108 



On Promoting Vegetation. 



Vol. IV. 



it is stocked with animals in proportion there- 

 to. 



It is sufficiently obvious, that the animal 

 kingdom is maintained and supported by the 

 vegetable; for though carnivorous animals eat 

 little or no vegetable food, yet they live upon 

 those which are entirely supported by it; for 

 they never eat each other, unless in cases of 

 famine or great distress. It is very possible 

 the vegetable kingdom may no less depend 

 upon the animal for its sustenance and sup- 

 port, than the animal doth upon it; and if the 

 writer is not much mistaken, pretty clear and 

 strong evidence may be had, that this is really 

 the case ; so that they reciprocally subsist on 

 and are supported by each other. 



It is not many years since, that a surprising 

 discovery was made by that very celebrated 

 investigator of nature. Dr. Priestly, who 

 clearly proved by e.xperiment, that common 

 air, when become feculent and putrid by ani- 

 mal respiration and perspiration, so as to be 

 unfit for the common purposes of life, is readily 

 purified and made wholesome by the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom, which imbibes and absorbs those 

 putrid streams that are so deadly noxious to 

 animal life. But what is most surprising, in- 

 stead of growing sickly in so impure an air, 

 as he expected, he found the plants were in- 

 vigorated and their growth promoted thereby; 

 so that they were more fresh, green, and 

 healthy, than those which grew in common 

 wholesome respirable air. 



This wonderful economy of nature loudly 

 proclaims the wisdom and goodness of Provi- 

 dence; for how great soever might be the 

 fund of common air necessary to the purposes 

 of life, such is its continual waste and con- 

 sumption, that the whole stock must soon 

 have been exhausted, and animal life become 

 extinct, if no provision had been made to pu- 

 rify and render wholesome the original stock, 

 as daily use might require. 



But not to insist on a particular instance 

 which may be thought too curious to establish 

 a general principle, let us inquire how far 

 this doctrine may be supported by the concur- 

 ring testimony of all mankind, in which there 

 is not a possibility of deception ; for if those 

 facts which are agr.^-sable to and supported by 

 the common sense of mankind, cannot be de- 

 pended upon for certain infallible truths, then 

 there is no such thing as certainty attainable 

 by human nature. Is it possible to doubt, if 

 that glorious luminary, the sun, which dis- 

 penses heat, and light, and life, to this lower 

 world, hath any real existence, and is the 

 cause of those sensations'? Surely it is not; 

 and yet in what does this cortainty conist, 

 but the common sense of mankind. I see, 

 feel, perceive, and am affected in a particular 

 manner by the appearance of this fountain 

 of life ; all mankind are impressed with iden- 



tical or similar sensations, perceptions, and 

 affections ; therefore no man doubts, or can 

 possibly doubt of, the certainty and reality of 

 the sun's existence. 



All truths which are derived from common 

 sense, are equally certain with the above ; for 

 if it were possible that all men could be de- 

 ceived in any of those sensations, perceptions, 

 and aflections, which are common to all men ; 

 that is, if they could see, feel, and be affected 

 in any way or manner they could not see, 

 feel, and be affected, then truth and certainty 

 to the human mind would be an impossible 

 thing ; there being no criteria by which truth 

 might be distinguished from faleshood, nor 

 man imbued with faculties to perceive and 

 mark the difference of things. 



Those things then which are felt, perceived, 

 and produce the same sensations and affections 

 in all men, and every where, may be depended 

 upon as truths infallibly certain, beyond a possi- 

 bility of deception. Not so experiments made 

 by the most careful and the most candid, till 

 they have been repeated again and again; 

 and the first trials confirmed and duly authen- 

 ticated by subsequent ones. Much more is to 

 be feared fi-om the cunning, the artifice, the 

 prepossession, the prejudice, the vanity, and 

 the interest, of designing men, who too fre- 

 quently have been found to warp and bend 

 their accounts, to promote their interested 

 views. 



It is in the observation of every man, from 

 the most illiterate to the most enlightened, 

 that all kinds of animal substances, when 

 thoroughly digested and corrupted, are the 

 strongest and most powerful promoters of 

 vegetation. The hair, the skin, the horns 

 and hoofs, the urine and excrements, the flesh, 

 blood, sinews, and even the bones, are all 

 richly replete with matter which supports and 

 invigorates vegetation universally. It is 

 therefore undeniably certain, that animal sub- 

 stances contain those principles which are the 

 real and genuine food of plants. It is absurd, 

 therefore, to suppose their food is earth, or 

 water, or air, fire or heat, or any one or single 

 simple element or thing whatever. It seems 

 clearly evident, that it is a combination of 

 principles derived from animal substances by 

 the chemistry of nature. When animal sub- 

 stance has been thoroughly purified, almost 

 the whole becomes volatile, and is so far at- 

 tenuated, subtilized, and refined, as to be ren- 

 dered capable of entering tlie roots and fibres 

 of the n:iinutest plants. 



It seems then, that as the animal kingdom 

 is entirely supported by the vegetable, so is 

 the vegetable by the animal, and each is re- 

 ciprocally the support of and is supported by 

 the other. The matter of each is essentially 

 the same, eacli is indued with tlie i)rinciple3 

 of life and augmentation, tliougli appearing 



