Few phenomena gave me more delight than to observe the forms which thawing sand and clay assume in flowing down the sides of a deep cut on the railroad through which I passed on my way to the village， a phenomenon not very common on so large a scale， though the number of freshly exposed banks of the right material must have been greatly multiplied since railroads were invented.  The material was sand of every degree of fineness and of various rich colors，commonly mixed with a little clay.  When the frost comes out in the spring， and even in a thawing day in the winter， the sand begins to flow down the slopes like lava， sometimes bursting out through the snow and overflowing it where no sand was to be seen before. Innumerable little streams overlap and interlace one with another，exhibiting a sort of hybrid product， which obeys half way the law of currents， and half way that of vegetation.  As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines， making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth， and resembling， as you look down on them， the laciniated， lobed， and imbricated thalluses of some lichens； or you are reminded of coral， of leopard's paws or birds' feet， of brains or lungs or bowels， and excrements of all kinds.  It is a truly grotesque vegetation， whose forms and color we see imitated in bronze， a sort of architectural foliage more ancient and typical than acanthus， chiccory， ivy， vine， or any vegetable leaves；destined perhaps， under some circumstances， to become a puzzle to future geologists.  The whole cut impressed me as if it were a cave with its stalactites laid open to the light.  The various shades of the sand are singularly rich and agreeable， embracing the different iron colors， brown， gray， yellowish， and reddish.  When the flowing mass reaches the drain at the foot of the bank it spreads out flatter into strands， the separate streams losing their semi-cylindrical form and gradually becoming more flat and broad，running together as they are more moist， till they form an almost flat sand， still variously and beautifully shaded， but in which you can trace the original forms of vegetation； till at length， in the water itself， they are converted into banks， like those formed off the mouths of rivers， and the forms of vegetation are lost in the ripple marks on the bottom.

　　The whole bank， which is from twenty to forty feet high， is sometimes overlaid with a mass of this kind of foliage， or sandy rupture， for a quarter of a mile on one or both sides， the produce of one spring day.  What makes this sand foliage remarkable is its springing into existence thus suddenly.  When I see on the one side the inert bank ―― for the sun acts on one side first ―― and on the other this luxuriant foliage， the creation of an hour， I am affected as if in a peculiar sense I stood in the laboratory of the Artist who made the world and me ―― had come to where he was still at work，sporting on this bank， and with excess of energy strewing his fresh designs about.  I feel as if I were nearer to the vitals of the globe， for this sandy overflow is something such a foliaceous mass as the vitals of the animal body.  You find thus in the very sands an anticipation of the vegetable leaf.  No wonder that the earth expresses itself outwardly in leaves， it so labors with the idea inwardly.  The atoms have already learned this law， and are pregnant by it.  The overhanging leaf sees here its prototype.  Internally，whether in the globe or animal body， it is a moist thick lobe， a word especially applicable to the liver and lungs and the leaves of fat （jnai， labor， lapsus， to flow or slip downward， a lapsing；jiais， globus， lobe， globe； also lap， flap， and many other words）；externally a dry thin leaf， even as the f and v are a pressed and dried b.  The radicals of lobe are lb， the soft mass of the b（single lobed， or B， double lobed）， with the liquid l behind it pressing it forward.  In globe， glb， the guttural g adds to the meaning the capacity of the throat.  The feathers and wings of birds are still drier and thinner leaves.  Thus， also， you pass from the lumpish grub in the earth to the airy and fluttering butterfly.  The very globe continually transcends and translates itself， and becomes winged in its orbit.  Even ice begins with delicate crystal leaves，as if it had flowed into moulds which the fronds of waterplants have impressed on the watery mirror.  The whole tree itself is but one leaf， and rivers are still vaster leaves whose pulp is intervening earth， and towns and cities are the ova of insects in their axils.

