THE WEB OP LIFE 49 



animate environment in a direct way that is 

 impossible to animals, so we pass insensibly from 

 dependence on surroundings to those nutritive 

 chains which bind living creatures together in 

 long series often quaintly suggestive of " The 

 House that Jack Built " and similar old rhymes. 

 We have ceased to wonder at the circulation of 

 the blood in our body ; have we begun to wonder 

 enough at the ceaseless circulation of matter in 

 the system of nature ? As Heraclitus said, iravra 

 pel, all things are in flux. " The rain falls ; the 

 springs are fed ; the streams are filled and flow 

 to the sea ; the mist rises from the deep and the 

 clouds are formed, which break again on the 

 mountain-side. The plant captures air, water, 

 and salts, and, with the sun's aid, builds them up 

 by vital alchemy into the bread of life, incorporating 

 this into itself. The animal eats the plant, and a 

 new incarnation begins. All flesh is grass. The 

 animal becomes part of another animal, and the 

 reincarnation continues." ' The silver cord of the 

 bundle of life is loosed, and earth returns to earth. 

 The microbes of decay break down the dead, and 

 there is a return to air and water and salts. We 

 may be sure that nothing real is ever lost ; we are 

 sure that all things flow. Penelope-like, Nature 

 is continually unravelling her web and making a 

 fresh start. 



Nexus between Mud and Clear Thinking. — 

 To keep a famous inland fish-pond from giving 

 out, some boxes of mud and manure were placed 

 at the sides. Bacteria — the minions of all putre- 

 faction — worked in the mud and manure, making 



1 "The Bible of Nature." by J. Arthur Thomson (1908). 

 (Soribner, New York. Clark, Edinburgh.) 



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