*3 227 



The same hypothesis is open to you now. But, if in the 

 case of crystals you have rejected this notion of an ex- 

 ternal architect, I think you are bound to reject it now, 

 and to conclude that the molecules of the corn are self- 

 posited by the forces with which they act upon each 

 other. It would be poor philosophy to invoke an exter- 

 nal agent in the one case and to reject it in the other. 



Instead of cutting our grain into thin slices and sub- 

 jecting it to the action of polarized light, let us place it 

 in the earth and subject it to a certain degree of warmth. 

 In other words, let the molecules, both of the corn and 

 of the surrounding earth, be kept in a state of agitation ; 

 for warmth, as most of you know, is, in the eye of 

 science, tremulous molecular motion. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, the grain and the substances which surround 

 it interact, and a molecular architecture is the result of 

 this interaction. A bud is formed ; this bud reaches 

 the surface, where it is exposed to the sun's rays, which 

 are also to be regarded as a kind of vibratory motion. 

 And as the common motion of heat with which the grain 

 and the substances surrounding it were first endowed, 

 enable the grain and these substances to coalesce, so the 

 specific motion of the sun's rays now enables the green 

 bud to feed upon the carbonic acid and the aqueous 

 vapor of the air, appropriating those constituents of 

 both for which the blade has an elective attraction, and 

 permitting the other constituent to resume its place in 

 the air. Thus forces are active at the root, forces are 

 active in the blade, the matter of the earth and the 

 matter of the atmosphere are drawn towards the plant, 

 and the plant augments in size. We have in succession, 

 the bud, the stalk, the ear, the full corn in the ear. For 

 the forces here at play act in a cycle, which is completed 



