322 Economy of Fuel. 
are almost too obvious to require to be seriously urged in argument, 
yet such is the force of habit, as to render most persons insensible to 
the justness of this distinction ; and to induce a supposition that actu- — 
al exposure to fire is the only means of maintaining a comfortable 
condition of body, and a cheerful state of mind. But, do we ever 
sigh for the spectacle of a glowing fire in the days of July, or the 
evenings of August? Do we, at that season, contend that the parlor 
is void of social attraction, because it has no brilliant grate, or the 
breakfast room cheerless, because no “ blazing hearth” is seen to 
greet our entrance? And why do we not shiver at the sight of a 
drawing room without its fire in summer, as well as in winter? Ob- 
viously, because the idea of discomfort is then in no way connected 
with the absence of firelight. And the same would be true of our 
apartments in winter, were we equally accustomed to be free from 
pain, and equally sure of beholding cheerful countenances around us, 
while removed from a sight of the process of combustion. So strong 
a prepossession has taken hold of many minds on this subject, that 
mere reasoning would probably not convince one in ten, that he would 
be able to endure a winter’s evening without a sight of the fire. But 
I have seldom seen an individual, who when present in.a room, oth-— 
erwise heated, did not actually soon forget his artificial w i t, and be- 
come not merely reconciled to the deprivation of a glowing fire, but 
actually delighted with the summer-like influence which prevailed 
around him. ‘05 eee 
But aside from the mere consideration of temperature and from 
its variableness, when governed by the action of fire within the apart- 
ment to be heated, there is, in the very pleasure which we faney to 
be found only in the sight of a fire, not unfrequently, an intermixture 
of pain and of peril, sufficient, one should suppose, to counterbalanee- 
all the good proposed by that peculiar arrangement of things. The 
eye is often pained and sometimes actually injured by the continued 
glare to which it is exposed. _ Resort is then had to screens or other 
defences to shield us from the blasting * excess of light” on which 1t 
has been our pleasure to fix our gaze. : o 
_ Again, the radiation of heat, at first grateful, is by degrees in — 
creased until not only the face but the whole person is found ina glow 
far beyond what the system Can safely endure. But the retreat 
which at length becomes necessary, is not always made until profuse 
perspiration has been induced, and then we remove to ® distance at 
which the radiation is almost unfelt and where its effects on the ait 
