CHATTO & WINDUS
1908
From the primitive pine-torch to the paraffin candle, how wide aninterval! between them how vast a contrast! The means adopted by man toilluminate his home at night, stamp at once his position in the scale ofcivilisation. The fluid bitumen of the far East, blazing in rude vesselsof baked earth; the Etruscan lamp, exquisite in form, yet ill adapted toits office; the whale, seal, or bear fat, filling the hut of the Esquimauxor Lap with odour rather than light; the huge wax candle on the glitteringaltar, the range of gas lamps in our streets,—all have their stories totell. All, if they could speak (and, after their own manner, they can),might warm our hearts in telling, how they have ministered to man’scomfort, love of home, toil, and devotion.
Surely, among the millions of fire-worshippers and fire-users who havepassed away in earlier ages, some have pondered over the mystery offire; perhaps some clear minds have guessed shrewdly near the truth. Thinkof the time man has lived in hopeless ignorance: think that only during aperiod which might be spanned by the life of one man, has the truth beenknown.
Atom by atom, link by link, has the reasoning chain been forged. Somelinks, too quickly and too slightly made, have given way, and beenreplaced by better work; but now the great phenomena are known—theoutline is correctly and firmly drawn—cunning artists are filling in therest, and the child who masters these Lectures knows more of fire thanAristotle did.
The candle itself is now made to light up the dark places of nature; theblowpipe and the prism are adding to our knowledge of the earth’s crust;but the torch must come first.
Among the readers of this book some few may devote themselves toincreasing the stores of knowledge: the Lamp of Science must burn.“Alere flammam.”