104 



UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. li. 



the lightest things have a tendency to get highest — 

 that is, that, where there is perfect facihty of move- 

 ment in all directions, as in fluids, the lightest things 

 are pressed farthest from the centre of the earth. But 

 this tendency is constantly interfered with. If stones 

 are put in a vessel half full of water, they, the heavier, 

 are drawn by gravity, or weight, to the bottom, and 

 they press the liquid water, the lighter, to the top of 

 the vessel : and (though it is a false expression) the 

 water may be said to ascend by gravity, as flame, or 

 sparks, or smoke, — that is, heated air, — the lighter, 

 may be said to ascend by gravity through the atmo- 

 spheric air, the heavier. 



But if stones are placed on the surface of the solid 

 earth, though they are the heavier, gravity, or weight, 

 has not the power to draw them through it. How 

 then, is gravity, or weight, which has not the power to 

 draw a stone, the heavier solid, through the earth, the 

 hghter solid, — how is it to have the power to draw a 

 root, the lighter solid, through the earth, the heavier 

 solid ? 



There would, indeed, be nothing wonderful in the 

 root, the heavier, descending by gravity, or weight, 

 through the fluid air, the hghter. But that the root, 

 the lighter, should descend by gravity, or weight, 

 through the earth, the heavier, is as inexplicable and 

 as contradictory as that the stem the heavier, should 

 ascend by gravity, or weight, through the air, the 

 lighter. 



