orrm 



referred to this adaptation to his i 

 chemical relations, thus making the science of che- 

 mistry possible. We regard every natural science, 

 indeed, only as an expression of the relation of that 

 part of nature to the mind of man. But in addi- 

 tion to this chemical relation of the elements to each 

 other, so beautiful and satisfactory, there is an adap- 

 tation of each and all of them as servants of man, 

 as ministering to his physical wants ; but minister- 

 ing to him only because, by his intellect, he first 

 subdues them, entering into the secrets of their 

 nature, and thus finding in them means of perpetual 

 improvement 



We have already referred, in another connection, 

 to the evidence of design in the relations of carbon 

 and hydrogen as fuel. But the very idea of fuel, as 

 ministering to physical comfort, implies intellect. 

 Fire is the servant of man. No race has been found 

 so degraded as to be without it, and there is no his- 

 tory to tell of men who were ignorant of its use. 

 No mere animal has been found with any power to 

 secure it, or with any apparent knowledge of its use, 

 except as a source of comfort, supplied to him by 

 man. Fire is a provision for man alone ; and every 

 provision in nature for Combustion, is either without 

 significance, or it has reference to the intellectual 

 nature. The nature of carbon and hydrogen, the 

 beds of coal, the fountains of oil, the accumula- 

 tion of woody fibre in the trunk of the tree as heart- 

 wood, which is of no special service to the tree itself 

 all of these substances, with their nicely-balanced 



