basis of the doctrine of evolution is the fact that the life of the
higher rests upon the death of the lower. The astronomers tell us that
the sun ripens our harvests by burning itself up. Each golden sheaf,
each orange bough, each bunch of figs, costs the sun thousands of tons
of carbon. Geike, the geologist, shows us that the valleys grow rich
and deep with soil through the mountains, growing bare and being
denuded of their treasure. Beholding the valleys of France and the
plains of Italy all gilded with corn and fragrant with deep grass,
where the violets and buttercups wave and toss in the summer wind,
travelers often forget that the beauty of the plains was bought, at a
great price, by the bareness of the mountains. For these mountains are
in reality vast compost heaps, nature's stores of powerful stimulants.
Daily the heat swells the flakes of granite; daily the frost splits
them; daily the rains dissolve the crushed stone into an impalpable
dust; daily the floods sweep the rich mineral foods down into the
starving valleys. Thus the glory of the mountains is not alone their
majesty of endurance, but also their patient, passionate beneficence as
they pour forth all their treasures to feed richness to the pastures,
to wreathe with beauty each distant vale and glen, to nourish all
waving harvest fields. This death of the mineral is the life of the
vegetable.

If now we descend from the mountains to explore the secrets of the sea,
Maury and Guyot show us the isles where palm trees wave and man builds
his homes and cities midst rich tropic fruits. There scientists find
that the coral islands were reared above the waves by myriads of living
creatures that died vicariously that man might live. And everywhere
nature exhibits the same sacrificial principle. Our treasures of coal
mean that vast forests have risen and fallen again for our factories
and furnaces. Nobody is richer until somebody is poorer. Evermore the
vicarious exchange is going on. The rock decays and feeds the moss and
lichen. The moss decays to feed the shrub. The shrub perishes that
the tree may have food and growth. The leaves of the tree fall that
its boughs may blossom and bear fruit. The seeds ripen to serve the
birds singing in all the boughs. The fruit falls to be food for man.
The harvests lend man strength for his commerce, his government, his
culture and conscience. The lower dies vicariously that the higher may
live. Thus n