204 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



subject to a temperature and to atmospheric conditions 

 very different to those we now possess. Then were 

 formed either in great tracts of swamps, or on the deltas 

 of deep and mighty rivers, those deposits which now con- 

 stitute the coal-fields of the world. I must ask you to 

 carry back your thoughts to the times when these accu- 

 mulations were collected leaf by leaf and bit bv bit ; when 

 giant ferns and reeds and sedges were living and growing, 

 dying and decaying ; when an almost tropical vegetation 

 was daily and hourly extracting from the atmosphere of 

 the preadamite world these very elements, and storing 

 them up for use in succeeding ages. We here have the 

 chain complete and perfect. These very atomic particles 

 which now pass by combustion into the atmosphere, were 

 once before, (and perhaps often before,) in countless ages 

 past, floating in the air over a land very different to that 

 we now inhabit ; were extracted from that air by the hand 

 of Nature, passed into various forms of vegetable life, 

 were deposited in layers on the surface of the earth, sub- 

 merged under the sea, and gradually covered over by the 

 enormous weight of the superincumbent strata, were then 

 drawn out of the bowels of the earth by the labour of 

 man, and finally converted by his skill and ingenuity into 

 that gas which, when it is burnt, pours back again into the 

 atmosphere its constituent elements. Can we not clearlv 

 see, from this illustration alone, that waste is unknown in 

 Nature, that nothing in her is lost, and that " refuse " 

 means nothing else than that certain elements are for a 

 time in a dormant condition, but only waiting until their 

 time comes again to take an active part in the great 

 economy of the world. It therefore behoves everyone to 

 do all that in him lies, to convert this dormant condition 

 into an active one, and thus, as it were, to assist Nature 

 in turning over her capital as often as possible. 



Much successful effort has already been devoted to 

 utilizing so-called " waste " materials, but there are many 



