ON THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF PARAFFIN. 67 



tance is four times as great as if it were two feet distant, 

 nine times as great as at three feet, sixteen times as great 

 as at four feet, one hundred times as great as at ten feet, 

 and so on. Hence the necessity of two or three great flames 

 in a gas chandelier suspended from the ceiling of a moderate- 

 sized room. 



In a sitting-room lighted thus with gas, we are obliged, 

 in order to read comfortably by the distant source of light, 

 to burn so much gas that the atmosphere of the room is 

 seriously polluted by the products of this extravagant com- 

 bustion. A lamp at a moderate distance say eighteen 

 inches or two feet, or thereabouts will enable us to read 

 or work with one-tenth to one-twentieth the amount of 

 combustion, and therefore Avith so much less vitiation of 

 the atmosphere, and, if we use a paraffin lamp, at much 

 less expense. 



But the chief value of the paraffin lamp is felt where gas 

 is not obtainable in the country mansion or villa, the 

 farmhouse, and, most of all, in the poor man's cottage. 

 We have Bible Societies for providing cheap Bibles; we 

 have cheap standard works, cheap magazines, cheap news- 

 papers, etc.; but all these are unavailable to the poor man 

 until he can get a good and cheap light wherewith to read 

 them at the. only time he has for reading, viz., in the even- 

 ings, when his work is done. One shilling's worth of cheap 

 literature will require two shillings' worth of dear candles 

 to supply the light necessary for reading it. Therefore, the 

 cheapening of light has quite as much to do with the poor 

 man's intellectual progress as the cheapening of books and 

 periodicals. 



For a man to read comfortably, and his wife to do her 

 needlework, they must have a candle for each, if dependent 

 on tallow dips. They may, and do, struggle on with one 

 such candle, but the inconvenience soon sickens them of 

 their occupation ; the man lolls out for an idle stroll, soon 

 encounters a far more bright and cheerful room than the 

 gloomy one he has just left, and, moth-like, he is attracted 

 by the light, and finishes up his evening in the public- 

 house. 



We may preach, we may lecture, we may coax, wheedle, 



