620 THE MOUNTAIN. 



forces of plastic vitality. This is the tragic dance of the inor- 

 ganic assuming organic, and side by side move animation and 

 exhaustion, activity and corruption, quickness and death. 

 Thus is never-ceasing change written on every form "Naught 

 may endure but mutability." An invisible influx of atoms, 

 with a synchronous efflux of atoms, and the solidest creature 

 with life stands a phenomenon as evanescent as a changing 

 cloud, as unreal as a vanishing shadow. What is it? A 

 momentary grasp of the outward, fleeting as a vision, an 

 instantaneous appropriation by assimilation under chemical 

 and vital forces in a specific form, with definite organic 

 attributes matter in the trance and exaltation of life 

 then comes a change : the momentary grasp relaxed, the 

 ghastly transfiguration arrives, and death, the most inex- 

 orable despot holds, in a stillness that seems everlasting, the 

 form of light and life. But this ghastly corpse, this sacred 

 dust, is also a quickly rushing shadow; for nature, with a 

 never-intermitting parsimony, makes demand of the loaned 

 particle, whether it has been circulating in the lip of beauty 

 or the ragged ulcer, and by a relentless requisition breaks the 

 sequestration which once appeared to be endless, but now, 

 by dissolution, gives new life and motion. This payment and 

 separation must be made, and the required atom returned 

 again to the grand reservoir of consumed, exhausted, or 

 effete matter, either through secretion, excretion, or death. 

 And this phantasmal whirl goes on and on ; each organ of 

 the complex organisms seizes on its prey, makes its sub- 

 stance and use in the divine arrestation of whizzing currents, 

 and the equipoise called life, exists ; but the used particle 

 must again be thrown broadcast to the elements and so 

 this endless circulation goes on. Wonderful organ ! still 

 more wonderful function ! from low excretion, offensive 

 and revolting, to high revelation of thought and spirit, or 

 sacred attributes of love and affection ! ! Wonderful organ ! 

 wonderful function ! still more wonderful essence behind the 

 organ, artificer of the organ, creator of the function, which 

 scalpel cannot find, which microscope looks for in vain ! 1 Is 



