118 THE FARMcIR AT HOME. 



its greater vessels grow hard and narrow ; and every thing becomes 

 contracted, closed, and bound up ; whence the dryness, immobility, 

 and extenuation, observed in old age. By such means, the offices of 

 the minuter vessels are destroyed ; the humors stagnate, harden, and 

 at length coalesce with the solids. Thus are the subtilest fluids in the 

 body intercepted and lost, the concoction weakened, and the repara- 

 tion prevented ; only the coarser juices continue to run slowly through 

 the greater vessels, to the preservation of life, after the animal func- 

 tions are destroyed. At length, in the process of these changes, death 

 itself becomes inevitable, as the necessary consequence of life. But 

 it is rare that life is thus long protracted, or that death succeeds 

 merely from the decays and impairment of old age. Diseases, a long 

 and melancholy train, cut the work short. 



All our first associations with the idea of death are of the disgust- 

 ing and alarming kind ; and they are collected from all quarters ; 

 from the sensible pains of every sort ; from the imperfections, weak- 

 ness, loathsomeness, corruption, and disorder, attendant on disease, 

 old age, and death, whether animal or vegetable. This seems per- 

 fectly natural ; for these things are usually viewed with disgust and 

 shame ; whereas, those things to which they are opposed, or with 

 which they are placed in contrast, such as health, beauty, youth, and 

 the lustre of life, are objects of admiration and are sources of social 

 delight. And it is necessary, that the heedlessness and inexperience 

 of infancy and youth should be guarded by such terrors, and their 

 headstrong appetites and passions curbed, that they may not be hur- 

 ried into danger and destruction before they are aware. It is proper, 

 also, that they should form some expectations with respect to, and set 

 some value upon, their future life in this world, that so they may be 

 better qualified to act their parts in it, and make the quicker progress 

 to perfection during their passage through it. 



DECOMPOSITION. This term, in chemistry, denotes the reso- 

 lution of a compound substance into its constituent parts, which are 

 exhibited either separate, or in some new combination. In agricul- 

 ture, it is principally used to signify the process by which animal and 

 vegetable bodies pass into a state that renders them serviceable as 

 food for plants. During life, the elements of organic bodies, whether 

 animal or vegetable, are held together by vital affinities, under the 

 influence of which they were first united. When life ceases, these 

 elements become subject to other laws, those that govern inert matter. 

 The original affinities that were suspended during the vital organiza- 

 tion, again operate, other combinations are formed, and the organized 

 structure passes to decay. The rapidity and extent of decomposition 

 are, in a great measure, depending on the circumstances under which 

 the process takes place. Substances kept perfectly dry, and at certain 

 temperatures, decompose very slowly, or not at all. Moisture, unequal 

 temperature or the presence of certain agents, aid the process mate- 





