EXTINCT FERN, AND MAIDEN-HAIR FERN.
“Nothing,” says Professor Ansted, “however, is more certain than that all coal was once vegetable; for in most cases the woody structure may be detected under the microscope, and this, if not in the coal in its ordinary state, at least in the burnt ashes which remain after it has been exposed to the action of heat, and has lost its bituminous and semi-crystalline character. This has been too well and too frequently proved by actual experiment to require more than the mere statement of the fact.” And here let us say a few words, which to a few perhaps may have the charm of novelty, about the economic history of coal; for as Cowper says that the first curse, “labour,” has, by God’s blessing on it, been “softened into mercy,” so do we add also, in his words, heartily subscribing to their truth,—
“Thus studied, used, and consecrated thus,
On earth what is, seems formed indeed for us;
Not as the plaything of a froward child,
Fretful unless diverted and beguiled;
But as scale, by which the soul ascends
From mighty means to more important ends;
Securely, though by steps but rarely trod,