NUTRITION 17 
the starch we buy is made by plants from which 
men extract it. If there were no plants there would 
be no starch, and it may surprise us to learn that 
there would be no food of any kind whatever; we 
should all starve. That is one of the astounding 
facts of Nature that I cannot go into now, but I want 
the reader to believe it and think about it, for it will 
help him to reverence the Scheme of Creation and its 
Creator, and reverence is one of the virtues that is 
as valuable to the Nature-student as it is to all the rest 
of the world, whatever the occupation or hobby may 
be. We must never forget that if there were no 
green leaves there would be no animals, no men or 
women, and no children; moreover, should the student 
pursue this subject he will find that we depend upon 
the plants not only for the food we eat, but also for the 
air we breathe; he will learn that we use up the oxygen 
and eat up the food, but the plants replenish the 
supplies of oxygen, which is as necessary for them as 
for us, while they are manufacturing the food that 
sustains both. If we really grasp that fact in the 
sense of understanding how it comes about, we shall 
never have any doubt about the true meaning of 
the Balance of Nature or about the reality of those 
things which our Nature-study will reveal to us, 
such as the extreme beauty of the world in which 
we live, the co-operative nature of the Scheme of 
Creation, and a thousand and one other things 
which will compel our reverence and make life on 
this planet, however humble it may be, a privilege 
and a glory. 
Now we have got two Factors of Life, Breath and 
Food, or Respiration and Nutrition, and if we watch 
a young plant, a young animal, or a child in healthy 
