24 
ciple, or rather whatever the unknown cause of life may 
be, we know that it may long exist in an organized body 
without betraying itself, while in others, while equally un- 
perceived, it soon dies, and cannot, by any art, be restored. 
A bulb, found in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, grew 
freely when brought to Europe, though it must have been 
several thousand years previously inclosed in the mummy- 
case. Some seeds will preserve their germinating, that is, 
their living power, for many years, as the bean; wheat, 
which is often found in mummy-cases, also grows freely, 
while others, as those of the coffee-tree, will not germinate 
unless they are planted soon after they have ripened. Why 
this is so we cannot tell. Some, again, germinate in a day 
or two, as occurs in those of garden cress, while others, 
as of the rose and hazel, require to be buried two years. 
These and many other phenomena connected with life, 
show that it is characterized by the greatest variety ; but 
they also show that the seed must possess its latent vitality, 
orit never will producea new plant. The coffee-seed, if 
set when a year old, would prodnee nothing ; it would not 
germinate, because it has lost its living essence, and life 
never can originate from a body that isdead. A dead seed 
can never give birth to.a growing, that is, a living plant. 
When a seed or grain of any kind, therefore, is planted 
or. sown, do not imagine that it dies—it loses its 
appearance as a seed, indeed, but there is no death; it is 
converted into the future vegetable; and thus the life or 
vital principle, infused by the Almighty into the first of 
the race which he created, is continued down from plant to 
plant, from animal to animal, and from age to age. 
Perhaps the bean is not sufficiently demonstrative of these 
truths, and, therefore, I must. give you farther evidence, 
Tuet us attend to a lupin. The seed-lobes of the bean, 
