Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-04-06
Spring.

80 euC hISo 10Y VI marc0 comes
spring with all its promises and hopes.
Andno other season is 50 truly named
as this. Where the ice and snow of
winter have departed and the genial
rays OF the sun have warmed the soil.
everything with life isindeed sprinoinp.
It's popular idea in places that when
one lies upon the ground-end places the
earon the surface he can hear the sound
Of the growing things, everywhere in
motion in the soil, forcing themselves
toward the air and the light of the sun.
u Is easy 70 conceive that this fancy may
be tue for really when the SUMS Heat
penetrates the earth life springs into ac-
ton, and life ismotiou. So that the
season of spring is indeed well named.
Tor it IS, the springing of dormant life
into activity, and of dead matter into
life. But what is the great universal
power which is thus causing all matter
to vibrate and pulsate with life. forcing
seeds to germinate. buds to open. bios,
some TO unfold and covering the soil
with new verdurep The sun Is the
moving power ofall this, and "a we en-.
Joy its returning warmth and see its in
huences upon vegetation as the spring
opens we may well pause and consider
how all these effects are accomplished
and what benificent power the,sun is.
The ancients were very forcibIy inn.
pressed with this power of the sun.
No wonder they ignorantly worshiped
it, considering It divine, and approach
ing through IL, as nearly as they could,
to the infinite power which created life
and sustains e. but of which no revela-
ton had taughtt them the truth The old
Table Of Promethus, who was believed to
have made figure of clay and warmed
itinto life by means ofra spark of fire
which he stole from Heaven, was q very
near approach to thetruth which we now
learn from the physical laws of the uni.
verse; for the sunbeam, spark of celes.
tial fire, transforms dead matter. CLAW
itself, into organized and living forms,
which in their turn sustain human life.
and enable mankind with all the inferior
animals to exist. The Promethean spark
was indeed sunbeam, and the imari-
nation OF the ancient poet was so near
the.truth that we might we'll believe he
hada perception or intuition of all which
we are now able to understand from the
scientific investigations and discoveries
of past ages ," l--s-ii
ys- For all the grand phenomena of force
and life in nature originate in the
warmth and power of the sun. Without
its heat and light there could be no or
ganized existence-no life. There would
be no rain. no water, no chemical action;
the ocean would be solid ice, the winds
would be still, land all would be silent
and dead. But with its heat ana light
ail the chemical forces are brought into
action, and the gases and various ele-
ments are condensed into vegetable
forms, which in their turn give ex-
istence to animal life. From the
first, when the sun was created.
and light turned the primeval dark
ness into day, the sun $ rays have
been engaged in converting these
gases and clements into materials which
are stored up into vast magazines of use.
full force, from which we directly orin.
directly gather our fuel, coal and wood;
our food. our clothing, our shelter and
all our necessaries of life. From the
very first plants. the lowly MOSES which
covered the soil, and the gigantic palms
whose remains wa find deep in the rocks
where we procure our coal, to the pres
emit day when we see the verdurc of one
year decaying upon the surface to pro-
vide sustenance for another wears
growth, during all those ages the beams
of the sun have been busy converting
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen aud hydrogen
into plant issue and mingling with them
the mineral elements into living organ
isrns which have been collecting for our
uses. A vast circle and cycle OF opera
ton has been revolving during all those
ages, with infinite variation and variety,
but yet in beautiful order, which, as We
contemplate it, would seem like some
vast kaleidoscope vision, everrevolving.
ever changing; always falling from one
orderly grouping into another; combin.
ing and separating; groups dissolving
and re-arranging; all the atoms in cease.
less motion, yet in orderly and deter
mined paths and always the same, and
the prime mover aud force which pro-
duces all this action and maintains the
order and system of it is the sunbeam,
the spring OF all life and exislence.-N.
l. Times. .A'iA -1 -
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