248 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Obj 



immediately there springs up a crop of young plants, certainly 

 not originating in seeds only just then brought from neighbour- 

 ing fields, and as certainly from seeds that have been lying in 

 the soil for ages. How they came to be covered up is easy to 

 conceive when we see with our own eyes what is done by 

 wintry floods, and the sweeping down of great masses of earth 

 and soil, which accumulate often to a considerable depth, and 

 are no doubt similarly charged with seeds that, after waiting 

 their turn, will some day grow, for it is an established fact 

 that no seed can germinate or begin to sprout unless it have 

 the threefold influence in direct operation upon it of warmth, 

 moisture, and the atmosphere. Let it be shut in from the 

 access of these, and it lies passive, giving no sign of life or 

 growth, and incapable of doing so. In like manner human 

 ideas remain dormant in the mind of the world until there are 

 brought to bear upon them the ordained influences which will 

 cause them to start into life. When those influences come 

 into operation the ideas soon take shape and grow into vigorous 

 forces. " There is no new thing," says Solomon, " under the 

 sun." Perhaps he had an inspired glimpse of the scientific 

 fact that our world was equipped with everything when it was 

 first launched into immensity, and that, though its changes 

 have been marvellous and incessant, they have been changes of 

 form only. " No new thing " has been added. The old forces 

 have been ever unfolding and developing. Nature is like 

 Proteus. Proteus possessed the power of changing into various 

 shapes, nevertheless he remained always Proteus. LI. 



Objectionable Beings may Perform Excellent 

 Services. 



Of all creatures, the two most at enmity are the repulsive- 

 looking vulture of Brazil and the crocodile. The female of this 

 terrible amphibious creature lays its eggs, to the number of one 

 or two hundred, in the sand at the side of the river, where they 

 are hatched by the heat of the climate. For this purpose she 

 takes every precaution to hide from all the other animals the place 

 where she deposits her burden ; in the meantime a number of 

 vultures or galinassos, as the Spaniards call them, sit silent and 



