tion of the mechanical force of the sun. He blows
the trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. And, remember,
this is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth.

He rears, as I have said, the whole vegetable world, and through it the
animal; the lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the
meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the muscles, he
urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fleetness is in the lion's foot;
he springs in the panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake.
He builds the forest and hews it down, the power which raised the tree,
and which wields the ax, being one and the same. The clover sprouts and
blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings, by the operation of the same
force.

The sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the iron; he rivets the
plates, he boils the water; he draws the train. He not only grows the
cotton, but he spins the fiber and weaves the web. There is not a hammer
raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not raised, and
turned, and thrown by the sun.

His energy is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting place
where this energy is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; the
selfsame essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally dissolves
into its primitive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as heat;
he quits us as heat; and between his entrance and departure the multiform
powers of our globe appear. They are all special forms of solar power--the
molds into which his strength is temporarily poured in passing from its
source through infinitude.

NOTE.--Proteus (pro. Pro'te-us) was a mythological divinity. His
distinguishing characteristic was the power of assuming different shapes.

CIV. COLLOQUIAL POWERS OF FRANKLIN. (366)

William Wirt, 1772-1834, an American lawyer and author, was born at
Bladensburg, Maryland. Left an orphan at an early age, he was placed in
care of his uncle. He improved his opportunities for education so well
that he became a private tutor at fifteen. In 1792 he was admitted to the
bar, and began the practice of law in Virginia; he removed to Richmond in
1799. From 1817 to 1829 he was Attorney-general of the United States. His
last years were spent in Baltimore. Mr. Wirt was the author of several
books; his "Letters of a British Spy," published in 1803, and "Life of
Patrick Henry," published in 1817, are the best known of his writings.
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