Snow is furnished with the power of absorbing and combining with a large portion of oxygen, which gives it its fertilizing property. The snow melting and penetrating into the softened earth communicates to it oxygen, and this oxygen promotes the germination of seeds. The carbon of the earth combining with the oxygen, is converted into carbonic acid, and thereby acquires more solubility; while the water contributes to excite that activity which had been rendered dormant in the roots by the cold. It is this property of carbon which deprives water of the superabundant oxygen that would render it prejudicial to health, and unfit for the purposes of life. Thus what would otherwise be injurious to us is improved by the ground, and gives at the same time power and activity to the mould. How multiplied are those means which infinite wisdom and goodness employ for the preservation of the productions of Nature![88] Ice at 32° must absorb 140° of caloric before it can become a fluid; or such a quantity as would raise a body of water of equal bulk with itself from 32° to 172°. For instance: “Take any quantity by weight of ice or snow at 32°, and mix it with an equal weight of water heated exactly to 172°. The snow instantly melts, and the temperature of the mixture is still only at _thirty-two_ degrees. Here the water is cooled 140°, while the temperature of the snow is not increased at all; so that 140° of caloric have disappeared. They must have combined with the snow; but they have only melted it, without increasing its temperature. Hence it follows irresistibly that ice, when converted into water, absorbs and combines with 140° of caloric. Water then, after being cooled down to 32°, cannot freeze till it has parted with 140° of caloric; and ice, after being heated to 32°, (which is the exact freezing point), cannot melt till it has absorbed 140° more of caloric. This is the cause of the extreme slowness of these operations. There can be no doubt, then, but water owes its fluidity to its latent caloric, and that its caloric of fluidity is 140°.”[89] And all this arrangement in nature, connected with the operation of these elements, is immediately under the control and direction of the infinitely wise and almighty Creator of the universe. “He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.”