UNION OF AIRS. 



more rain even at the top of a place of ordinary 

 elevation, than on the same surface of the ground on 

 which the house stands. But still, even the most 

 rapid of those evaporations takes some time, and 

 the cohesion of the particles forms a drop at the 

 beginning, in opposition both to the liquidity and 

 gravitation. The mixture of liquids is, therefore, 

 only a mechanical mixture, even when the parts 

 that are mixed are far too fine either for the 

 senses or the microscope. It may be the means 

 of a more intimate union of those unions that 

 produce compound, and organized, and living sub- 

 stances ; and as we cannot see the masses of the 

 different matters in the liquid, we cannot of course 

 see the future and ultimate process ; but we may 

 rest assured that the chemistry, the x^ ta > tne 

 " secret process," of the matter that from which 

 the forms of things originate, is always a union of 

 air with air. 



And the facility given by this aerial state, in 

 which, to our observation, the atoms of all matter 

 are nothing, and yet fit and ready for every thing, 

 is truly wonderful ; so much so, that we can 

 hardly name one ultimate substance and a primary 

 purpose, and dare to say that the one of them is 

 not fit for the other. A cinder, a bit of burnt 

 stick, or the snuff of a candle is, in our estimation, 

 not only an useless, but an offensive thing, and 

 we throw it away as such. But it is far otherwise 

 in nature ; and those things which we cast away 

 as useless and offensive, are, in her working, far 

 more valuable than gold. 



Let us examine the matter a little ; it may be 

 useful to us on other occasions. What can nature 

 do with the cinder, the burnt stick, or the candle- 



