TEIE FAHMER AND HIS AIDS. 15 



nable succession of years before lie was born ; tbe sun which 

 has for ao;es soaked the land with light and heat, melted the 

 earth, decomposed the rocks and covered them with forests, 

 and accumulated the sphagnum which makes the peat of the 

 meadow. The students of all nations have in the last years 

 been dedicating their attention to universal science, and they 

 have reformed our school-books, and our terminology. The 

 four quarters of the globe arc no longer Europe, A<ia, Africa, 

 and America, but Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen. 

 The four seasons of the year are now Gravitation, Liglit, Heat 

 and Electricity. Science has been showing how nature works 

 in regard to the suj)port of marine animals by marine plants. 

 So nature works on the land — on a plan of all for each, and 

 each for all. You cannot detach an atom from its holdings, or 

 strip from it the electricity, gravity and chemic relation, and 

 leave the atom bare ; it brings with it all its ties. The flame of 

 fire that comes out of the cubic foot of wood or coal is exactly 

 the same in amount as the light and heat which was taken 

 up in sunshine in the formation of leaves and roots, and now 

 is given out after a hundred thousand years. There lie in the 

 farm inexhaustible magazines. The eternal rocks have held 

 their oxygen and lime undiminished and entire as they were. 

 No particle of oxygen can run away or wear out, but has the 

 same energy as on the first morning. The good rocks sa^, 

 " patient waiters are no losers; " we have not lost so much as 

 a spasm of the power we received. 



The earth works for man. It is a machine which yields new 

 service to every application of intellect. Every plant is a man- 

 ufactory of soil. In the stem of the plant develo|)ment begins. 

 The tree can draw on the whole air, on the whole earth, on all 

 the rolling main. The tree is all suction pipe, imbibing from 

 the ground by its roots, from the air by its twigs, with all its 

 might. The atmosphere is an immense distillery, drinking in 

 oxygen and carbon from .plants, and absorbing the essence of 

 every solid on the globe. It is the receptacle from which all 

 things spring, and into which all return. The invisible air 

 takes form and solid mass. Our senses are sceptics, and only 

 believe the impressions of the moment. They do not believe 

 what is demonstrated to them — that these vast mountain chains 

 are made of gases and rolling wind. They do not believe what 



