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382 BOOK OF THE A. fcJST) A. RITE.
rose, the beautiful brilliance of the carnation, the
modest blush of the apple, and the splendid white
of the orange. Whence come these colors By
what process of chemistry are they extracted from
the carbon, the phosphorus, and the lime? Is it
any greater miracle to make something out of
nothing ?
Pluck the flowers. Inhale the delicious perfumes
each perfect and all delicious. Whence have they
come ? By what combination of acids and alkalies
could the chemist produce them ?
And the fruit—the ruddy apple and the golden
orange—the texture and fabric how totally differ-
ent ! the taste how entirely dissimilar !—the per-
fume of each distinct from its flower, and from the
other. Whence the taste and this new perfume ?
The same earth and air and water have been made
to furnish a different taste to each fruit, a different
perfume not only to each fruit, but to each fruit and
its own flower.
Is it any more a problem whence come thought
and will and perception, and all the phenomena of
the mind, than this, whence come the colors, the per-
fumes, the taste of the fruit and flower ?
And lo ! in each fruit new seeds, each gifted with
the same wondrous power of reproduction—each
with the same wondrous forces wrapped up in it to
be again in turn evolved ;—forces, that had lived
three thousand years in the grain of wheat found in
the wrappings of an Egyptian muinniy; forces, oJ
,