CHAPTER IV. 



WHAT WE OWE TO THE SUN. 



SOME of my readers may think that the subject on which 

 we have been engaged is rather abstruse, and they will 

 perhaps be willing to meditate a little on the simpler 

 matter as to what the sun actually does for us. 



A few years ago it was my privilege to deliver at the 

 Royal Institution of Great Britain a Christmas course of 

 lectures addressed to an audience consisting mainly of 

 juveniles. In discoursing of the sun I endeavoured to 

 set before them the many indirect benefits which we de- 

 rive from his beams, and as an illustration taken from 

 domestic affairs I dwelt on the kindly providence with 

 which the sun ministers to our tea-table. I showed how 

 the heat of the fire came ultimately from sunbeams, how 

 the tea was wafted from China by the sun, how the water 

 for the kettle was brought into our house by solar rays, 

 how the flour was grown and ground by the same agency. 

 I even pointed out that it was the sun which gave white- 

 ness to the tablecloth and bright colours for the ladies' 

 dresses. I do not now refer further to these matters, for 

 they have been recently set forth in my little book called 



