One picture more, and then I hope you will believe in my fairies.
From the cold garden, you run into the house, and find the fire
laid indeed in the grate, but the wood dead and the coals black,
waiting to be lighted. You strike a match, and soon there is a
blazing fire. Where does the heat come from? Why do the coals
burn and give out a glowing light? Have you not read of gnomes
buried down deep in the earth, in mines, and held fast there till
some fairy wand has released them, and allowed them to come to
earth again? Well, thousands and millions of years ago, those
coals were plants; and like the snowdrop in the garden of to-day,
they caught the sunbeams and worked them into their leaves. Then
the plants died and were buried deep in the earth and the
sunbeams with them; and like the gnomes they lay imprisoned till
the coals were dug out by the miners, and brought to your grate;
and just now you yourself took hold of the fairy wand which was
to release them. You struck a match, and its atoms clashing with
atoms of oxygen in the air, set the invisible fairies "heat" and
"chemical attraction" to work, and they were soon busy within the
wood and the coals causing their atoms too to clash; and the
sunbeams, so long imprisoned, leapt into flame. Then you spread
out your hands and cried, "Oh, how nice and warm!" and little
thought that you were warming yourself with the sunbeams of ages
and ages ago.
This is no fancy tale; it is literally true, as we shall see in
Lecture VIII, that the warmth of a coal fire could not exist if
the plants of long ago had not used the sunbeams to make their
leaves, holding them ready to give up their warmth again whenever
those crushed leaves are consumed.
Now, do you believe in, and care for, my fairy-land? Can you see
in your imagination fairy 'Cohesion' ever ready to lock atoms
together when they draw very near to each other: or fairy
'Gravitation' dragging rain-drops down to the earth: or the fairy
of 'Crystallization' building up the snow-flakes in the clouds?
Can you picture tiny sunbeam-waves of light and heat travelling
from the sun to the earth? Do you care to know how another
strange fairy, 'Electricity,' flings the lightning across the sky
and causes the rumbling thunder? Would you like to learn how the
sun makes pictures of the world on which he shines, so that we
can carry about with us photographs or sun-pictures of all the
beautiful scenery of the earth? And have you any curiosity about
'Chemical action,' which works such wonders in air, and land, and
sea? If you have any wish to know and make friends of these
invisible forces, the next question is
How are you to enter the fairy-land of science?
There is but one way. Like the knight or peasant in the fairy
tales, you must open you eyes. There is no lack of objects,
everything around you will tell some history if touched with the
fairy wand of imagination. 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 happiness 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 with 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, if you ask why the rain dries up from the
ground, most likely you will be answered, "that the sun dries
it," and you will rest satisfied with the sound of the words.
But if you hold a wet handkerchief before the fire and see the
damp rising out of it, then you have some real idea how moisture
may be drawn up by heat from the earth.
A little foreign niece of mine, only four years old, who could
scarcely speak English plainly, was standing one morning near the
bedroom window and she noticed the damp trickling down the
window-pane. "Auntie," she said, "what for it rain inside?" It
was quite useless to explain to her in words, how our breath had
condensed into drops of water upon the cold glass; but I wiped
the pane clear, and breathed on it several times. When new drops
were formed, I said, "Cissy and auntie have done like this all
night in the room." She nodded her little head and amused
herself for a long time breathing on the window-pane and watching
the tiny drops; and about a month later, when we were travelling
back to Italy, I saw her following the drops on the carriage
window with her little finger, and heard her say quietly to
herself, "Cissy and auntie made you." Had not even this little
child some real picture in her mind of invisible water coming
from her mouth, and making drops upon the window-pane?
Then again, you must learn something of the language of science.
If you travel in a country with no knowledge of its language, you
can learn very little about it: and in the same way if you are to
go to books to find answers to your questions, you must know
something of the language they speak. You need not learn hard
scientific names, for the best books have the fewest of these,
but you must really understand what is meant by ordinary words.