　　When the sun withdraws the sand ceases to flow， but in the morning the streams will start once more and branch and branch again into a myriad of others.  You here see perchance how blood-vessels are formed.  If you look closely you observe that first there pushes forward from the thawing mass a stream of softened sand with a drop-like point， like the ball of the finger， feeling its way slowly and blindly downward， until at last with more heat and moisture， as the sun gets higher， the most fluid portion， in its effort to obey the law to which the most inert also yields， separates from the latter and forms for itself a meandering channel or artery within that， in which is seen a little silvery stream glancing like lightning from one stage of pulpy leaves or branches to another， and ever and anon swallowed up in the sand.  It is wonderful how rapidly yet perfectly the sand organizes itself as it flows， using the best material its mass affords to form the sharp edges of its channel. Such are the sources of rivers.  In the silicious matter which the water deposits is perhaps the bony system， and in the still finer soil and organic matter the fleshy fibre or cellular tissue.  What is man but a mass of thawing clay？  The ball of the human finger is but a drop congealed.  The fingers and toes flow to their extent from the thawing mass of the body.  Who knows what the human body would expand and flow out to under a more genial heaven？  Is not the hand a spreading palm leaf with its lobes and veins？  The ear may be regarded， fancifully， as a lichen， umbilicaria， on the side of the head， with its lobe or drop.  The lip ―― labium， from labor （？） ――laps or lapses from the sides of the cavernous mouth.  The nose is a manifest congealed drop or stalactite.  The chin is a still larger drop， the confluent dripping of the face.  The cheeks are a slide from the brows into the valley of the face， opposed and diffused by the cheek bones.  Each rounded lobe of the vegetable leaf， too， is a thick and now loitering drop， larger or smaller； the lobes are the fingers of the leaf； and as many lobes as it has， in so many directions it tends to flow， and more heat or other genial influences would have caused it to flow yet farther.

　　除了觀察解凍的泥沙流下鐵路線的深溝陡坡的形態以外，再沒有什么現象更使我喜悅的了，我行路到村中去，總要經過那里，這一種形態，不是常常能夠看到像這樣大的規模的，雖然說，自從鐵路到處興建以來，許多新近曝露在外的鐵路路基都提供了這種合適的材料。

　　那材料是各種粗細不同的細沙，顏色也各不相同，往往還要包含一些泥土。當霜凍到了春天里又重新涌現的時候，甚至還在冬天冰雪未溶將溶的時候呢，沙子就開始流下陡坡了，好像火山的熔巖，有時還穿透了積雪而流了出來，泛濫在以前沒有見過沙子的地方。

　　無數這樣的小溪流，相互地疊起，交叉，展現出一種混合的產物，一半服從著流水的規律，一半又服從著植物的規律。因為它流下來的時候，那狀態頗像萌芽發葉，或藤蔓的蔓生，造成了許多軟漿似的噴射，有時深達一英尺或一英尺以上，你望它們的時候，形態像一些苔蘚的條裂的、有裂片的、疊蓋的葉狀體；或者，你會想到珊瑚，豹掌，或鳥爪，或人腦，或臟腑，或任何的分泌。這真是一種奇異的滋育，它們的形態和顏色，或者我們從青銅器上看到過模仿，這種建筑學的枝葉花簇的裝飾比古代的茛苕葉，菊苣，常春藤，或其他的植物葉更古，更典型；也許，在某種情形之下，會使得將來的地質學家百思不得其解了。這整個深溝給了我深刻的印象，好像這是一個山洞被打開而鐘乳石都曝露在陽光之下。沙子的各種顏色，簡直是豐富，悅目，包含了鐵的各種不同的顏色，棕色的，灰色的，黃色的，紅色的。當那流質到了路基腳下的排水溝里，它就平攤開來而成為淺灘，各種溪流已失去了它們的半圓柱形，越來越平坦而廣闊了，如果更濕潤一點，它們就更加混和在一起，直到它們形成了一個幾乎完全平坦的沙地，卻依舊有千變萬化的、美麗的色調，其中你還能看出原來的植物形態；直到后來，到了水里，變成了沙岸，像一些河口上所見的那樣，這時才失去植物的形態，而變為溝底的粼粼波紋。

