Lexington union. (Lexington, Miss.) 1838-18??, 1842-08-27
NATURAL SCIENCE.

NATURAL SCIENCE.
The mere qualification to be derived
f1m learning some OF the wonders with
which we, are surroupdsl is surely great
satisfaction: FOR instance, to know that
the same thing, or molioD, and whateverit
is which causes the sensation OF heat, eau
SEES also fudity, and expands bodies 10 all
directions; that electricity, the light OF
which is seen on the back OF a cat when
slightly rubbed on frosty evening, is the
very same matter with the lightning Of
the clouds: that plants breathe like our
selves, but differently by day and by night
that the air which burns in our lamps
enables balloon 10 mount, and causes
the globules Of the dus, of plants to rise,
float through the air, and continue their
race-in word, is the immediate cause
of vegetation. Nothing can at first view
appear less alike, or less likely to be caus
ed by the same thing, than The process Of
burning and breathing, the rust Of metals
and burning, ar acid and rust, the infl-
ence of a plant on the air it grows in by
night and an animal on the same air; nay
of a body burning in that air: and yet all
these are the same operation. 1t is an
undeniable fact, that the very same thing
which makes the fire burn makes the
metals rust, forms acids, and enables
plants and animals TO breathe; that these
operations, so unlike to common eyes,
when examined by the light of science, are
the same. Aud to know this must be a
positive qualification; TO find the same
substances in various situations extremely
unlike each other; to meet with fixed air
as the produce OF burning, oil breathing g.
Of Vegetation; 10 find that it is tho choke
damp of mines; the bad cir in the Gro,to
OF Naples, the cause Of death 10 neglected
brewers watts, and of the brisk and acid
flavor Of seliaer and other mineral waters
and springs! Now nothing can be less
alike than the working ola vast steam en-
CINE OF the old construction and the craw-
ling of fly on the window; yet we find
that these two operations are performed by
the same means, (lhe weight or pressure
Of the atmospheFe,) and that the sea-horse
climbs the icebergs by no other power.
Can any thing be more strange to contem-
plate? aud is there 10 all the fairy tales
that were ever iancied, any thing better
calculated to arrest the attention, and to
occupy and crafty the mind, than this
most unexpected resemblance between
things so unlike TO the eyes OF ordinary
beholders9 And what more pleasing oc-
cupaion than TO sec uncovered and barred
before our eyes the very instruments and
the process by which all perfect nature
works! Then, when we raise our views
to the structure of the heavens, and are
gratilied with tracing accurate but most
unexpected resemblanccs, IS 1t not in the
highest degree interesting 10 find that the
power which keeps this earth in It's shape
and 10 its path, wheeling upon its axis
round the sun, extends over all the other
worlds that compose the universe, and
gives to each its proper place and motion;
that this same power keeps the moon in
her path round our earth, and our earth in
lis path round the sun, and each planet in
its course; that the same power causes the
tides upon our globe and the peculiar form
of the globe itself; aud that after all, It is
precisely the same power which makes
stone fall to the ground. To learn all
these things, and to reflect upon them, &C.
cupies the faculties, fills the mind and
produces as well us the purest gratifca-
lion, [Broughdm.
Dow, JR.-Why don't some clever
comedian take up the sermons OF Dow, jr.
and deliver them 10 public, as a species Of
groesque ENTERTAINMENT Nothing could
be more novel and attractive. Just fancy
how the following would sound With a
good nasal pulpit twang: Y eH1 a0