Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-04-02
For the Freeman.
A Chat with Our Readers.
BY AGRICOLA,

ABOUT THE CIRCULATION OF MATTER.
> Matter circulates in q round of uuceas
! ing change. This change takes place in I
: fixed and predetermined order. which i:
, necessary to the existing condition o.
things. Shakespeare, in the curious rea.
soning of Hamlet, recognized the rude
fact, as follows:
Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
might stop hole to keep the wind away.
mat mat earth which kept the world in awe,
should patch wall to expel winters nawln
out there is more poetry than truth in
lhese lines, after all. The body of man
crumoles into loose dust, it is true, bat
thls dust is not earth with which we could
MAKE Ioam to patch wall" This
rude idea was the limit of all that even
shakespeare among the ancents knew upon
inns SUBJECT; but, to-day, we can see mat
ter living in the plant; to morrow, moving
IN the animal; next, floating as a portion
OF thin air, or ripping along as constit-
uent part of the noisy brook; then resting
for while in the lifeless soil, as if WAITING
the opportunity to commence new ra7
reer of activity.
NOW L propose TO call the attention of
my readers to some of the transformations
OF matter, beginning with the simple, and
advancing to the more complicated.
~, L. water has round of circulation.
Watered Vapor fills the air From this
t dew' rain, snow and hail are formed.
ihese' IN one form, refresh and fertilize
the earth; In another form, cover hill and
vale with white mantle, and protect the
tehder roots OF vegetation from the chill |
ing lrosts OF winter. We cannot estimate
the amount of dew which gathers upon the
surface on a given night. In the evening
1t appears IN hazy mists, and collects on
leaf and twig in sparkling pearls; but at
early dawn it vanshes again, unmeasured
partly absorbed by plant and soil. and
Partiy dIspelled by the early sunbeams,
Inc yearly rain and snowfall we can
measure. The rainfall varies from twenty
10 thlrty-lve inches. In some execution
III localities it reaches two hundred
inches, and among the hills near Calcnt-
Ill., 1t is said, five hundred and sixty inches
sometimes fall in six months of the vear
ct, II all this water should fall upon the
earth at once, it would cover the entire
y ., more than five inches deep. How
?ilen' then' 1t must change, to keep the
III always moist and to maintain at the
''lile liine the constant and necessary de-
scent OF dew and rain! The ascent off
N =, depends upon physical, physiologic- S
u ana chemical causes. There is - con. '
taht now OF waery vapor from the sur. q
ace OF the earth, but on larger scale.
rom the surface OF the sea, in couotor;,i r
eglons. These streams of vapor nre L
orne by the air to colder regions. north n
south, whence they are precpitatcd C
y TINS very change of temperature, in the Il
'fm OF dew, rain or snow. Returned to e
ne temperate seas by constant runnino 81
,ie"llis' these waters are again carried
ack to the equator by oceanic currents
nd are now ready again to rise in vapor -.
nj repeat this ever recurring revolution, n
M who can calculate how often. since ~
he waters were first separated from cha y;
lc mixture, they have been TRANSFORMED y
TO thc ar, and again returned throuoh h l''
e springs, rlls and rivers to the sea ut i
KING part in the endless work of cbang, e'
g ana renewing inanimate nature. and ie IL,
pply the wants of man and beastp Who III
n say that the tumbler of sparklinr IL IL
ater the thirsty traveller to dav holds in VI VI
ms hand, is not the identical huid Pc
hieh slaked the thirst of old Abraham III
: thousand years ago9 Not particle of III,
NJ water has been lost, though it has t th
en- changed million of times. And if wi ',l'
yer tires in its endless round of duties s 81;
1t work. 't''' IL.