70 LITE IN NATUEE. 



height. For in the de-oxidation and re-oxidation of 

 the hydrogen in a single drop of water, we have 

 before us, truly, so far as force is concerned, an epi- 

 tome of the whole of life. 



Thus, too, it appears that the production of the 

 organic state is a true chemical analysis. In endea- 

 vouring to appreciate it, we must not limit our atten- 

 tion to the organic substances themselves; we 

 must comprehend in our view also the liberated 

 oxygen ; otherwise we receive a false impression. 

 Between all organic bodies and the oxygen 

 around, a tension exists, which is of the essence of 

 their being. By any one with a competent know- 

 ledge of unchangeable relations it might have been 

 foretold, seeing the nutrition achieved by the plant, 

 that the animal must breathe. The vital air does but 

 give us back our own; our own, though by the 

 lack of it we live. 



And thus we need not, as indeed we cannot 

 rightly, regard the organic substances as maintained 

 by an affinity among their elements. For these sub- 

 stances have an onward and outward look; they 

 imply a reference to something apart from them- 



