60 Transactions of the. 



then gives us the splendour of its light. The combustion of a 

 candle is in principle the same as that of a jet of gas. Here we 

 have a rod of wax or tallow through which passes a cotton-wick. 

 You ignite the wick, it burns, melts the tallow at its base, the 

 liquid ascends through the wick by capillary attraction, it is con- 

 verted by the heat into vapour, and this vapour is a hydro-carbon 

 which burns exactly like gas. In this case, also, you have unburnt 

 vapour within, common air without, while between both is a shell 

 which forms the battle-ground of the clashing atoms, where they 

 develop their light and heat.' 



Whether we consider the flame of 'the candle, of the gas-jet, or 

 of the fire, in each of these familiar forms there is the same weird 

 beauty which baffles description. A strange sensation, almost 

 amounting to awe, comes over us as we watch the flickering blaze 

 of the fire, which, as it now leaps up with sudden rush, licks in 

 playful fury the chimney sides, and sinks back till we almost lose 

 it in the red glow beneath, is a fitting symbol of the soul of man ; 

 for it, too, we see now to aspire upward to the very heaven in its 

 eftbrts, and now to sink back to the level of its earthly frame. 

 To us the flame is bound not only by such aesthetical ties, but 

 by ties of love, for in it we see the symbol of domestic life, and 

 assuredly the family hearth is the altar of domestic happiness. 

 To the ancients such feelings were almost unknown ; with them 

 it was not so much its beauty, but its grandeur, which won for 

 fire the veneration with which it was regarded. Their worship 

 was not dictated by feelings of love, but of fear ; and it was, 

 doubtless, owing to its awe-inspiring character that fire, one of 

 the grandest agents of nature, held its sway over the ancients, 

 ignorant as they were as to its true nature. 



It was regarded amongst most nations in an early period of the 

 world's history either as the creator and productive cause of all 

 things, or, at least, as the substance from which the Creator pro- 

 duced all things. Hence the Persians, Ethiopians, Scythians, and 

 Carthaginians in the old world, and the Mexicans and Peruvians 

 in the new, paid divine honours to fire itself, or to the sun, which 

 was regarded as the sublimest representation of this element. 

 Throughout Egypt, Pyrea, or temples dedicated to fire, were 

 erected at the institution of Zoroaster, To Vesta, temples in 

 every Roman and Grecian city were erected, in which a lambent 

 flame was perpetually burning upon the altar. Nor was this 

 veneration for fire confined to the Pagan nations of the world. 

 The Hebrews were early led to associate their ideas of the Deity 

 with its presence, on account of the numerous manifestations of 

 His presence under this symbol, so that, ever anxious to preserve it 

 in a pure and active flame upon the national altar, we are told in 