For example, how few people can really explain the difference
between a solid, such as the wood of the table; a liquid, as
water; and a gas, such as I can let off from this gas-jet by
turning the tap. And yet any child can make a picture of this in
his mind if only it has been properly put before him.
All matter in the world is made up of minute parts or particles;
in a solid these particles are locked together so tightly that
you must tear them forcibly apart if you with to alter the shape
of the solid piece. If I break or bend this wood I have to force
the particles to move round each other, and I have great
difficulty doing it. But in a liquid, though the particles are
still held together, they do not cling so tightly, but are able
to roll or glide round each other, so that when you pour water
out of a cup on to a table, it loses its cuplike shape and
spreads itself out flat. Lastly, in a gas the particles are no
longer held together at all, but they try to fly away from each
other; and unless you shut a gas in tightly and safely, it will
soon have spread all over the room.
A solid, therefore, will retain the same bulk and shape unless
you forcibly alter it; a liquid will retain the same bulk, but no
the same shape if it be left free; a gas will not retain either
the same bulk or the same shape, but will spread over as large a
space as it can find wherever it can penetrate. Such simple
things as these you must learn from books and by experiment.
Then you must understand what is meant by chemical attraction;
and though I can explain this roughly here, you will have to make
many interesting experiments before you will really learn to know
this wonderful fairy power. If I dissolve sugar in water, though
it disappears it still remains sugar, and does not join itself to
the water. I have only to let the cup stand till the water
dries, and the sugar will remain at the bottom. There has been
no chemical attraction here.
But now I will put something else in water which will call up the
fairy power. Here is a little piece of the metal potassium, one
of the simple substances of the earth; that is to say, we cannot
split it up into other substances, wherever we find it, it is
always the same. Now if I put this piece of potassium on the
water it does not disappear quietly like the sugar. See how it
rolls round and round, fizzing violently with a blue flame
burning round it, and at last goes off with a pop.
What has been happening here?
You must first know that water is made of two substances,
hydrogen and oxygen, and these are not merely held together, but
are joined to completely that they have lost themselves and have
become water; and each atom of water is made of two atoms of
hydrogen and one of oxygen.
Now the metal potassium is devotedly fond of oxygen, and the
moment I threw it on the water it called the fairy "chemical
attraction' to help it, and dragged the atoms of oxygen out of
the water and joined them to itself. In doing this it also
caught part of the hydrogen, but only half, and so the rest was
left out in the cold. No, not in the cold! for the potassium and
oxygen made such a great heat in clashing together that the rest
of the hydrogen became very hot indeed, and sprang into the air
to find some other companion to make up for what it had lost.
Here it found some free oxygen floating about, and it seized upon
it so violently, that they made a burning flame, while the
potassium with its newly found oxygen and hydrogen sank down
quietly into the water as potash. And so you see we have got
quite a new substance potash in the basin; made with a great deal
of fuss by chemical attraction drawing different atoms together.
When you can really picture this power to yourself it will help
you very much to understand what you read and observe about
nature.
Next, as plants grow around you on every side, and are of so much
importance in the world, you must also learn something of the
names of the different parts of a flower, so that you may
understand those books which explain how a plant grows and lives
and forms its seeds. You must also know the common names of the
parts of an animal, and of your own body, so that you may be
interested in understanding the use of the different organs; how
you breathe, and how your blood flows; how one animal walks,
another flies, and another swims. Then you must learn something
of the various parts of the world, so that you may know what is
meant by a river, a plain, a valley, or a delta. All these
things are not difficult, you can learn them pleasantly from
simple books on physics, chemistry, botany, physiology, and
physical geography; and when you understand a few plain
scientific terms, then all by yourself, if you will open your
eyes and ears, you may wander happily in the fairy-land of
science. Then wherever you go you will find
"Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
And now we come to the last part of our subject. When you have
reached and entered the gates of science, how are you to use and
enjoy this new and beautiful land?
