ur remark touching saps has the usual savor of human ingenuity,
blended, however, with the proverbial short-sightedness of the species.
It is very true that saps ascend for fructification; but what is
this fructification, to which you allude? It is no more than a false
demonstration of the energies of the plant. For all the purposes of
growth, life, durability, and the final conversion of the vegetable
matter into an element, the root is the seat of power and authority;
and, in particular, the tap-root above or rather below all others. This
tap-root may be termed the tail of vegetation. You may pluck fruits with
impunity--nay, you may even top all the branches, and the tree shall
survive; but, put the axe to the root, and the pride of the forest
falls."

All this was too evidently true to be denied, and I felt worried and
badgered; for no man likes to be beaten in a discussion of this sort,
and more especially by a monkey. I bethought me of the elephant, and
determined to make one more thrust, by the aid of his powerful tusks,
before I gave up the point.

"I am inclined to think, Dr. Reasono," I put in as soon as possible,
"that your savans have not been very happy in illustrating their theory
by means of the elephant. This animal, besides being a mass of flesh,
is too well provided with intellect to be passed off for a dunce; and
he not only has ONE, but he might almost be said to be provided with TWO
tails."

"That has been his chief misfortune, sir. Matter, in the great warfare
between itself and mind, has gone on the principle of 'divide and
conquer.' You are nearer the truth than you imagined, for the trunk
of the elephant is merely the abortion of a tail; and yet, you see, it
contains nearly all the intelligence that the animal possesses. On the
subject of the fate of the elephant, however, theory is confirmed by
actual experiment. Do not your geologists and naturalists speak of
the remains of animals, which are no longer to be found among living
things?"

"Certainly, sir; the mastodon--the megatherium, iguanodon; and the
plesiosaurus--"

"And do you not also find unequivocal evidences of animal matter
incorporated with rocks?"

"This fact must be admitted, too."

"These phenomena, as you call them, are no more than the final deposits
which nature has made in the cases of those creatures in which matter
has completely overcome its rival, mind. So soon as the will is entirely
extinct, the being ceases to