or necessary
preliminary, to decomposition, if not an actual commencement of that
process.

CAROLINE.

I recollect your hinting to us that sugar was supposed not to be
secreted from the sap, in the same manner as mucilage, fecula, oil, and
the other ingredients of vegetables.

MRS. B.

It is rather from these materials, than from the sap itself, that sugar
is formed; and it is developed at particular periods, as you may observe
in fruits, which become sweet in ripening, sometimes even after they
have been gathered. Life, therefore, is not essential to the formation
of sugar, whilst on the contrary, mucilage, fecula, and the other
vegetable materials that are secreted from the sap by appropriate
organs, whose powers immediately depend on the vital principle, cannot
be produced but during the existence of that principle.

EMILY.

The ripening of fruits is, then, their first step to destruction, as
well as their last towards perfection?

MRS. B.

Exactly. --A process analogous to the saccharine fermentation takes
place also during the cooking of certain vegetables. This is the case
with parsnips, carrots, potatoes, &c. in which sweetness is developed by
heat and moisture; and we know that if we carried the process a little
farther, a more complete decomposition would ensue. The same process
takes place also in seeds previous to their sprouting.

CAROLINE.

How do you reconcile this to your theory, Mrs. B.? Can you suppose that
a decomposition is the necessary precursor of life?

MRS. B.

That is indeed the case. The materials of the seed must be decomposed,
and the seed disorganized, before a plant can sprout from it. Seeds,
besides the embrio plant, contain (as we have already observed) fecula,
oil, and a little mucilage. These substances are destined for the
nourishment of the future plant; but they undergo some change before
they can be fit for this function. The seeds, when buried in the earth,
with a certain degree of moisture and of temperature, absorb water,
which dilates them, separates their particles, and introduces a new
order of attractions, of which sugar is the product. The substance of
the seed is thus softened, sweetened, and converted into a sort of white
milky pulp, fit for the nourishment of the embrio plant.

The saccharine fermentation of seeds is artificially produced, for the
purpose of making _malt_, by the following process:-- A quantity of
barley is first soaked in water for tw