COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



of its liquid parts, and thus inaugurate a series 

 of rhythmical molar motions, exemplified in the 

 alternately ascending and descending currents 

 of sap. And lastly these molar motions, per- 

 petually replenished from the same external 

 sources, are perpetually expended in the molec- 

 ular integration of vegetable cells and fibres. 

 Thus all the energy stored up in the plant, both 

 that displayed in the chemical activities of leaves 

 and rootlets, and that which is displayed in cir- 

 culation and growth, is made up of transformed 

 sunbeams. The stately trunk, the gnarled roots, 

 the spreading branches, the rustling leaves, the 

 delicately tinted blossoms, and the tender fruit 

 are all — as Moleschott no less truly than poet- 

 ically calls them — the air-woven children of 

 light. 



In remote geologic ages untold millions of 

 these solar beams were occupied in separating 

 vast quantities of carbon from the dense atmos- 

 phere, and incorporating it in the tissues of in- 

 numerable forests. Charred by slow heat, and 

 gradually petrified, this woody tissue became 

 transformed into coal, which now, dug up from 

 its low-lying beds and burned in stoves and 

 furnaces, is compelled to give up the radiance 

 which* it long ago purloined from the sun. 

 When placed under the engine-boiler, these 

 transformed sunbeams are again metamorphosed 

 into molar motions of expanding vapour, which 



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