The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1844-06-01
MIRACLES OF NATURE.
FROM DIR. AIACULLOCu.

"Every organized structure can exist
but through the supply of fresh materials,
or OF food. With few exceptions animals
have been empowered and compelled to
seek 1t, but the very nature and necessi-
OF the vegetable forms prevented this.
their food is therefore Brought to them; it
surrounds them on all sides: The Creator
leeds them with His own hands, through
his great agent, chemistry; if aiding it bv
the mechanical powers which he has also
commanded. An essential part of that
food Is in solution, and the ocean is its
great storelouse. 1t is taught to accend
INTO the atmosphere, to pervadc the cir
cumambenI sphere of the armament, to
return that it may vs; every vegetable
existence, 10 surround them in the air, to
be present with them in the earth, TO be
ever near them and about them. II is
brought TO their mouths at every instant.
and nothing is required of them but to
iced and enjoy. Thus has their great
farent amply compensated them for that
OF which he was compelled to deprive
mem IN conformity TO the wisdom of his
genera plan. We know not which most
to admlre-lhe magnitude of the problem,
or the beauty, the perfection, and the IA
cilIty OF that solution. But, that we may
admire, lie! us suppose that it was to be
solved, that the feeding of such mass of
living, and craving, and yet immovable
beings was 10 be effected. Yet because
II Is effected, we forget that there was a
tune when it was to be done; because it is
effected in silence, with regularity, and
with certainty, we forget to note it, and
because oil the perfection of the solution,
even philosophy has forgotten to admire
"lhe Creator formed class of living
beings. They were to crowd the earth,
yet not permitted to quit the narrow point
to which they were chained down. They
were to commence in an atom to attain q
large bulk, to perish, and to be renewed
lie appointed chemistry for these purpo-
ses, and he commanded life to rule it.
This demanded materials, and these were
to be placed within reach of the n.tru-
ments that were to use them. Those
materials were spread for and wide, while
the myrads of beings were incapable of
seeking what was essential to their exis-
tcnce, The plant was fixed to the dry
and burning sands Of Africa, and its food
was many thousand miles away, wasted
and useless in the wide ocean. But for
his wisdom and power, every plant of the
earth would have been but as a grain of
wheat on the naked rock, created but to
perish at the moment of its birth, to die of
hunger. All must have persisted hut for
him who has solved this great and diff
cult problem. Can man contemplate
such a creation unprovided for, and then
say he could have devised the means Of
feeding il2 He will not say this if his
philosophy is of tina, true kind which
acknowledges that j, knows nothing bu.
what God has taught
81 may here point out the beauty of
the contrivance through which the same
operation supplies the food of the vege-
table tribes, and the respiration of the an
imal ones. 1t is an example of that sim
plicity which it is delightful to trace where
it is really visible, but which there is no
advantage in assuming where it cannot be
found.
sit is through the decomposition of wa
ter that it becomes the food of plants and
the chemistry which effects this has been
placed in their own power. They devour
they appropriate, and they reject. They
might have appropriated the whole but
thus would not this beautiful contrivance
have existed, and the animal races must
have been supplied in some other manner
with what was Indispensable as their food.
The same chemical action fulis both
ends; the oxygen which the plant does
not require is discharged, an air, into the
free atmosphere, and becomes the supply
for the other half of the living creation.
"This IS the solution, simple, aud at the
same time cllec,ual, ofanother magnificent
problem. We do not indeed know that
this Is the only manner in which the oxy-
gen of the atmosphere is renewed ;.yc'
! Rus partly 1t least, is this incessant sup,