124 REPRODUCTION IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 



returned. The matter which composes the bodies of ani- 

 mals and plants is only "borrowed from the earth and 

 atmosphere, and united together by the operation of natural 

 laws for a little space of time."* A rotation of these sub- 

 stances is therefore absolutely necessary. 



Wherever there is death, there is repulsion. The matter 

 which was collected by life, is scattered by death. The 

 plant or animal decays and disappears from our sight. 

 Both are alike dissolved by the repulsive principle into 

 earthy elements and invisible gases/*and the atoms held 

 together by life thus sundered by death, once more roam 

 through the universe and gather around the living centres 

 of attraction, to be again re-moulded anew into living or- 

 ganized forms. 



Matter, whether organized or inorganic, never perishes. 

 Every atom bears on it the impress of its everlasting and 

 infinite Author. If it disappears from observation, it is 

 only to enter into new combinations. You may crush the 

 parts of a body to powder, melt it into a liquid, or by a 

 still intenser application of heat, dilate it into a gas and 

 dissipate it in vapor ; but it still exists, and in many in- 

 stances can be collected into the same body without change 

 of form. Mercury and water may be converted into vapor, 

 and again recovered without the loss of a single particle. 

 The decay of animal and vegetable bodies is only a process 

 by which their particles are liberated to assume new 

 forms. 



What life borrows, death will sooner or later claim. 

 The living incur a debt which must be paid. Matter is 

 the grand circulating medium of nature, and all that is 

 loaned even to the minutest particle, must be returned. 



* See the author's " Principles of Botany as exemplified in the Cryp- 

 togamia," page 7. 



