294 TRUTH AND FICTION. 



The flower lias grown under the impulse of principles 

 which have traversed to it on the solar beam, and min- 

 gled with its substance. A stone is merely a stone to- 

 most men. But within the interstices of the stone, and 

 involving it like an atmosphere, arc great and mighty 

 influences, powers which are fearful in their grander 

 operations, and wonderful in their gentler developments. 

 The stone and the flower hold, locked up in their re-- 

 cesses, the three great known forces light, heat, and 

 electricity : and, in all probability, others of a more 

 exalted nature still, to which these powers are but sub- 

 ordinate agents. Such are the facts of science, which, 

 indeed, are the true " sermons in stones," and the most 

 musical of " tongues in trees." How weak are the crea- 

 tions of romance, when viewed beside the discoveries of 

 science ! One affords matter for meditation, and gives 

 rise to thoughts of a most ennobling character ; the other 

 excites for a moment, and leaves the mind vacant or dis- 

 eased. The former, like the atmosphere, furnishes a 

 constant supply of the most healthful matter ; the latter 

 gives an unnatural stimulus, which compels a renewal 

 of the same kind of excitement, to maintain the conti- 

 nuation of its pleasurable sensations. 



