Missouri Botanical Garden 
George Engelmann Papers 
3 66 Editorial . 
and moisture tend to cause decay in organic matter—to cause organic 
compounds to resolve back into the inorganic I How is this, that these 
same conditions of destruction should be the conditions of life, develop¬ 
ment, and growth, when they act upon the seed, if there had not been in 
the seed all the time some “force” to resist their natural tendencies, 
which they “stimulate” info “activity”? Air, heat, and moisture can 
not have the power of discretion or will. Then they must act upon the 
seed as upon other organic matter, and the difference of behavior must 
depend upon somewhat connected with the seed. But this sopiervftat can 
not be a “ dormant” force, or “ dormant vitality,” for that is absurd and 
contrary to* what is received as first principles in natural philosophy. 
But hold! do not the motions of the clock depend upon the conditions of 
gravity acting as elsewhere ? And does not the .clock move only as the 
weights descend? Then why may it not be with the seed as with the 
clock, that that which determines its peculiar behavior is the form, the 
adjustment, the organization ? The somewhat peculiar in the seed then 
would be, not a “dormant vitality,” but a peculiar form. If the weights 
(gravity—the downward tendency) be taken away, the clock will not 
move; so, why may not life and decay be reciprocal ? 
This reflection occurred first in the form of a query ; but, like a flash, 
it assumed the appearance Of a great truth. It was to me as real (fori 
believed it) that I had struck the key note to which the harmony of ail 
nature is acconhmodated; the fi ,r ’amental ' - T 1 1 ’ - - M 
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8 9 10 Mrssoui 
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