134 THE STORY OF THE EARTH AND MAN. 



this growth and development as carbonic acid is for 

 that of a club-moss. Wanting the coal, we could not 

 have smelted the iron needed to make our engines, 

 nor have worked our engines when we had got them. 

 But take away the engines, and the great towns of 

 Yorkshire and Lancashire vanish like a dream. Manu- 

 factures give place to agriculture and pasture, and not 

 ten men could live where now ten thousand are amply 

 supported. 



"Thus all this abundant wealth of money and of 

 vivid life is Nature's investment in club-mosses and 

 the like so long ago. But what becomes of the coal 

 which is burnt in yielding the interest ? Heat comes 

 out of it, light comes out of it, and if we could gather 

 together all that goes up the chimney and all that 

 remains in the grate of a thoroughly-burnt coal fire, 

 we should find ourselves in possession of a quantity 

 of carbonic acid, water, ammonia, and mineral 

 matters, exactly equal in weight to the coal. But 

 these are the very matters with which Nature supplied 

 the club-moss which made the coal. She is paid back 

 principal and interest at the same time; and she 

 straightway invests the carbonic acid, the water, and 

 the ammonia in new forms of life, feeding with them 

 the plants that now live. Thrifty Nature ! surely no 

 prodigal, but most notable of housekeepers \" 



All this is true and admirably put. Its one weak 

 point is the poetical personification of Nature as an 

 efficient planner of the whole. Such an imaginary 

 goddess is a mere superstition, unknown alike to 



