62 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



its passage through its juicy cells into the air, 

 and every leaf, and every tree, is constantly 

 either parting with it, or receiving it, and con- 

 ducting it to the soil. Even the animal frame 

 is pervaded by it. The wide atmosphere is a 

 grand receptacle in which immense quantities of 

 it are stored. No chemical change can take place 

 in nature without the development of this agent, 

 or, at any rate, without its becoming implicated 

 in the process. 



More wonderful even than the application of 

 the actinic power of light to the wants and 

 purposes of man, is that of Electricity. By its 

 aid, with the assistance of the ingenious con- 

 trivance of the Electric telegraph, we can 

 communicate in a second of time our wishes or 

 commands to immense distances. Recent im- 

 provements have enabled us even to print by 

 electricity, and this at any interval of space, so 

 that the Eoyal speech may be printed and 

 distributed at the very ends of our island on 

 the afternoon of its delivery. By it also, even 

 portraits can be painted; so that if a criminal 

 were on his flight, not only would electricity 

 immeasurably outstrip him and carry the news 

 to the terminus, but it might also be made to 

 depict his correct likeness, and so .infallibly 

 secure his detection and arrest. Electric mes- 

 sages are now also sent beneath the waters of 



