The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-02-14
NUMBER z.
EDUCATIONAL.
BY PROF. S. s. BABcock.
SHALL GOOD COME OF IT?
OLLA-PODRIDA.

The sun is the source of all the
mechanical power which is known
upon the earth. The falling food of
Niagara is but the recoil of the
spring which is bent in evaporation
from the sea and earth. All force
which is derived from the fall of
water, is thus traceable to the sun
which lifted it in the form of cloud
and vapor, to the SUBMITS of the
highlands, from whence it flows
again to the sea, and in its course
does the work of mans bidding, or
wears down rocks, and builds up
continents. The energies of fire and
steam are only other forms of the
force inherent in the solar rays, or
iginally exercised in the organiza-
ton of the vegetable matter which
serves as fuel. Immediately pro-
duced by oxidation and the heat
which it evolves, they find their
ultimate source, as well as their pre-
else equivalent in the deoXidizing
influence of. the solar rays. The
forces of the human body and of
animals, are fed by consumption of
similar materials, and may therefore
be traced to the same source.
Every planet that surrounds with
its orbit the great center of our sys-
tenn, is equally dependent upon his
influence. Held in their courses by
his attraction, and encircling him in
ceaseless revolution, they draw from
the parent orb The strength and |
beauty which clothes their lesser |
spheres. What wonder, that in vague |
Acknowledgements of his influence, |
heather have chosen the sun as their |
God, and have wOrshipped at his |
shrine. How natural that Christian |
nations should find in his life Civ
ing power, fitting emblem of the |
glery and benefcence of the great |
Father Of the Universe, by whom |
all suns and systems are, and were |
created.
The relations of the three king
doms of nature may be presented in |
single picture. Imagine a giant |
tree, the representative of all the
vegetation of the earth, spreading
wide its branches as a shelter for |
man and beast. Let us suppose them |
TO subsist entirely upon its fruit, |
and 10 warm themselves by fires |
made from its branches. The tree, |
through its leaves, draws its supply |
of gaseous food from the etmos- |
phere, and through it's roots, its !
mineral sustenance from the soil. |
1t has purified the air in the process,
of gases which would become nox- |
ious By accumulation, and returned
to it the oxygen which is the vital |
iZing breath of the animal world. |
The mingled material of its food, |
worse than worthless TO animals. |
has at the same time been trans
formed into wood and fruit, and /
other forms of vegetable matter.
AT this point, without interruption
in the circuit, commences the return /
of material TO the atmosphere from
which it was derived. Animals |
that feed upon the fruit of the tree,
already breathe much of it back
again to the air while they live, and |
the rest is restored by their death
and subsequent decay. Leaves that
fall and mouldcr, and branches that
arc burned as fuel, make the same
return of the elements of which
they are composed, to the great re-
servoirs of the atmosphere and
earth. And what happens thus to
leaf and fruit, happens also at last
to the parent tree itself. One by one
its giant branches fall and moulder,
and melting again into the air, add
to its ineXhaustible stores of fertili-
ty, and provide the material for q
new round in the grand system of
What happens beneath the single
tree, occurs also in every flower
that lifts its petals TO the sun, and is
q thousand times repeated in every
forest upon the face of the earth.
No limits of distance or of size re-
strict the mutual relations and de-
Tendencies of nature. The exhaled
carbon of the polar bear feeds the
lotus of Egyptian plains, and the
breath of The southern lion is re-
distilled i'll the fragrance of the Nor
wegian pine. The particle of matter
that once burned in the fire of the
poets brain and fioated with his
song upon the air, now blooms in
the mountain flower and anon lies
buried in it's mold.