SIMPLICITY OF CONDITIONS OF GROWTH. 39 
ence in the unvarying chain of processes which 
characterize it. The seed calls for heat, mois- 
ture, and air, all the world over, before it can 
live to become a plant.* This is one of those 
grand simplicities of Creating Wisdom, which fill 
us far more with wonder and admiration than 
the most complicated and ingenious effort of 
human skill. Had the task been given to man 
to accomplish, what an infinity of altering 
circumstances and forces would he not have 
thought necessary, to effect the germination 
of different seeds placed in the most opposite 
conditions! In the hands of the Creator of 
the worlds around and above us, see how a 
few and simple principles do all, and do all 
well—so that, while ages roll on, no part of 
the world once clothed with plants, shall ever 
again become deprived of its lovely raiment. 
This, indeed, is the characteristic of the works 
of God as opposed to those of His creatures,— 
that, while they must heap together a multitude 
* Mr. R. Hunt has discovered that the rays of light which pro- 
duce the effects known under the name of actinism are also necessary 
to the first germination of the seed, in addition to the three requisites 
mentioned in the text. 
