84 DEATH THE FOSTER-MOTHER OF LIFE. 



In every living being there are two powers, between which 

 a silent but incessant combat is being carried on — life, which 

 builds up ; and deaths which pulls asunder. At first, life is 

 all powerful — it lords it over matter; but its reign is 

 limited. 



Beyond a certain point, its physical vigor becomes gradu- 

 ally impaired ; with old age, it feebly struggles ; and it is 

 finally extinguished with time, when the chemical and physi- 

 cal law^s seize upon it, and its organization is destroyed. But, 

 in turn, the very elements, though inert at first, are soon re- 

 animated and occupied with new life. Every plant, every 

 animal, is bound up with the past, and is a part of the future ; 

 for every generation which starts into life is only the corol- 

 lary upon that which is about to be born. Life is the school 

 of death ; death is the foster-mother of life. 



Life, however, does not always exhibit itself at the actual 

 moment of its formation. It is visible later, and only after 

 other phenomena. In order to develop itself, a suitable 

 medium must be prepared, and other determinate physical 

 and chemical conditions provided. 



If we expose a quantity of pure water to the light and 

 air, in the spring-time or summer season, we would soon see 

 it producing minute spots of a yellowish or greenish color. 

 These spots, examined through the microscope, reveal 

 thousands of vegetable forms. Presently thousands of Rhiza- 

 pods and Infusoria appear, which move and swim about the 

 floating vegetable forms upon which they nourish themselves. 

 Other infusoria then appear, which, in their turn, pursue 

 and devour the first. 



In short, life transfers unorganized into organized matter. 

 Vegetables appear first, then come herbivorous animals, and 

 then come the carnivorous. Life maintains life. The death 

 of one provides food and development to others ; for all are 

 bound up together, all assist at the metamorphosis continu- 

 ally occurring in the organic as in the inorganic world, the 



