306 WALKS AND TALKS. 



. MIND IN 



THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 



Two little round seeds lie on the table before me. They 

 seem to be exactly alike in every respect ; but they came from 

 two different packages, and were labeled by different names. 

 What is there about them which makes them different? I 

 plant the two seeds, and one grows to a stout ' ' mustard tree," 

 and the other to a field-turnip. Assuredly, with this differ- 

 ence of outcome, there was a fundamental difference in nature. 

 As 'that difference was not in the material, or the form of the 

 material, there was something not in the material in which the 

 essential difference resided. 



The ova of two animals say the elephant and the rhi- 

 noceros are both simple nucleated cells. To the unaided 

 eye, no difference is discoverable. Subject them to chemical 

 analysis, and they are found composed of the same elements 

 combined in the same way. Treat them with reagents and 

 put them under the compound microscope, and nothing is 

 seen in one which does not appear in the other. In their 

 matter, in their form, they are absolutely undistinguishable. 

 Materially they are the same. But one develops, out of itself, 

 the embryo of an elephant, and the other, out of itself, the 

 embryo of a rhinoceros. On these two different embryonic 

 foundations the two different animals in their completeness are 

 built up. Thus, with no difference in the matter, there ex- 

 isted in the two germs, a profound difference in nature and 

 destiny. Beyond any thing scrutable, existed something in- 

 scrutable which controlled the development. That which was 

 not matter gave to matter a destination from which it could 

 not swerve. 



A human organism with all its parts perfect, and all its 

 parts in harmonious action, is a splendid mechanism which 

 can never cease to awaken admiration and wonder. While 

 we contemplate it alas, its activities cease. A powerful cur- 

 rent of electricity has passed through the frame, and life is 

 extinct. The change which we witness is appalling. The eye 



