and may be made a very pleasant one. Many a boy is cheated into knowledge. I recollect reading of some idle fellows who cleared a large field of stones, by being persuaded to throw them at a mark placed in a waste piece of ground near it. The work was done while they fancied it was all play. We shall see this evening, if we can persuade you to feel interested in a subject which, as a school task, you might think excessively dry and wearisome.

Willie. A dry subject! Surely not the Glass of Water?

Mr. Young. "You lie at the catch, Willie," as old Bunyan says. No; not that; but one connected with it. We found in speaking of water that fire existed before it; and this fire it is alleged by some, assumed at first a diffused or gaseous form, called rather ambiguously a "Fire Mist."†

Willie. A Fire Mist?

Mr. Young. Yes, a Fire Mist. But first of all, to put you in good humour, let me read you what Disraeli says about this Fire Mist. He is ridiculing a superficial, but somewhat popular work, entitled "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," in which this theory is developed, under the assumed title of Revelations of Chaos."

(Reads.) "After making herself very agreeable, Lady Constance took up a book which was at hand, and said, 'Do you know this ?'"

"Tancred opening a volume which he had never seen, and then turning to its title page, found it was, "The Revelations of Chaos," a startling work just published, and of which a rumour had reached him.

"No," he replied, "I have not seen it."

"I will lend it to you, if you like: it is one of those books one must read. It explains everything, and is written in a very agreeable style."

+ These words in their common and universal acceptation convey no clear, intelligible idea; for our general idea of a mist is that of vapor of water suspended in atmospheric air by heat. But we will suppose that these words imply vapor of fire-fire or heat in the vaporous state, or some undefinable gaseous substance whose particles are endued with mutual attraction, impregnated with a vast amount of heat.-Wallis's Brief Examination of the Nebulous Hypothesis. 1845. p. 7.

"It explains everything ?” said Tancred: “it must indeed be a very remarkable book.”

“I think it will just suit you,” said Lady Constaace. "Do you know I thought so several times while I was reading it."

"To judge from the title, the subject is rather obscure," said Tancred.

"No longer so," said Lady Constance: "it is treated scientifically; everything is explained by geology and astronomy, and in that way. It shows you exactly how a star was formed-nothing can be so pretty! A cluster of vapor-the cream of the Milky Way-a sort of celestial cheese, churned into light. You must read it; it's charming."

"Nobody ever saw a star formed," said Tancred.

"Perhaps not. You must read the 'Revelations,' it is all explained."

"But what is most interesting is the way in which man is 'developed.' You know, all is 'Development.' The principle is perpetually going on. First there was-Nothing. Then there was-Something. Then (I forget the next) I think there were shells, then fishes: then we came. Let me seedid we come next? Never mind that; we came at last. And the next change there will be something very superior to us— something with wings! Ah! that's it; we were fishes; and, I believe we shall be crows! But you must read it."

All (laughing.) We must. Or, perhaps, sir, you will tell us more about it?

Mr. Young. I am afraid your courage might fail, before you got far into it. You will not find it quite so smart and racy as this critique. But I will do my best to give you an idea of it. Its author, who is nameless, though not unknown, supposes this fire-vapor to be set in motion round its centre. As it spins upon its axis, it takes a globular form, but, presently, by revolving too fast, throws off a portion of its outer margin, which forms a ring around it, like that which encircles Saturn.

This ring snaps asunder, and the broken parts contracting, become separate globes, and go on spinning round their common centre, as well as each upon its own axis.

Albert. Does he explain this theory by any experiment? Mr. Young. Yes. By a very elaborate one, performed,

as he says, by a M. Plateau, of Ghent. You can read the account of it at your leisure; but a penny will enable you, at any time, to perform a better. If you will follow me into the hall in a few minutes, you shall judge for yourselves.

Mr. Young quitted the room, and in a short time returned, to summon his young charge. The place was in total darkness. A slight snapping sound was heard-a little flash of light followed, and then a small speck of fire became visible upon the pannelled wainscot at the further end of that old room. The whole process was so rapid, that the boys were scarcely aware of the nature of the experiment, till a wheel of fire whisked leisurely round at first, and then started off at railroad speed, whizzing, and throwing out little balls of fire that twirled round in imitation of their parent, from whom they seemed, like Jeremy Taylor's lark, to have "learned music and motion;" and finally, falling to the ground, sputtered, and leapt, and rolled about till they became suddenly extinct.

