CHEMISTRY IN AGRICULTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY. 487 
by the wise provision of a bountiful Providence are rendered 
again available to the animal economy. It is here that we see 
the admirable adaptation of the vegetable world. During 
what has been aptly likened to the process of digestion, plants 
feed on those matters that are poisonous to the animal body, 
and give forth those constituents which are destined to play 
again their important partin the complicated functions of the 
animal machine. Thus it may be truly said, not an atom of 
matter is ever lost or needs forming anew ; all that exists now 
existed at the creation , and will exist till time shall be no more ; 
that which lives, flourishes, dies, and decays, is not lost; the 
great principle of life only changes its form ; hence the destruc¬ 
tion, or metamorphosis of one generation of vegetables or 
animals, is only the necessary requisite for the existence and 
support of the next. 
We have taken an imperfect view only of the formation, 
reproduction, and decay of vegetables and animals; we have 
seen the beautiful simplicity of arrangement that exists in the 
various stages ; and now let us conclude our observations by 
a retrospective glance at the life of the highest being in ani¬ 
mated nature— Man. 
Let us view him as a helpless infant, unable to assist him¬ 
self to the common necessaries of existence ; a being on whom 
the meanest reptile that crawls might wreck its venom with 
impunity; but years roll on, one epoch after another is 
passed, and then bursting forth “like a giant rejoicing in 
his strength,” appears the man ! Proudly he casts his gaze 
o’er creation’s face. The fiercest animals that roam the desert 
wild tremble at his presence, and quail before him ; alike he 
laughs to scorn the unwieldy elephant’s strength and the 
lordly lion’s roar, and undauntingly journeys onward, secure 
from all except his fellow-man. The lapse of revolving sea¬ 
sons brings him near to his appointed 44 threescore years and 
ten,” when truly a change comes o’er the spirit of his dream. 
Behold him now a picture of the very nothingness of human 
power; his arm, that would have felled a giant, hangs power¬ 
less by his side; his eye, that rivalled the eagle’s in penetra¬ 
tion, has lost its brilliancy ; his tottering limbs almost refuse 
to perform their wonted office, and even his reason fails him, 
till death, seeming to pity the abject condition of creation’s 
lord, draws a veil over the scene. Thus he shuffles off this 
mortal coil, and his name perhaps is heard no more. Thus, 
too, is fulfilled the spirit of that terrible denunciation, 
“Dust thou art, and unto dust thou slialt return.” 
[To be continued .) 
