Eel] AND SYMBOLS. 299 



whilst the carbon remains in their tissues ; the other nocturnal, 

 and the reverse, in \vhich the plant absorbs the oxygen and 

 extracts the carbonic acid ; that is to say, they breathe in the 

 same manner as animals do. The carbon which is used by plants 

 during the day is indispensable to the perfect development of 

 their organs and the consolidation of their tissues. By res- 

 piration plants live and grow. Plants purify the air injured by 

 the respiration of men and animals. If animals transform the 

 oxygen of the air into carbonic acid, plants take this carbonic 

 acid back again by their diurnal respiration. They fix the 

 carbon in the depth of their tissues and return oxygen to the 

 air in reparation. Such is the admirable equilibrium which the 

 Creator has established between animals and plants, such the 

 beneficial communication which assures to the air its constant 

 soundness, and maintains it in that state of purity which is 

 indispensable to support the life of the living creatures which 

 cover the globe. v. 



Innate Religious Belief. 



It is probable that no human race is destitute of some belief, 

 more or less explicit or obscure, in the existence of supernatural 

 powers, good and evil, and likewise of a future and invisible 

 state ; but there are nations who scarcely recognise in the In- 

 visible Being anything like will or power to punish the guilty or 

 reward the good, and who do not suppose the future state to be 

 a scene of retribution. This is the account which missionaries 

 and other persons have given of the Polynesian superstitions. 

 The adoration of rude -nations is generally directed towards 

 visible objects. From this remark we must except most of the 

 American nations, who are said to believe in the existence of a 

 spiritual ruler of the universe. By one class of rude nations 

 the heavenly bodies are worshipped, and the Polynesians con- 

 nect this superstition with a mythology which is poetical and 

 not devoid of ingenuity. Others, like the African nations, 

 worship fetiches or visible objects, in which they suppose some 

 magical or supernatural power to be concealed capable of exer- 

 cising an influence on their destiny, and of ensuring success in 

 any undertaking a superstition of which traces ar.3 to be dis- 

 covered among the vulgar in many countries. MA. 