This is a very important question for you may make a twofold use
of it. If you are only ambitious to shine in the world, you may
use it chiefly to get prizes, to be at the top of your class, or
to pass in examinations; but if you also enjoy discovering its
secrets, and desire to learn more and more of nature and to revel
in dreams of its beauty, then you will study science for its own
sake as well. Now it is a good thing to win prizes and be at the
top of your class, for it shows that you are industrious; it is a
good thing to pass well in examinations , for it show that you
are accurate; but if you study science for this reason only, do
not complain if you find it full, and dry, and hard to master.
You may learn a great deal that is useful, and nature will answer
you truthfully if you ask you questions accurately, but she will
give you dry facts, just such as you ask for. If you do not love
her for herself she will never take you to her heart.
This is the reason why so many complain that science is dry and
uninteresting. They forget that though it is necessary to learn
accurately, for so only we can arrive at truth, it is equally
necessary to love knowledge and make it lovely to those who
learn, and to do this we must get at the spirit which lies under
the facts. What child which loves its mother's face is content
to know only that she has brown eyes, a straight nose, a small
mouth, and hair arranged in such and such a manner? No, it knows
that its mother has the sweetest smile of any woman living; that
her eyes are loving, her kiss is sweet, and that when she looks
grave, then something is wrong which must be put right. And it
is in this way that those who wish to enjoy the fairy-land of
science must love nature.
It is well to know that when a piece of potassium is thrown on
water the change which takes place is expressed by the formula K +
H2O = KHO + H. But it is better still to have a mental picture of
the tiny atoms clasping each other, and mingling so as to make a
new substance, and to feel how wonderful are the many changing
forms of nature. It is useful to be able to classify a flower and
to know that the buttercup belongs to the Family Ranunculaceae,
with petals free and definite, stamens hypogynous and indefinite,
pistil apocarpous. But it is far sweeter to learn about the life
of the little plant, to understand why its peculiar flower is
useful to it, and how it feeds itself, and makes its seed. No one
can love dry facts; we must clothe them with real meaning and love
the truths they tell, if we wish to enjoy science.
Let us take an example to show this. I have here a branch of
white coral, a beautiful, delicate piece of nature's work. We
will begin by copying a description of it from one of those
class-books which suppose children to learn words like parrots,
and to repeat them with just as little understanding.
"Coral is formed by an animal belonging to the kingdom of
Radiates, sub-kingdom Polypes. The soft body of the animal is
attached to a support, the mouth opening upwards in a row of
tentacles. The coral is secreted in the body of the polyp out of
the carbonate of lime in the sea. Thus the coral animalcule
rears its polypidom or rocky structure in warm latitudes, and
constructs reefs or barriers round islands. It is limited in
rage of depth from 25 to 30 fathoms. Chemically considered,
coral is carbonate of like; physiologically, it is the skeleton
of an animal; geographically, it is characteristic of warm
latitudes, especially of the Pacific Ocean." This description is
correct, and even fairly complete, if you know enough of the
subject to understand it. But tell me, does it lead you to love
my piece of coral? Have you any picture in your mind of the
coral animal, its home, or its manner of working?
But now, instead of trying to master this dry, hard passage, take
Mr. Huxley's penny lecture on 'Coral and Coral Reefs,' and with
the piece of coral in your hand try really to learn its history.
You will then be able to picture to yourself the coral animal as
a kind of sea-anemone, something like those which you have often
seen, like red, blue, or green flowers, putting out feelers in
sea-water on our coasts, and drawing in the tiny sea-animals to
digest them in that bag of fluid which serves the sea-anemone as
a stomach. You will learn how this curious jelly animal can
split itself in two, and so form two polyps, or send a bud out of
its side and so grow up into a kind of "tree or bush of polyps,"
or how it can hatch little eggs inside it and throw out young
ones from its mouth, provided with little hairs, by means of
which they swim to new resting-places. You will learn the
difference between the animal which builds up the red coral as
its skeleton, and the group of animals which build up the white;
and you will look with new interest on our piece of white coral,
as you read that each of those little sups on its stem with
delicate divisions like the spokes of a wheel has been the home
of a separate polyp, and that from the sea-water each little
jelly animal has drunk in carbonate of lime as you drink in sugar
dissolved in water, and then has used it grain by grain to build
that delicate cup and add to the coral tree.