　　整個鐵路路基約二十英尺到四十英尺高，有時給這種枝葉花簇的裝飾所覆蓋，或者說，這是細沙的裂痕吧，在其一面或兩面都有，長達四分之一英里，這便是一個春日的產品。這些沙泥枝葉的驚人之處，在于突然間就構成了。當我在路基的一面，因為太陽是先照射在一面的，看到的是一個毫無生氣的斜面，而另外的一面上，我卻看到了如此華麗的枝葉，它只是一小時的創造，我深深地被感動了，仿佛在一種特別的意義上來說，我是站在這個創造了世界和自己的大藝術家的畫室中，――跑到他正在繼續工作的地點去，他在這路基上嬉戲，以過多的精力到處畫下了他的新穎的圖案。我覺得我仿佛和這地球的內臟更加接近起來，因為流沙呈葉形體，像動物的心肺一樣。在這沙地上，你看到會出現葉子的形狀。難怪大地表現在外面的形式是葉形了，因為在它內部，它也在這個意念之下勞動著。原子已經學習了這個規律，而孕育在它里面了。高掛在樹枝上的葉子在這里看到它的原形了。無論在地球或動物身體的內部，都有潤濕的，厚厚的葉，這一個字特別適用于肝，肺和脂肪葉（它的字源，labor，lapsus，是飄流，向下流，或逝去的意思；globus，是1obe（葉），globe（地球）的意思；更可以化出lap（疊蓋），flap（扁寬之懸垂物）和許多別的字〕，而在外表上呢，一張干燥的薄薄的leaf（葉子），便是那f音，或V音，都是一個壓縮了的干燥的b音。葉片lobe這個字的輔音是lb，柔和的b音（單葉片的，B是雙葉片的）有流音l陪襯著，推動了它。在地球globe一個字的glb中，g這個喉音用喉部的容量增加了字面意義。鳥雀的羽毛依然是葉形的，只是更干燥，更薄了。這樣，你還可以從土地的粗笨的蠐螬進而看到活潑的，翩躚的蝴蝶。我們這個地球變幻不已，不斷地超越自己，它也在它的軌道上撲動翅膀。甚至冰也是以精致的晶體葉子來開始的，好像它流進一種模型翻印出來的，而那模型便是印在湖的鏡面上的水草的葉子。整個一棵樹，也不過是一張葉于，而河流是更大的葉子，它的葉質是河流中間的大地，鄉鎮和城市是它們的葉腋上的蟲卵。

　　而當太陽西沉時，沙停止了流動，一到早晨，這條沙溪卻又開始流動，一個支流一個支流地分成了億萬道川流。也許你可以從這里知道血管是如何形成的，如果你仔細觀察，你可以發現，起初從那溶解體中，有一道軟化的沙流，前面有一個水滴似的頂端，像手指的圓圓的突出部分，緩慢而又盲目地向下找路，直到后來因為太陽升得更高了，它也有了更多的熱力和水分，那流質的較大的部分就為了要服從那最呆滯的部分也服從的規律，和后者分離了，脫穎而出，自己形成了一道彎彎曲曲的渠道或血管，從中你可以看到一個銀色的川流，像閃電般地閃耀，從一段泥沙形成的枝葉，閃到另一段，而又總是不時地給細沙吞沒。神奇的是那些細沙流得既快，又把自己組織得極為完美，利用最好的材料來組成渠道的兩邊。河流的源遠流長正是這樣的一回事。大約骨骼的系統便是水分和硅所形成的，而在更精細的泥土和有機化合物上，便形成了我們的肌肉纖維或纖維細胞。人是什么，還不是一團溶解的泥上？人的手指足趾的頂點只是凝結了的一滴。

　　手指和足趾從身體的溶解體中流出，流到了它們的極限。在一個更富生機的環境之中，誰知道人的身體會擴張和流到如何的程度？手掌，可不也像一張張開的棕桐葉的有葉片和葉脈的嗎？耳朵，不妨想象為一種苔蘚，學名Umbilicaria，掛在頭的兩側，也有它的葉片似的耳垂或者滴。唇――字源labium，大約是從labor （勞動）化出來的――便是在口腔的上下兩邊疊著懸垂著的。鼻子，很明顯，是一個凝聚了的水滴，或鐘乳石。下巴是更大的一滴了，整個面孔的水滴匯合在這里。面頰是一個斜坡，從眉毛上向山谷降下，廣布在顴骨上。每一張草葉的葉片也是一滴濃厚的在緩緩流動的水滴，或大或小；葉片乃是葉的手指，有多少葉片，便說明它企圖向多少方向流動，如果它有更多的熱量或別種助長的影響，它就流得更加遠了。

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