66

Why, it's a Catherine Wheel!" exclaimed the young folks, amidst bursts of laughter.

Mr. Young. It is; but a vast deal of philosophy may be learned from fireworks. You saw in this experiment almost all the facts on which this infidel theory of the universe has been set up. The circle of fire grew wider and wider as the swiftness of its rotation increased, till at length the outer portion of it became almost detached from it, a thin film, or pellicle of fire, through which you could distinctly see the wainscot behind it, being the only bond of union between them. In the experiment of M. Plateau, a liquid globe of oil, like the yolk of an egg, was by some means or other suspended in a glass box, filled with water, to which just enough alcohol had been added to reduce its specific gravity to that of the oil. This yolk was then whirled round rapidly. Presently its poles flattened; its circumference spread out; and at last, a ring of oil was detached from it, just as the ring of fire was, in our Catherine Wheel. When this ring of oil broke up, the little globes it formed, spun round upon their own axes like the little lighted masses thrown off from our firework, so that with this only difference, that our philosopher went the longest

and most difficult way to work, the two experiments were almost alike.

Willie. I thought this great man meant to prove that our universe was manufactured from fire; but his experiments were in oil and water.

Mr. Young. Yes. I can't help thinking the idea of a Catherine Wheel must have first suggested itself. But philosophers are not like other people. The mere trundling of a mop would, else, have furnished all the facts he has arrived at. A late wit used to call macaroni, "tobacco pipes made easy.” We might in the same spirit call this Frenchman's experiment, “ Mop-trundling made complex." Our author soon forgets all that was original in his theory-the Fire Mist; and flies off at once from the matter, to the manner of creation.

The play of Hamlet, with the part of Hamlet omitted, comes across my mind whenever I think of this wonderful book. The process of manufacturing the universe as its author describes it, could have been as well performed in water, or in oil, as M. Plateau performed it, and yet our author seems to make this process the basis of his system. His argument seems to be this: because the universe could be made in the same way from water, it must have been made from fire-from fire in a state of vapor!

Truth, my boys, is so fearless and invulnerable, that we may, however, fairly grant him what he has failed to prove. The anatomy and history of our earth, and of other planets, make it very likely that fire, as a moulding and transforming agent, existed before water. Still, the difficulty of dispensing with a Creator is the same. Fire, supposing even that it wants nothing to feed upon, is as much matter as water is. Caloric, the cause of heat, is considered to be an "existent and material fluid,”* and light, one of its developments, is believed to consist of molecules, and to obey the same laws as the gases. that luminous vapor, from which the universe is supposed to have sprung, must have been material. After promising to shew how all things came from nothing, the author of the Vestiges" coolly asks us to grant him Matter to begin with.

If so,

* Prout's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 49.

+ Ibid, p. 71.

Willie. And Motion, too. For the Fire Mist is spinning round and round, when he introduces it.

Mr. Young. Yes-and motion, too. But, by and bye, he makes a larger claim still: he cannot do without Life as well. So, with matter, motion, and life, granted him, he need have little difficulty in carrying out his system.

Albert. O leave him with his Fire Mist; and let us go back to our Glass of Water.

Mr. Young. Very well. We will begin its history where the Bible begins it: at all events, we shall be safe there. In the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The facts of geology, though they lead us to believe that fire was the first of secondary causes at work in our globe, are not in any way opposed to the system of Moses. The earth was built up from old materials: it was not first made at what we usually call the "The Creation." The earth "was," the darkness "was," the deep or ocean "was,” and had been for we know not how long a period, in existence. The waters were, then, only "gathered together," not created; the dry land was called upon merely to "appear;" not to leap into existence out of nothing. So you see, boys, there is no contradiction whatever between the well-grounded inferences of geologists, that our world was once red-hot, and the fact that a few thousand years ago, it was covered by the waters of the Great Deep.

WHAT THE BIBLE DOES.

THE national character must ever depend upon the free independent use of the Scriptures-this is strictly a protestant principle. It cannot co-here with Romanism. Whenever such right, by that system seems to be allowed, it is with evasiveness which makes us doubt its sincerity; it is with a supervision which makes us suspect its good will; it is with a reserve which makes us distrust its truth. No vernacular has it catholically sanctioned. Diocesan and provincial licence there may be, but then it is at the pleasure of the spiritual director of