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always operating with a certain exactness and to certain ends. 

 So no doubt is every process connected with animal and vege- 

 table life ; yet with our limited views and imperfect means of 

 observation, we are at present unable to approach an explana- 

 tion of it. I do not say that we may not hope to reach it. The 

 process of analysis is a destructive process. How little are we 

 able to determine what a building was by being shown only 

 the bricks and stones and sand and lime and wood and glass 

 and iron of which it was composed. Take any six or eight 

 simple elements, and by a simple rule in arithmetic, calculate 

 the immense number of combinations of which they are capa- 

 ble. Every thing which exists in nature is reducible by chem- 

 istry to a few simple elements ; but under what an infinite 

 number of forms of combination do they present themselves; 

 and substances the most opposite in nature are separated by the 

 minutest lines and shades of difference ; that which is sweet 

 from that which is bitter, that which is nutritious from that 

 which is deadly. 



In analyzing a soil, and reducing it, so far as chemistry will 

 do it, to its constituent parts, the chemist may detect the pres- 

 ence of some poisonous substance or the absence of some 

 useful ingredient ; but beyond this, by the separation of the 

 individual parts how little can he understand their operation 

 when combined and exhibited under the various forms in which 

 they are found to unite ! In order to understand what the plant 

 takes from the soil, it would be necessary to examine the soil it- 

 self before and after its growth. But this is not all ; the plant it- 

 self must be analyzed. This cannot be done without its destruc- 

 tion or alteration by the action of some powerful acid or by fire. 

 Burn it, and there remains a very small amount, in proportion 

 to the whole, of incombustible matter or ashes. Now, how lit- 

 tle can we know of the nature of a plant by the mere exami- 

 nation of its ashes ! There is another fact, of a nature equally 

 confounding. Every soil is capable of bearing an infinite vari- 

 ety of plants, and many of these of the most opposite charac- 

 ter. Yet this variety of plants shall, in many cases, without 



