Smyrna times., 1858-08-19
SELECT ARTICLES.
The Economy Of Mature.

The ECONOMY OF mature.
In the great universe, TO whatever part of il
we turn, one controlling principle is ever appa-
rent, one sentiment seems to pervade the whole
economy; and SO forcibly does this strike the
attention of every one of US, that we have ex-
pressed it in a proverb and use it as a motto,
Waste not, want not" The flowers are ever
ready to receive the dewdrops, and when they
have done with them, the morning sun evapo-
rates and keeps them in the clouds ready for
use again. Matter is indestructble, and al
though we can by fire and other means render
it invisible, what is our surprise to find that it
has assumed a gaseous form, and the piece of
charcoal that we burned is now floating in the
room mixed with the atmosphere we are breath
ing. Matter is ever changing. The forces of
nature which we call chemical action, gravity,
electricity, light, heat, and life are increasingly
efectng the transmutaton of substances; thus,
for example, ages long since rolled away, my
rads of little creatures with shells not larger
than pins head, acted as the scavengers of
the ocean, they died, and sunk to the bottom of
the deep, and to-day we find their shells as
chalk and limestone all over the world, and ma
turalsts tell US that on the bottom of the Gulf
of Mexico, and in various parts OF the Gulf
Stream, there are limestone beds being formed
by the modern representatives, of ancient Fora
miniferG.
The lovely tints that deck the leaves in the
Fall, and give TO our autumnal scenery such a
distinctive beauty, is due to some bed of iron
ore, which has lain hidden beneath the rocks
for centuries. Some little brook first found it
out, und carrying it away bit by bit has spread
it over the soil, gradually the iton ore crumbes,
and the winds disperse it, the trees feed upon
it, and in the autumn it shows that it is there,
by the color Of the leaves When trees shall
have decayed, and what is now dry land shall
been depressed and upheaved, covered by the
sea and scorched by the sun, who knows but
that that same iron may form a nodulc or ball
in bed of coal, and be worked and smelted for
the use of man. All these changes work to-
getLer tremendously. All goes on in exact
proportions. No waste, no want!
What is one mans meat ia another's poi
son " is another maxim which the economy of
nature teaches, and one simple illustration will
quickly make it plain. The solid portion of
living things, FIVE except the skeleton, is car
bon-charcoal. This. all animals must have in
their food, and from the food the digestive or
gans take as much as is necessary to make
muscle, flesh and tissue, throwing the rest
away from the lungs as an invisible gas, poison
Gus and deadly. When we for moment think
of the number of beings who are every moment
breathing into the common atmosphere such
vast quantities of this gas, and have been do
ing it for centuries, we ask, " How is it, then,
that we can live !" In the quiet and still night
when men and animals sleep, the plants are
greedily and eagerly absorbing all this corbonic
acid, and with care taking every particle OF
carbon for their own nourshment, they throw
off as useless that which is most necessary to
the support of animal lite-oxygen. So the
proverb is illustrated, for what is the poison Of
the animal is the food of the plant.
10 this way, lessons may be learned by study
ing the workings of the natural fOrces, and by
initiating the economy of nature. we shall ever
be healthy, happy and content.-Scientfc
American.