Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/354

340 the hydrogen and oxygen of which it is composed. The number of these chemical compounds built into living tissues is very great, a number uncounted. It is of these compound substances—of their molecules—that the cells are builded; builded by an action very unlike chemical action and into shapes very unlike chemical results. Also, it is by the consumption of these compounds of the fourteen elements that animal warmth and activity are sustained. But, not turning aside here to question the chemistry (the making of molecules) going on in cells, or the vital organization (the building together of molecules) going on in cells, not once lifting our eyes toward any of the dynamical sources of life, we bend our attention to find out, if we can, the raw material for cells, the inorganic resources of the organic world.

It is the organic world together, to be sure, that is able to subsist on the fourteen elements as these are given by the earth, the animal kingdom obtaining most of its material at second hand, as elaborated by the vegetable. The two kingdoms are, in the end, mutually dependent on each other in gaining sustenance from the earth's supplies.

The fourteen indispensable simples may be classified, in different ways for different ends. There is a privilege of provisional classification, for the sake of comparison and of acquaintance; and, with the promise not to impose our arrangement upon any other occasion, we would like, for the purposes of our present quest, to divide the elemental resources of life into two categories, as follows: 1. Those supplied so abundantly on the earth that all individuals share them alike, without favor of fortune or forethought of mind. We may name them redundant resources. 2. Those provided so sparingly that individuals do not share them alike, but secure them by effort and by opportunity. They may be termed adequate resources.

From the provision of the first class of materials, it results that, in certain great essentials of organization, all individuals are placed on a footing of equality with their fellows. It results from the provision of the second class of materials, that unequal qualities and quantities of organization are derived by different individuals of the same species. Through our redundant resources we are taught the common brotherhood of the created. Through our adequate resources come the assurances of our responsibility—our commissions as stewards of the earth. Materials given in a superabundance that cannot be wasted constitute a dispensation of mercy; its benefits falling alike on the just and on the unjust, the lazy and the diligent, the foolish and the prudent. Materials given in a competence that must be guarded constitute a dispensation of compensation; inciting to exertion, rewarding for attainment, and training the powers of volition. By the first, the democracy of equal privileges and inalienable possessions is maintained; by the second, the aristocracy of merit is preserved.

The redundant resources so abound that they can have no value,