THE GROWTH OF COAL 253 



the interest ? Heat comes out of it, light comes out of it, and 

 if we could gather together all that goes up the chimney, and 

 all that remains in the grate of a thoroughly burnt coal fire, 

 we should find ourselves in possession of a quantity of carbonic 

 acid, water, ammonia, and mineral matters exactly equal in 

 weight to the coal. But these are the very matters with which 

 Nature supplied the club mosses which made coal. She is 

 paid back principal and interest at the same time ; and she 

 straightway invests the carbonic acid, the water, and the 

 ammonia in new forms of life, feeding with them the plants 

 that now live. Thrifty Nature, surely ! no prodigal, but the 

 most notable of housekeepers." ^ 



All this is true and well told; but who is "Nature," this 

 goddess who, since the far-distant Carboniferous age, has 

 been planning for man? Is this not another name for that 

 Almighty Maker who foresaw and arranged all things for His 

 people " before the foundation of the world." 



References :— On Structures in Coal, Journal Geological Society of 

 London^ xv., 1853. Contains results of microscopic study of Nova 

 Scotia coals. Conditions of Accumulation of Coal, Ibid.^ xxii., 

 1866. Contains South Joggins section. Spore cases in Coal, Am. 

 Journal of Science, 3rd series, vol. I, 1 87 1. Rhizocarps in the 

 Devonian, Bulletin Chicago Academy, vol. I, 1886. "Acadian 

 Geology and Supplement," 3rd edition, 1891, Cumberland Coal Field. 

 '•'Geological History of Plants," chap, iv., London and New York, 

 2nd edition, 1892. 



* Contemporary Review, 1871. 



