THE REASON WHY. 



'The waters are laid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen." 

 JOB xxxviii. 



which influences every atom of the universe ; a spark which could invoke the 

 fierce agents of destruction to wrap their blasting flames around a stately 

 forest, or a crowded city, and sweep it from the face of the world ; or which 

 might kindle the genial blaze upon the homely hearth, and shed a radiant glow 

 upon a group of smiling faces ; a spark such as that which rises with the 

 curling smoke from the village blackmith's forge or that which leaps with 

 terrific wrath from the troubled breast of a Vesuvius. And then the tinder 

 the cotton the carbon : What a tale might be told of the cotton- field where it 

 grew, of the black slave who plucked it, of the white toiler who spun it into a 

 garment, and of the village beauty who wore it until, faded and despised, it 

 was cast amongst a heap of old rags, and finally found its way to the tinder- 

 box. Then the Tinder might tell of its hopes ; how, though now a blackened 

 mass, soiling everything that touched it, it would soon be wedded to one of the 

 great ministers of nature, and fly away on transparent wings, until, resting 

 upon some Alpine tree, it would make its home among the green leaves, and for 

 a while live in freshness a*)d beauty, louking down upon the peaceful vale. 

 Tlien the Steel might tell its story, how for centuries it lay in the deep caverns 

 of the earth, until man, with his unquiet spirit, dug down to the dark depths 

 and dragged it forth, saying, " No longer be at peace." Then would come tales 

 of the fiery furnace, what Fire had done for Steel, and what Steel had done for 

 Fire. And then the Flint might tell of the time when the weather-bound 

 mariners, lighting their fires upon the Syrian shore, melted silicious stones into 

 gems of glass, and thus led the way to the discovery of the transparent pane 

 that gives a crystal inlet to the light of our homes ; of the mirror in whose face 

 the lady contemplates her charms ; of the microscope and the telescope by 

 which the invisible are brought to sight, and the distant drawn near ; of the 

 prism by which Newton analysed the rays of light ; and of the photographic 

 camera iu which the sun prints with his own rays the pictures of his own 

 adorning. And then both Flint and Steel might relate their adventures in the 

 battle-field, whither they had gone together ; and of fights they had seen in 

 which man struck down his fello\v-man, and, like a fiend had revelled in his 

 brother's blood. Thus, even from the cold hearts of flint and steel, man might 

 learn a lesson which should make him blush at the " glory of war ;" and the 

 proud, who despise the teachings of small things, might learn to appreciate the 

 truths that are linked to the story of a " tinder-box." 



LESSON XVIL 



341. Since all bodies expand by Jieat and contract by cold, 

 why does water, when it reaches the freezing point, expand? 



Because, in freezing, water undergoes crystallization, in which its 

 particles assume a new arrangement occupying greater space. 



342. Why does water never freeze to a great depth ? 

 Because the covering of ice which is formed upon the surface of 



