EMILY.
But why should death destroy it; for these principles must remain in the same proportions, and consequently, I should suppose, in the same order of attractions?
MRS. B.
You must remember, that in the vegetable, as well as in the animal kingdom, it is by the principle of life that the organs are enabled to act; when deprived of that agent or stimulus, their power ceases, and an order of attractions succeeds similar to that which would take place in mineral or unorganised matter.
EMILY.
It is this new order of attractions, I suppose, that destroys the organisation of the plant after death; for if the same combinations still continued to prevail, the plant would always remain in the state in which it died?
MRS. B.
And that, you know, is never the case; plants may be partially preserved for some time after death, by drying; but in the natural course of events they all return to the state of simple elements; a wise and admirable dispensation of Providence, by which dead plants are rendered fit to enrich the soil, and become subservient to the nourishment of living vegetables.
CAROLINE.
But we are talking of the dissolution of plants, before we have examined them in their living state.