240 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



"learned Thebans." The Diary would have afforded 

 a ready and concise solution of the difficulty. Con- 

 sidering, however, that I am one of the great majority 

 of those who do certainly " suppose " that the dew 

 rises ; moreover, remaining firmly convinced that such 

 is the fact ; the only apology I can offer for not yielding 

 imphcitly to Mr. Smith's positive assertion, that it falls, 

 will be found in the work to which I have alluded ; and 

 as every one who condescends to read this, may not be 

 fortified with such a volume at his elbow, I will make 

 brief extracts of that which bears immediately upon the 

 point. 



Dr. Dufay " supposed, that, if the dew ascended, it 

 must wet a body placed low down, sooner than one 

 placed in a higher situation ; and if a number of bodies 

 were placed in this manner, the lowermost would be 

 wetted first ; and the rest, in like manner, up to the 

 top." No very unnatural supposition this, for any 

 Frenchman or Englishman to have made; but let us 

 see how sets the Doctor about the work of proving his 

 hypothesis. He probably knew little enough of a five- 

 barred gate ; at all events, it did not occur to him ; per- 

 haps he might not have satisfied himself with it if it 

 had ; so, " to determine this, he placed two ladders 

 against one another, meeting at their tops, spreading 

 wide asunder at the bottom, and so tall as to reach 

 thirty-two feet high. To the several steps of these he 



