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ON FIRE. 



The ancients had very inaccurate ideas of this element: they 

 viewed it with a degree of reverential awe, and attributed to it 

 the principle of life and animation. In some of the nations of an- 

 tiquity it w^as reverenced as the supreme Deity; and was wor- 

 shipped by the Egyptians and the Greeks under the name of 

 Vulcan. The fire worshippers near the Persian gulf make it the 

 object of their adoration at the present day; and it is to the power 

 of kindling and controlling fire that man owes his first and last 

 superiority. Fire protects the savage from the lion, and gives 

 motion to the steam engine. Nothing in nature exceeds ihe vio- 

 lent effects of fire; and the extreme rapidity with which ignited 

 particles are put in motion is altogether astonishing. But how 

 few people observe these effecis, or think them worthy of their 

 attention! Yet every day, in the midst of our domestic affairs, 

 we experience the beneficial influence of fire; but perhaps on this 

 very account we are less attentive. Were it not for the fire which 

 cheers us in winter, a great portion of our time must be passed in 

 dreary darkness; without artificial light all our occupations and 

 our amusements must cease with the departing sun; we should be 

 obliged to remain at rest,' or to wander with uncertainty and dan- 

 ger in the midnight gloom. Think upon the hardness of our fate 

 had we been condemned to pass the long evenings of winter 

 without the enjoyments ofsociety, and those superior sources of 

 pleasure and instruction derived from reading and writing. How 

 many of the productions of the earth would be useless to us were 

 they not softened and prepared by means of fire? If fire was not 

 had recourse to by artists, how many necessities would be unpro- 

 vided for, and of what benefits should we not be deprived! With- 

 out this element we should not be able to give to our garments 

 the brilliancy of the scarlet, nor the splendor of the purple; our 

 metals, incapable of being melted, would remain useless in the 

 depths of the earth; glass could not be formed from the sand: the 

 beautiful utensils now in common use could not have been fash- 

 ioned from the yielding clay; nor could our stately edifices rear 

 their tops among the clouds, and bid defiance to the elements. 

 Without fire, in vain would nature teem with riches: all her trea- 

 sures would be useless, and her charms of no avail. But we 

 have no necessity to traverse nature to prove the blessing of fire; 

 let us return from our flight, and contemplate our own apartment. 

 Here the fire diffiises a genial warmth over the whole room, and 

 the air is rendered mild. Without the stimulating influence of 



