MORNING DEW. 193 



on the top ; for while the water in the air is invisi- 

 ble vapour, and floats in the air, it must go with the 

 air wherever that goes ; and though it is under an 

 inverted basin on the grass, there is no reason, if 

 the surface cools as rapidly, why there should not 

 be dew there as well as anywhere else. If, indeed, 

 the basin is inverted before sunset, there should be, 

 and really there is, more dew there than upon the 

 same surface of the exposed grass. Take a large 

 flower-pot, and turn it down a little before sunset, 

 and leave it a little after sunrise, on the same spot, 

 for a week, and you will find a circle of stronger 

 and greener grass than that around. Even if you 

 keep the pot constantly on the place till the grass 

 becomes yellow, you will find that it is light that 

 has been wanting, and not moisture. Every gar- 

 dener knows that fact, and acts practically upon it, 

 when he turns down a flower-pot over his pipings 

 of pink 1 : or carnations to make them strike, by nour- 

 ishing them with the gentle dew which their own 

 cool leaves melt out of the warmer air. A shady 

 tree will refresh a man with dew when he escapes 

 from the burning sun, even though he be so hot 

 that that dew is evaporated again before it touches 

 him. 



The dew forms into beautiful drops on those 

 surfaces between which and it there is a sort of 

 repulsion. Vegetable leaves when in action have 

 that quality, and hence the beauty of the morning 

 dew on the grass. If those who are fond of looking 

 at gems would get up in the morning, when the dew- 

 drops are large on the grass, and the sun's rays low 

 and slanting, they would, by just sitting or standing 

 a few minutes with their back to the sun, get a 

 gratis sight of a far finer casket than any monarch 

 on earth can boast of possessing. Many people 

 make a boast of having been at court, and having 

 seen the queen in her jewels ; but if they would get 

 up in time, they might, almost any sunny morning, 

 R 



