Of certain Customs amongst the Ancient Egyptians, and of the PART I OF THE EARTH AND ITS CREATURES. CHAPTER I. A VIEW OF THE CHIEF FUNCTIONS OF THE TERRESTRIAL, THE VEGETABLE, AND THE ANIMAL SYSTEMS. THE World consists of fire, its lightest part; of air, which comes next in density and weight; then water, and lastly, of earth, its solid, and heaviest matter. The atmosphere is constituted of earth and water, existing in the æriform state. The air or atmosphere is a ponderous transparent fluid of unknown extent, enveloping the earth, and exerting enormous pressure upon its surface; it is continually arising from, and returning to, the earth, in the performance of functions little understood by man. The watery portion has its regular circulation within, and upon the aerial and firmer parts. The whole is constantly in motion and always at work. That which is ever active, and whose activity is directed to the performance of orderly functions, is a living system. The entire functions of the earth, aided by the other parts of nature, consist in the elaboration of its own substance into a form suitable for the nourishment or formation of the vegetable, B and the perpetual maintenance of its own perfection. The vegetable is another, ever active, working, living system, having its various functions which it performs with order and regularity. As the earth elaborates its substance into a state fitted for the nourishment of the vegetable, so the vegetable takes the matter which the earth presents to it, and elaborates it into a state fitted for the nourishment of the animal. Thus, the apple-tree, for example, sends out ramifications in every direction into the earth; these are the collectives, sent forth in search of matter for the formation of the vegetable system or machine; they are furnished with mouths, or receptacles, which take in the various substances presented by the earth; these subterranean branches all converge towards a point to deposit or unite what they have collected; from this terminating point of the collective branches, arises the stem, or the distributive branches, which are to build up the visible part of the tree, the end of whose function is to produce its fruit, and thus it holds forth to man, the apple. In this way, the earth, in its passage into the corporeal substance of the vegetable, undergoes a process of refinement, and in passing from the corporeal substance of the vegetable into its fruit, it goes through a second process of refinement. This last product of the vegetable only, was by nature destined for the nourishment of man. The animal having no bond of union with the firmer portion of the earth, possesses the power of locomotion; but in its internal formative structure |