FIRST REPLY. 133 



customer among the epicures of Pekin ; and in his hot, 

 smoky hut, fast buried beneath the snow and ice, the 

 Greenlander consumes his fat, which he has just carved, 

 rejoicing over the costly prize, from a stranded Whale. 

 Here the black slave sucks the Sugar-cane and eats his 

 Banana, there the African merchant fills his wallet with 

 sweet Dates, his sole sustenance in the long desert journey ; 

 and there the Siamese crams himself with a quantity of 

 Rice, from which an European would shrink appalled. 

 And wheresoever over the whole inhabited earth we 

 approach and demand hospitality, in almost every little 

 spot a different kind of food is set before us, and the 

 " daily bread" offered in another form. 



But, we may ask, is Man then really so versatile a being, 

 that he can build the visible house of his spirit, in the 

 same way, out of the most varied materials ? Or do all 

 those so varied kinds of nourishment contain one or a few 

 similar matters, which peculiarly serve for the food of man- 

 kind ? The latter is actually the fact of the matter. 



" Four elements 

 In one firm band, 

 Give form to life, 

 Build sea and land." 



SCHILLER. 



The whole of that by which we are surrounded, is com- 

 posed of a very few, somewhere about fifty-three, elementary 

 substances, which have been gradually discovered by 

 chemists. But among these there are four especial ones, 

 which alone take an essential share in the composition of 

 all that which we call organic or living existence. Nitrogen 

 and oxygen form the two most important constituents of pure 

 atmospheric air ; oxygen and hydrogen are the two elements 

 by the combination of which water is produced ; carbon 



