FERTILIZE!: S. 



i familiar \vay, s;i; does but little more than help plants, 

 ytand .upright; while water and air, obeying chemical 

 laws, build up their structure. And what is soil? It is 

 the result of the destruction of the rocks mingled with 

 vegetable waste ; it is the turning of all life, organic and 

 inorganic, into its original elements ; it is the great grave- 

 yard of creation ; it is the great mine of the world, out 

 from which come the food of all animal and vegetable 

 life, the wherewithal they shall be clothed, the means of 

 shelter and protection from heat, cold, and wet ; it is 

 Mother Earth, .from whom all organized life springs, and 

 to whom, after completing its little round, all matter that 

 enters therein returns, to repose a while within her bosom, 

 there to rest and refresh itself before entering into new 

 forms, and running another course of vitality. 



" The earth is my mother," said Red Jacket, the Indian 

 orator, at the Great Council, declining a chair offered him : 

 " I will rest upon her bosom." Yes, she is the material 

 mother of all organized life; and, when their course is 

 ended, all her children go home to her. 



The giant of the forest may span his thousand years 

 of time, and, towering upward a hundred feet above his 

 fellows, may seem to despise his humble origin ; but his 

 mother is patiently waiting for him : and, hoary with 

 years, worn and weary, seeking rest, he bows his lofty 

 head, falls upon her breast, and receives her final embrace. 

 Man himself, standing at the head of all organized life, 

 in sleep, imago mortis, reclines by instinct on her bosom ; 

 and, when comes the final hour, his material self by loving 

 hands is gently lowered into her yearning care, " dust unto 

 dust." If any man could really believe that this is the 

 final end, he would that instant die of horror, or become 

 insane. The cheer that every good deed leaves in our 

 hearts is full of the instinct of immortality. 



