46 LITERARY VALUES 



diamond are one ; the same law of gravitation which 

 makes the cloud float makes the rain fall. The law 

 that spheres a tear spheres a globe. These facts 

 warrant us in looking for real homologies, vital cor- 

 respondences, in nature. Only such correspondences 

 give logical and scientific value to analogy. If the 

 likeness means identity of law, or is the same prin- 

 ciple in another disguise, then it is an instrument 

 of truth. We might expect to find many analogies 

 between air and water, the atmosphere being but 

 a finer ocean ; also between ice and water, and be- 

 tween ice and the stratified rocks. If water flows, 

 then will ice flow ; if ice bends, then will the rocky 

 strata bend. If cross fertilization is good in the 

 vegetable world, we should expect to find it good in 

 the animal world. 



There is thought to be a strict analogy between 

 the succession of plants in different months of the 

 year and the prevalence of different diseases at dif- 

 ferent seasons. The germ theory of disease gives 

 force to the comparison. The different species of 

 germs no doubt find some periods of the year more 

 favorable to their development than others. 



If on this planet men walk about while trees are 

 rooted to the ground, we may reasonably expect that 

 the same is true — provided that on them there are 

 men and trees — of all other planets. If the law of 

 variation, and the survival of the fittest, are the laws 

 of one species, then they will prove to be the laws of 

 all. The bud is a kind of seed ; the fruit is a kind 

 of leaf. High culture has the same effect upon man 



