Virginia Argus

In the work, entitled, A Key to the Phenomena of Nature, a French writer, Chevreul Dessaudrais, assures us, that, for six thousand years, mankind have been crawling about, without knowing it, on the back of an animal. This animal which lives, eats, drinks, and digests ; which thinks, walks, and transpires ; which has members and organs of speech ; this wonderful animal is-the Earth. Thus, and thus only, can hurricanes, tempests, the eruptions of volcanoes, "&c. be accounted for. If any one doubt it, let him read the work of this new Naturalist. "If every thing upon the earth is animated (he argues) why should not the earth itself likewise be so ? the earth to which we are indebted for our support. If life be necessary for the growth of hair in man, how can the earth without the same faculty. produce grass in the fields, and trees in the forests? the process with hair and with grass is the same. The former are rooted in our skin, and the latter in the skin of the animal Earth, humus. The nurse takes food, which she gives back liquified to the child. Does not the earth do the same, in order to furnish the nurse with vegetables, which she converts into milk ? Does it not imbibe particles of air and water, which it appropriates to the plant ? As life is absolutely necessary for these functions, the earth which fulfils them must of necessity be alive and organized in the same manner as animals.'- Are not corresponding phenomena, results and objects, proof of the same nature, organs and properties ?. The earth must. however, be provided with much stronger organs than a woman, her-procedure through the same being on a much more extensive scale."

London Reviewer.