THE CINCINNATUS. 



VOL. 11. FEBRUARY 1, 1857. NO. 2. 



THE SEED. 



God has condescended to write a book to direct his erring creatures 

 in all that pertains to their relations and duties to him, and to each 

 other — the book of inspiration — the Bible. This book is simple, 

 and at the same time profound. Its pages beam with light, and the 

 most ignorant and degraded are irradiated by its teachings. He 

 has spread out before us another book — the book of Nature. It too, 

 has its plain and obvious lessons ; yet in its hidden and unobserved 

 laws are depths, that the most profound philosophers have never scan- 

 ned, and bights they have never scaled. To study nature is to study 

 Deity ; to read her lessons is to love, and loving, to adore. With 

 reverence we would approach her sacred temple, and with distrust 

 open her massive volume — her grand encyclopedia — and pen a para- 

 graph on the seed and some of its characteristics : 



The seed — " Within whose slender rind, 



Life's golden threads in endless circles wind ; 



Maze within maze, the lucid waves are roll"d. 



And as they burst, the living flame unfold. 



Each ravel'd bud, fine film and fiber-line ; 



Traced with nice pencil on the small design. 



The young Narcissus, in the bulb compressed, 



Cradles a second nestling on its breast. 



In whose fine arm a younger embryo lies — ■ 



Folds its thin leaves, and shuts his floret eyes. 



Grain within grain, successive haiTcsts dwell. 



And boundless forests slumber in a shell." 



How expressive these lines of the treasured wonders, and untold 

 histories embodied in a single seed, however minute. 



Let us examine as the physiologist, for a few moments, the seed; 

 and in our successive numbers, trace it step by step upward and on- 

 VOL. II., II.— 4. (49) 



