412 CHEMISTRY. 



ceives its materials from the mineral world, and the ani- 

 mal from the vegetable, there is a continual return in de- 

 cay from the animal to the mineral world. Death is thus 

 constantly ministering to life, and life to death ; and life 

 may be considered as being maintained by a constant suc- 

 cession of resurrections, not a particle of matter being lost 

 in all the changes that take place, even in those where there 

 is apparent destruction. As that which is made of dust 

 returns to dust, a new life rises up out of that dust, exhib- 

 iting a reality more wonderful than that of the fabled 

 Phoenix which shadows it forth. But there is interchange 

 as well as circulation. The animal kingdom does not re- 

 ceive all its material through the vegetable, but some of 

 it comes directly from the mineral kingdom. And then 

 the vegetable, standing as it does between the animal and 

 mineral kingdoms, receives from both, and gives to them 

 in return. It yields back to the mineral world in decay 

 what it receives from it ; and while it receives from the 

 lungs of animals carbonic acid, it gives back to them the 

 oxygen which they need every moment for the maintenance 

 of life. It is thus that the earth, with all its stability, has 

 vast changes going on continually and every where upon 

 its surface, in which air and water and heat and light and 

 electricity and chemical and vital agencies are ever busy ; 

 and yet, extensive as these changes are, and accompanied 

 with disturbance, conflict, and decay, the Creator, who 

 seeth the end from the beginning, preserves amid it all a 

 wonderful balancing and harmony, so that from age to age 

 we see the impress which he put upon creation at the first, 

 and bear witness that it is all " very good." 



