110 



phosing a considerable quantity of matter /or the use 

 of different compounds. By that means, the vilest 

 matters give birth to the richest productions ; and from 

 the bosom of putrefaction there issues the finest flower 

 or the most exquisite fruit ! 



The AUTHOR of NATURE has left nothing useless. 

 What is consumed of the dust of the stamina in the ge- 

 neration of plants, is very trifling if compared with the 

 quantity each flower furnishes. WISDOM itself then 

 has created the industrious bee, that makes use of the 

 superfluous part of this dust with such art and economy 

 as could not be too much admired in the most skilful 

 geometricians. 



The earth enriches us every day with new gifts, where- 

 by she would at length be exhausted, if what she sup- 

 plies us with weue not restored to her. By a law, which 

 we do not pay a proper attention to, all organized bodies 

 become uncompouiided and insensibly change in the 

 earth. Whilst they suffer this kind of dissolution, their 

 volatile parts pass into the air, which transports them 

 every where : so that, animals are buried in the atmos- 

 phere as well as in the earth and water ; we may even 

 doubt whether that portion which the air receives be 

 not the most considerable in bulk. All these particles 

 dispersed here and there, soon enter into new organical 

 wholes, destined to the same revolutions as the former : 

 and this circulation, which has subsisted from the 

 beginning of the world, will continue as long as it 

 endures. 



