LETTER IX. 



" Nature, indeed, yearly perishes." 



Kev. Archibald Alison. 



" Our very life is nothing else but a succession of dying ; every 

 day and hour wears away part of it ; and so far as it is already 

 spent, so far we are already dead and buried," 



Jeremy Taylor. 



" All vital affinities are of transient duration only." 



William Pulteney Alison. 



December 23, 1854. 



My Dear Sons, 



1. But for the demurrer entered at the close of my 

 last letter, I should now unhesitatingly speak of the 

 produce of the buds as real plants, each perfect and 

 complete after its kind. I will henceforth call them 

 such notwithstanding, — under reservation, however, of 

 the objections to my argument hereafter to be con- 

 sidered. And I now proceed, as proposed, to make 

 good my other allegation respecting the plants, — to 

 wit, that they are mere annuals, living only 07ie year, 

 losing their vitality the same year that they spring 

 up, and never afterwards becoming the seat of any 

 vital action, or the subject of any vital change ; and 



