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Show 406 THE VITAL FORCE j by the tyrant, whose presence he avoided, and by the lower classes of the people, whom he met gladly, and often with friendly help. Exhausted with fatigue, he was reposing on his couch, when the newly-arrived picture was brought to him by the command of Dionysius. Care had been taken to bring, at the same time, a faithful copy of the 11 Rho dian Genius," and the philosopher desired the two paintings to be placed side by side before him. After having remained for some time with his eyes fixed upon them, and absorbed in thought, he called his scholars together, and spoke to them in the following terms, in a voice which was not without emotion:- "Withdraw the curtain from the window, that I may enjoy once more the view of the fair earth animated with living beings. During sixty years I have reflected on the internal motive powers of nature, and on the differences of substances : to-day, for the first time, the picture of the Rhodian Genius leads me to see more clearly that which I had before only obscurely divined. As living beings are imp~lled by natural desires to salutary and fruitful union, so the raw materials of inorganic nature are moved by similar impulses. Even in the reign of primeval night, in the darkness of chaos, elementary principles or substances sought or shunned each other in obedience to indwelling dispositions of amity or enmity. Thus the fire of heaven follows metal, iron obeys the attraction of the loadstone, amber rubbed takes · up light substances, earth mixes with earth, salt collects together from the water of the sea, and the acid moisture of the Stypteria (11'<Tu'lr'<r1)pHx. uypcx), as well as the flocculent salt Trichitis, love the clay of Melos. In inanimate nature, all things hasten to unite with each other according to their particular laws. Hence no terrestrial element (and who would dare to include light among the number of such elements?) is to be found anywhere in its pure and primitive simple state. Each as soon as formed tends to enter into new combinations, and the art of man is needed to disjoin and present in a separated state substances which you would seek in vain in the interior of the earth, and in the fluid oceans of air or water. In dead, inorganic matter, entire inactivity and repose reign so long as the bonds of affinity continue undissolved, so long as no third substance comes to join itself to the others. But even |