CHARCOAL. 163 



gravitation. The mixture of liquids is, therefore, 

 only a mechanical mixture, even when the parts that 

 are mixed are far too fine either for the senses or 

 the microscope. It may be the means of a more 

 intimate union of those unions that produce com- 

 pound, and organized, and living substances ; and as 

 we cannot see the masses of the different matters 

 m the liquid, we" cannot of course see the future 

 and ultimate process ; but we may rest assured that 

 the chymistry, the \niua, the " secret process," of the 

 matter that from which the forms of things origin- 

 ate, is always a union of air with air. 



And the facility given by this aerial state, in which, 

 to our observation, the atoms of all matter are no- 

 thing, and yet fit and ready for every thing, is truly 

 wonderful ; so much so that we can hardly name 

 fme ultimate substance and a primary purpose, and 

 tlare say that the one of them is not fit for the other. 

 A cinder, a bit of burnt stick, or the snuff of a candle 

 is, in our estimation, not only a useless, but an 

 offensive thing, and we throw it away as such. 

 But it is far otherwise in nature; and those things 

 which we cast away as useless and offensive are, 

 in her working, far more valuable than gold. 



Let us examine the matter a little ; it may be 

 useful to us on other occasions. What can nature 

 do with the cinder, the burnt stick, or the candle- 

 snuff! Why nature can make them serve more 

 purposes than man can serve by the most valuable 

 material that he knows. In as far as they contain 

 charcoal, nature can make them into marble, aiid 

 limestone, and black-lead for pencils, and shells of 

 all kinds, and every plant that grows, and every 

 animal that lives; and, with very few exceptions, 

 all the parts of all those plants and those animals. 

 There is not only charcoal in them all, but it is the 

 charcoal that gives the soft parts their firmness and 

 solidity; and part of the brightest eye that now 

 teams in England may once have been, and may be 



