258 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
and I revert in memory to Oken, who, with all his wild 
dreaming in the “ Physiophilosophy,” has shown that the 
number Three is the key to the universe. Take the whole 
range of nature—animal, vegetable, mineral; it is three¬ 
fold in form and properties: there is a numerical har¬ 
mony throughout, wdiich the hardest anti-mystic cannot 
gainsay. All forms, animate and inanimate, appear to 
be modelled on one uniform plan. In the sphere I can 
find but three elements—the centre, the circumference, 
and the solid contents. In the qualities of matter, they 
must be either solid, liquid, or gaseous, and the old 
notion of the four elements shrinks to three; for fire is 
an effect, not an element, and earth, air, and water com¬ 
prise the category of created things. Dividing again, I 
can only count up three forms of matter—the metallic, the 
noil-metallic, and the aeriform. In the organic world, 
animal and vegetable offer the most distinct duality, but 
science has not yet settled the question of the place that 
certain microscopic organisms should occupy; and as I 
assume nothing, I find three orders of animated beings. 
Dividing these, to the exclusion of the doubtful class, 
there are among vegetables—Acotyledons, Monocoty¬ 
ledons, and Dycotyledons. • So among animals, there are 
—Inarticulate, Articulate, and Vertebrate; and I know 
of none but conform to the simple threefold arrangement. 
What of myself?—the rays of light, and the colours 
locked up in every ray, reflect my being; the sunshine 
that browns the hand and bronzes the face brings with 
it a glow of health unknown to the man who leads a noc¬ 
turnal life, who is immured in a coal mine, or who dwells 
in permanent shadow. The nrick of a pin informs me 
