Farraday amazes us by his statement of the energy required to embroider a violet or produce a strawberry.

To untwist the sunbeam and extract the rich strawberry red, to refine the sugar, and mix its flavor, represents heat sufficient to run an engine from Liverpool to London or from Chicago to Detroit.

But because nature does her work noiselessly we must not forget that each of her gifts also involves tremendous expenditure.
This law of vicarious service holds equally in the intellectual world.
The author buys his poem or song with his life-blood.

While traveling north from London midst a heavy snow-storm, Lord Bacon descended from his coach to stuff a fowl with snow to determine whether or not ice would preserve flesh.

With his life the philosopher purchased for us the principle that does so much to preserve our fruits and foods through the summer's heat and lend us happiness and comfort.