation. Some of the earliest speculators in 

 philosophy maintained that all the material which composed the 

 universe existed at one time in the form of water. The teaching of 

 modern geology has reproduced nearly the same doctrine. 



Perhaps the next most important element in nature is carbon. 

 With a few other elements it builds up continents and clothes them 

 with vegetation. I would not forget that the phosphides, potash, 

 chlorine, soda, nitrogen, silicon, iron, etc., are material in Nature to 

 carry on her art. 



I will take as a type, to show how Nature builds an apple tree 

 — as this theme is the subject of this august coming together — to 

 see how we can utilize Nature to conserve our purpose. 



The seed germ, I can only say, is a fiat order. 1 know not how 

 to define; and yet cannot do without admitting a Being who has 

 directed the germ to form. And all the primordial forces are, at 

 best, to the intellect, but negative objects, not comprehended only 

 by analogy or abstraction. 



We gain a glimpse of it by abstraction, when we say that the 

 first matter is not the lineaments and complexion which makes the 

 beautiful face ; nor yet the fiesh and blood which makes the linea- 

 ments and that complexion ; nor yet the liquid and solid elements 

 which makes the flesh and blood; nor yet the simple bodies of earth 

 and water which makes tViese various elements ; but something, 

 which being below all these, and supporting them all, and yet differ- 

 ent from them all, is essential to their existence. 



We gain a glimpse by analogy, when we create a work of art to* 

 imitate a substance of Nature. Ours is a secondary form; so is the 

 first and original matter, to all forms in general. So we infer the 

 molecules are the substratum of all forms known to our senses, and 

 their loving impulses to combine is magnetism to create, a vital force, 

 an energy to build form. 



The germ of the tree is quickened into energy by moisture, and 

 heat from the sun. It is by the sun's beams the polarized angles of 

 the molecules are shaped to exactly fit the edifice they are about 

 to rear, with as much precision as the carpenter would a brace or 

 beam to support a building. If we could magnify the molecules so 

 they could be seen with the eye, they could be beheld marching with 

 martial step to take their proper places to create cell and fibre of the 

 tree. Every atom is deposited at the proper place with a view to a 

 perfect end. 