We cannot stop to examine all about coral now, we are only
learning how to learn, but surely our specimen is already
beginning to grow interesting; and when you have followed it out
into the great Pacific Ocean, where the wild waves dash
restlessly against the coral trees, and have seen these tiny
drops of jelly conquering the sea and building huge walls of
stone against the rough breakers, you will hardly rest till you
know all their history. Look at that curious circular island in
the picture, covered with palm trees; it has a large smooth lake
in the middle, and the bottom of this lake is covered with blue,
red, and green jelly animals, spreading out their feelers in the
water and looking like beautiful flowers, and all round the
outside of the island similar animals are to be seen washed by
the sea waves. Such islands as this have been build entirely by
the coral animals, and the history of the way in which the reefs
have sunk gradually down, as the tiny creatures added to them
inch by inch, is as fascinating as the story of the building of
any fairy palace in the days of old. Read all this, and then if
you have no coral of your own to examine, go to the British
Museum and see the beautiful specimens in the glass cases there,
and think that they have been built up under the rolling surf by
the tiny jelly animals; and then coral will become a real living
thing to you, and you will love the thoughts it awakens.
But people often ask, what is the use of learning all this? If
you do not feel by this time how delightful it is to fill your
mind with beautiful pictures of nature, perhaps it would be
useless to say more. But in this age of ours, when restlessness
and love of excitement pervade so many lives, is it nothing to be
taken out of ourselves and made to look at the wonders of nature
going on around us? Do you never feel tired and "out of sorts,"
and want to creep away from your companions, because they are
merry and you are not? Then is the time to read about the
starts, and how quietly they keep their course from age to age;
or to visit some little flower, and ask what story it has to
tell; or to watch the clouds, and try to imagine how the winds
drive them across the sky. No person is so independent as he who
can find interest in a bare rock, a drop of water, the foam of
the sea, the spider on the wall, the flower underfoot or the
starts overhead. And these interests are open to everyone who
enters the fairy-land of science.
Moreover, we learn from this study to see that there is a law and
purpose in everything in the Universe, and it makes us patient
when we recognize the quiet noiseless working of nature all
around us. Study light, and learn how all colour, beauty, and
life depend on the sun's rays; note the winds and currents of the
air, regular even in their apparent irregularity, as they carry
heat and moisture all over the world. Watch the water flowing in
deep quiet streams, or forming the vast ocean; and then reflect
that every drop is guided by invisible forces working according
to fixed laws. See plants springing up under the sunlight, learn
the secrets of plant life, and how their scents and colours
attract the insects. Read how insects cannot live without
plants, nor plants without the flitting butterfly or the busy
bee. Realize that all this is worked by fixed laws, and that out
of it (even if sometimes in suffering and pain) springs the
wonderful universe around us. And then say, can you fear for
your own little life, even though it may have its troubles? Can
you help feeling a part of this guided and governed nature? or
doubt that the power which fixed the laws of the stars and of the
tiniest drop of water - that made the plant draw power from the
sun, the tine coral animal its food from the dashing waves; that
adapted the flower to the insect and the insect to the flower -
is also moulding your life as part of the great machinery of the
universe, so that you have only to work, and to wait, and to
love?
We are all groping dimly for the Unseen Power, but no one who
loves nature and studies it can ever feel alone or unloved in the
world. Facts, as mere facts, are dry and barren, but nature is
full of life and love, and her calm unswerving rule is tending to
some great though hidden purpose. You may call this Unseen Power
what you will - may lean on it in loving, trusting faith, or bend
in reverent and silent awe; but even the little child who lives
with nature and gazes on her with open eye, must rise in some
sense or other through nature to nature's God.