152 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



inscrutably mysterious power, too, is manifested in 

 this process ! How wonderful, that so common and 

 simple an affair as a potato should contain within 

 itself all the elements necessary to the composition 

 of an eye, an ear, or a tooth ! that this unheeded 

 and unvalued root should be capable, within a few 

 hours, of being changed, by commixture with the 

 juices of the body, and, by exposure to common air 

 in the lungs, into blood ! and that from this single 

 fluid, made out of this single potato, should be 

 produced all those diversified and heterogeneous 

 matters which make up the total of the body the 

 brittle bones, the soft and pulpy brain, the hard 

 and horny nails, the silky hair, the flesh, the fat, 

 the skin, the bitter bile, the sweet milk, the salt 

 perspiration every thing, in fact, from the corn 

 on my lord's toe, to the down on my lady's cheek 

 from the sweat on the brow of Labour, to the 

 dew on the lip of Beauty ! Does it not seem in- 

 credible, that the ear, which can take cognisance of 

 the faintest pulsations in the air, and appreciate with 

 so much accuracy the value of musical tones 

 that the eye, wherewith the astronomer numbers 

 the stars, taking in, at a glance, the half of heaven's 

 whole orrery nay, that the very brain, wherewith 

 he thinks, and muses and ponders over his problems 



