THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 13 
no lack of objects, everything around you will tell 
some history if touched with the fairy wand of ima- 
gination. I have often thought, when seeing some 
sickly child drawn along the street, lying on its back 
while other children romp and play, how much hap- 
piness might be given to sick children at home or in 
hospitals, if only they were told the stories which lie 
hidden in the things around them. They need not 
even move from their beds, for sunbeams can fall on 
them there, and in a sunbeam there are stories enough 
to occupy a month. The fire in the grate, the lamp 
by the bedside, the water in the tumbler, the fly on 
the ceiling above, the flower in the vase on the table, 
anything, everything, has its history, and can reveal 
to us nature's invisible fairies. 
Only you must wish to see them. If you go 
through the world looking upon everything only as 
so much to eat, to drink, and to use, you will never 
see the fairies of science. But if you ask yourself why 
things happen, and how the great God above us has 
made and governs this world of ours ; if you listen to 
the wind, and care to learn why it blows ; if you ask 
the little flower why it opens in the sunshine and 
closes in the storm ; and if when you find questions 
you cannot answer, you will take the trouble to hunt 
out in books, or make experiments, to solve your own 
questions, then you will learn to know and love those 
fairies. 
Mind, I do not advise you to be constantly asking 
questions of other people ; for often a question quickly 
answered is quickly forgotten, but a difficulty really 
hunted down is a triumph for ever. For example, 
