Abraham had a right to have his opinions. He differed with the Chaldeans about their gods, ridiculed them, despised them, argued, reasoned, as best he knew how. He had to leave the land of his birth for his opinions. Moses had a right to set up his Jehova, organize a nation, and fight under his banner. He forced a success with superior numbers and superior skill. Coming to Christ, Paul and Peter had a right to their opinions. They suffered for their opinions, yet their opinions held. We of to-day have a right to deny the truth of their opinion. We have a right to deny any part or the whole of their doctrine, their pretensions, their errors; we have a perfect right to decline to accept their say-so for proof of anyone's having done certain things by supernatural aid. And neither church nor priest can force people to believe in their absurdities, when our reason, understanding, and common sense tell us that it is neither true nor possible. Few men are so dull that they do not recognize the fact that it is unpleasant, as well as unprofitable, for an organized body of men, whether church or other organization, who have prospered, gained influence, control and authority over men, territory or wealth, by means of certain ideas or opinions, to be interfered with or encroached upon by a new and opposing organized body, with new ideas or opinions, lest the former might lose some of their influence, control, or authority over men, territory, or wealth. Selfishness and self-preservation lie at the root of this, and every aggressive movement will be hindered, checked, or prevented if possible. CHAPTER XVI. ORGANIC LIFE--VEGETABLE. The constituent elements that enter into vegetable life consist in the main of three elementary substances. These essential elements consist of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. The secondary elementary bodies consist of nitrogen and earthy elements, sulphur and phosphorus. There are also found other elementary substances in lesser quantities in vegetable structures, as potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, silicon, aluminium, iron, manganese, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. These are the materials of which vegetables are made. Vegetables derive all the materials of their fabric from the earth and the air. Plants can possess no simple elements which these do not supply. They may take in, to some extent, almost every element which is thus supplied. The elements above mentioned are not of universal occurrence, nor are they all components of any one vegetable tissue.