DOMINANT POWER OF THE SUNBEAM. 25 



mosphere but it also comprises 8 ninths of the water we 

 drink ; water consisting of 8 pounds of oxygen and 1 pound 

 of hydrogen combined. It also forms the larger portion of 

 all the rocks which form the solid crust of the earth. Of 

 these the three chief minerals are lime, silica and alumina, 

 and of these about one-half of the mass consists of oxygen. 

 Thus about one-half of all the mass of the earth and every- 

 thing upon its surface is made up of this simple element, 

 which no man has ever seen or will probably see ; and when 

 this great fact is considered along with the vast force of 

 this all pervading gas, it seems to call to the mind of man 

 a type of eternal existence and resistless power. It is an 

 omnipresent, all powerful spirit, benevolent and destructive 

 at the same time; which holds all nature in its embrace; 

 evolves life and action, and yet revels in consuming fire and 

 is able to reduce all things to death and ashes. 



But the vast force of this grand element is controlled and 

 reduced to order and system by the beams of the sun. 

 These are the grand antagonists of oxygen. The solar rays 

 with their genial vivifying warmth bring the dormant forces 

 of vegetable life into action. They start the vital germ into 

 active life. The spire appears and soon brings forth the 

 green leaves. These leaves absorb carbonic acid from the 

 air, rescue the carbon from the grasp of the all devouring 

 oxygen and store it into their cellular tissue. The roots sup- 

 ported by the leaves, extract nutriment from the matter 

 which has been reduced from organized substance by the 

 destroying influence of oxygen and form it again into living 

 organism. What oxygen has decomposed the plants recon- 

 struct ; and if this element is the main spring of destruction 

 and decomposition, the solar ray which staits vegetable life 

 into action and gives it vitality, is the still more powerful 

 controlling and counteracting agent and brings life and 

 beauty from death and desolation. An ancient fable tells 

 that Prometheus stole a spark of celestial fire and with it 

 warmed into life an earthly body which he had formed. 

 This is no fable; it is but a poetical fancy which contains 

 in pleasing picturesque form a great truth. Perhaps the 



