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CIRCLE S. 



developments. In the genial heat of spring, the seed that has 

 sunk into the moist vegetable mould, expands and puts forth 

 successively the stem, the branches, the leaves, the flower- 

 buds, the flowers, and the fruit containing seed of the same 

 species of that from which the plant sprang. Then, as the 

 frosts of winter begin again to prevail, the life of the plant 

 becomes extinct; its ripened seeds are scattered upon the 

 ground, to become the progenitors of other plants of the same 

 kind, and the materials of the plant also sink to the earth to 

 replenish the vegetable mould from which they sprang. Thus 

 the same general condition is again brought about with that 

 from which the first plant sprang; and the germination, 

 growth, maturity, and decay of the plant, with the scattering 

 of its seed upon the earth, exemplifies a complete circle. So 

 with the putting forth of the foliage, the development of the 

 blossoms and fruit, and the final hibernation of arborescent 

 vegetation. 



Coincident, also, with the changes of the seasons, are the 

 periodical awakenings of certain animal instincts, and also the 

 occurrence of certain conditions in the human, physical, and 

 mental economy. These changes, occurring, as they do, in 

 regular serial succession, and always returning to the point 

 from which they started, exemplify, also, the Circle. 



And so, from the alternations of day and night, which, with 

 their successive hours and moments, mark a diurnal circle of 

 physical changes, still more minute circles of change ensue, 

 in the economy of organic beings. Such are the circles of 

 wakefulness and sleep ; of activity and repose ; of organic 

 waste and recuperation, with all their intermediate and 

 transitional stages, whether we apply the remark to the 

 vegetable, the animal, or the human creation. And it may 

 even be said that every passage, from one degree or stage to 



