[1] The nature of water in a little pool left on the sea-shore
by the receding tide is the same as in the great sea
itself; but from the little pool we cannot form any
conjecture as to the power of water when moving in mighty
waves. So with fire,--its nature is the same in a lighted
match and in a great conflagration such as reduced Chicago
to ashes; but how different its power in the two cases!
Scientific observers have left it on record, that while
watching that conflagration it was revealed to them for the
first time what power there is latent in fire, when massed
in a great body; when at its height, solid granite
buildings were consumed and passed away as if they had been
made of thin pasteboard.