4 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
the prince in the fairy tale, and when the sunbeam 
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 win- 
dow-pane, and in the bright, warm sunshine 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 is noth- 
ing more than a drop of jelly. 
Lastly, any one who has read the Wonderful Trav- 
elers 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 spectroscope, it will 
