Tru] ;LVD SYMBOLS. 363 



see it in every zone. It must thrive, because it is suited and 

 intended for the world. ST. 



The Extension of Truth. 



"We are not instructed all simultaneously by Nature, or by 

 any direct manifestation from on high. Each one of us has to 

 receive for himself from some ono else what thnt other knows, 

 and then has to transmit that knowledge to some other again. 

 We have no direct communication with absolute truth. It is 

 transmitted to us through innumerable media. So with sound. 

 Sound is not propagated in vacuo. The vibrations of elastic 

 bodies can only produce the sensation of sound in us by the 

 intervention of a medium interposed between the ear and the 

 sonorous body, and vibrating with it. This medium is usually 

 the air, but all gases, vapours, liquids, and solids also transmit 

 sound; just as everything objective and subjective may 

 convey truth. EL. 



Dissemination of Truth. 



Truth is like seed in its inherent vitality, and in the many 

 methods by which it is disseminated. How are seeds diffused ? 

 Wind, running water, blocks of ice drifting in the Polar seas, 

 the action of animals and men that is, by cultivation ships, 

 merchandise, and voyages; such, says Figuier, are the causes, 

 more or less powerful, which effect the conveyance of seeds 

 from one place to another. If we consider how many seeds 

 are light, hairy, and provided with a sort of wings in their 

 downy tufts, we can understand that the wind may be the most 

 general and ordinary means for disseminating vegetable germs 

 over a country. Kivers also carry away the seeds of plants to 

 great distances. If their course runs from east to west, or west 

 to east, the seeds thus transported would much extend the limits 

 of the species. And navigators of the Polar seas often meet 

 with icebergs loaded with an enormous mass of debris mixed 

 with earth and seeds. Seeds vegetate on these debris, and if 

 the iceberg runs aground on some distant coast, where it melts, 

 the seeds are deposited ; they soon produce plants, which are 

 then spread over the country by various other influences. But 



