4 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
before the prince in the fairy tale, and when the sun- 
beam gently kisses the frozen water it will be set 
free. Then the brook will flow rippling on again ; 
the frost-drops will be shaken down from the trees, 
the icicles fall from the roof, the moisture trickle 
down the window-pane, and in the bright, warm sun- 
shine all will be alive again. 
Is not this a fairy tale of nature ? and such as these 
it is which science tells. 
Again, who has not heard of Catskin, who came 
out of a hollow tree, bringing a walnut containing 
three beautiful dresses the first glowing as the sun, 
the second pale and beautiful as the moon, the third 
spangled like the star-lit sky, and each so fine and 
delicate that all three could be packed in a nut ? But 
science can tell of shells so tiny that a whole group 
of them will lie on the point of a pin, and many 
thousands be packed into a walnut-shell ; and each 
one of these tiny structures is not the mere dress but 
the home of a living animal. It is a tiny, tiny shell- 
palace made of the most delicate lacework, each pat- 
tern being more beautiful than the last ; and what is 
more, the minute creature that lives in it has built it 
out of the foam of the sea, though he himself appears 
to be merely a drop of jelly. 
Lastly, anyone who has read the ' Wonderful Tra- 
vellers ' must recollect the man whose sight was so 
keen that he could hit the eye of a fly sitting on a 
tree two miles away. But tell me, can you see 
gas before it is lighted, even when it is coming 
out of the gas-jet close to your eyes ? Yet, if you 
learn to use that wonderful instrument the spectro- 
