464 



and in profiting by these remarkable means for the improvement of the 

 soil and the increase of its productiveness ? Separate, however, from 

 the obvious utility of such inquiries, it is difficult to conceive of subjects 

 more interesting to a philosophical curiosity than all those connected 

 with animal or vegetable life and growth ; for what in nature is more 

 wonderful than the birth and progress of a human being, or the ger- 

 mination of a dried seed, and its advancement to the perfection of its uses 

 and fruits ? 



There are besides grounds of encouragement in this case, which the 

 philosophical mind will duly appreciate. In the ordinary course of na- 

 ture th'ere is no such thing as accident or miracle. As far as man's 

 sagacity has penetrated into the material world, — and of the spiritual 

 world, we know nothing but by divine revelation, — all the phenomena 

 of natm-e are found to proceed upon fixed principles and laws, and to 

 be the results of nicely established and well balanced, compounded, and 

 adjusted influences and forces. Many of these operations man is capa- 

 ble of imitating, and the most extraordinary results are obviously at his 

 command. We cannot have a doubt, therefore, that the most recondite 

 as well as the most familiar operations of nature are all the result of es- 

 tablished pi'inciples and laws. Many of these laws we have already 

 ascertained, and they are of daily application and use in the common 

 business of life. How much further we may proceed in the discovery 

 of them, time only can tell. As yet we have only placed our foot on 

 the first step of the threshold. 



Professor Liebig illustrates the spirit of which we speak. He is a 

 bold inquirer of nature for the laws which govern her operations. He 

 is for explaining the phenomena of vegetable life and growth upon the 

 established principles of chemistry, as far as their application can be 

 traced ; and he is not willing to take a general answer where a partic- 

 ular answer can be obtained. He does not feel satisfied to be checked 

 in his inquiries under the presumption of inexplicable mystery, when 

 fui'ther inquiry would untie the Gordian knot, and show that some of 

 the problems, hitherto considered most difficult, are explicable upon the 

 established principles of chemical science. 



" A rational system of agriculture," says he, " cannot be formed 

 without the application of scientific principles; for such a system must 

 be based on an exact acquaintance with the means of nutrition of veg- 

 etables ; and with the influence of soils and the action of manure upon 

 them. This knowledge we must seek from chemistry, which teaches 



