There rest in nature's own sepulcher the skeletons of sharks and whales
of to-day and possibly of man. Sometime, if the depths become heights,
as they have in a thousand places in the past, a fit intelligence may
read therein much of the present history of the world. We say to that
coming age, as a past age has said to us, "Speak to the earth and it
shall teach thee, and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee."
THE POWER OF VEGETABLE LIFE
I have a great variety of little masses of matter--some small as a
pin's blunt point, and none of them bigger than a pin's head. They are
smooth, glossy, hard, exceedingly beautiful under the microscope, and
clearly distinguishable one from another. They have such intense
individuality, are so self-assertive, that by no process can those of
one kind be made to look or act like those of another. These little
masses of matter are centers of incredible power. They are seeds.
Select two for examination, and, unfolding, one becomes grass--soft,
succulent, a carpet for dainty feet, a rest for weary eyes, part food,
but mostly drink, for hungry beasts. It exhausts all its energy
quickly. Grass today is, and to-morrow is cut down and withered, ready
for the oven.
Try the other seed. It is of the pin head size. It is dark brown,
hard-shelled, dry, of resinous smell to nostrils sensitive as a bird's.
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