above and the radicle below; do you think it would grow that way?"

"Plantule and radicle are ambitious words, my dear brother; recollect
that you are speaking to simple mortals."

"Well, I mean root uppermost."

"Right; I prefer that, don't you, Willis?"

"Yes, Master Jack."

"At first the radicle or root would begin by growing upwards, and the
plantule or germ would descend."

"That is quite in accordance with my revolutionary idiosyncracies."

"You accused me just now of using ambitious words."

"Well, I understand a revolution to mean, placing those above who
should be below."

"Nature then," continued Ernest, "very soon begins to assert her
rights; the bud gradually twists itself round and ascends, whilst the
root obeys a similar impulse and descends--is not this a proof of
discernment?"

"I see nothing more in it than a proof of the wonderful mechanism God
has allotted to the plant, and is analogous to the movements of a
watch, the hands of which point out the hours, minutes, and seconds of
time, and are yet not endowed with intelligence."