Natural Laws. 455 



flower garden presents ; that power wliich causes the differ- 

 ent plants to cull out from the same soil, and combine in 

 their respective forms, those elements which constitute the 

 deadly vegetable poison ; the luscious, the sour or the bitter 

 fruit ; the delicious sweets, the aromatic spices, or those 

 fibrous vegetable substances from which wc weave so manj 

 of our valuable textile fabrics. 



We cannot tell why the delicate fibrous rootlets of the 

 tree penetrate the soil, and gather up the moisture which 

 holds in solution some of the constituents of its own future 

 <!omposition, and propels it in the form of sap through the 

 woody labyrinths of its roots, trunk, and branches to its 

 leaves, where, by tlieir peculiar mechanism, it is assimilated 

 and prepared to perform its office. We cannot comprehend 

 the cause of its return to assume the place assigned it in the 

 wood, the bark, the flower, the fruit or the seed, just where 

 it is wanted to perfect the full development of the tree, pro- 

 ducing in each variety of trees and shrubs their own peculiar 

 form of development, each re-producing its kind in infinite 

 succession. Wc can only say that the life giving principle 

 which produces these strange phenomena springs from the 

 First Great Cause, and cannot be comprehended by finite 

 minds. 



EVIDENCE OF DESIGN. 



The farmer is surrounded with these evidences of design, 

 and by them he is brought into direct and pleasing contact 

 with that power which, by established laws, not only directs 

 these minute affaii's of nature, but also holds and guides the 



