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Roe, Edward Payson, 1838-1888

"Nature's Serial Story"

It is cell adding cells that is
transforming the world around us." He spoke earnestly, and almost as if
he were thinking aloud, and he looked like one in the presence of a
mystery that awed him. The hue of Amy's eyes deepened, and her face
flushed in her quickened interest. Her own mind had been turning to
kindred thoughts and questionings. She had passed beyond the period when
a mind like hers could be satisfied with the mere surface of things, and
Webb's direct approach to the very foundation principles of what she saw
sent a thrill through all her nerves as an heroic deed would have done.
"Can you not show me one of those cells with your microscope?" she asked,
eagerly.
"Yes, easily, and some of its contents through the cell's transparent
walls, as, for instance, the minute grains of _chlorophyll_, that is, the
green of leaves. All the hues of foliage and flowers are caused by what
the cells contain, and these, to a certain extent, can be seen and
analyzed. But there is one thing within the cell which I cannot show you,
and which has never been seen, and yet it accounts for everything, and is
the architect of all--life. When we reach the cell we are at the
threshold of this mysterious presence. We know that it is within. We can
see its work, for its workshop is under our eye, and in this minute shop
it is building all the vegetation of the world, but the artisan itself
ever remains invisible.


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