FROGS AND TOADS. 89 



like portions. Before Goethe's discovery, no one could 

 account for these singular varieties of form ; but when 

 we know that the fruit is composed of whorls of carpels, 

 there is no difficulty in understanding that in the one 

 case there are successive whorls on ihe same stem, the 

 larger enclosing the smaller, and that in the latter case 

 the carpels are only partially united to each other, so 

 that they form fingers or horns. 



Here, then, we see the incalculable value of the 

 union between the observing and the generalizing 

 mind, the latter utilizing the results of the former, and 

 bringing apparently dissimilar facts to bear upon the 

 one central subject. Newton's discovery of gravitation, 

 or, rather, of universal attraction, was of a precisely 

 similar nature, although the subject is a much larger 

 one. There are still many unsolved mysteries in 

 Nature ; and I feel sure that when the ' ' hour and the 

 man " come, they will be solved as simply as Goethe 

 solved the homologies of the skeleton and the structure 

 of fruit, and as Newton discovered that the courses of 

 the heavenly bodies and the falling of a stone to the 

 ground were governed by one and the same law of 

 mutual attraction. 



There seems to be an idea that Frogs and Toads can 

 live entirely in the water. This is not the case, for 

 either of these animals will be drowned if placed in 

 water from which it cannot escape. It will drown as 

 certainly as will a dog or a cat, only the operation will 

 occupy a longer time. I well recollect that when I 

 was a small boy I found some frogs in the garden, 

 and thinking them to be in want of water, I filled a 

 pail nearly full and put them in it. I was sorely dis- 



