my interrogatories, but proceed at once to an explanation of
your planetary system, or of any other little thing it may suit your
convenience to mention. When one listens to a real philosopher, one is
certain to learn something that is either useful or agreeable, let the
subject be what it may."

"By the monikin philosophy, gentlemen," continued Dr. Reasono, "we
divide the great component parts of this earth into land and water.
These two principles we term the primary elements. Human philosophy has
added air and fire to the list; but these we reject either entirely, or
admit them only as secondary elements. That neither air nor fire is a
primary element, may be proved by experiment. Thus, air can be formed,
in the quality of gases, can be rendered pure or foul; is dependent
on evaporation, being no more than ordinary matter in a state of high
rarefaction. Fire has no independent existence, requires fuel for
its support, and is evidently a property that is derived from the
combinations of other principles. Thus, by putting two or more billets
of wood together, by rapid friction you produce fire. Abstract the air
suddenly, and your fire becomes extinct; abstract the wood, and you have
the same result. From these two experiments it is shown that fire has
no independent existence, and therefore is not an element. On the other
hand, take a billet of wood and let it be completely saturated with
water; the wood acquires a new property (as also by the application of
fire, which converts it into ashes and air), for its specific gravity
is increased, it becomes less inflammable, emits vapor more readily, and
yields less readily to the blow of the axe. Place the same billet under
a powerful screw, and a vessel beneath. Compress the billet, and by a
sufficient application of force, you will have the wood, perfectly dry,
left beneath the screw, and the vessel will contain water. Thus is it
shown that land (all vegetable matter being no more than fungi of the
earth) is a. primary element, and that water is also a primary element;
while air and fire are not.

"Having established the elements, I shall, for brevity's sake, suppose
the world created. In the beginning, the orb was placed in vacuum,
stationary, and with its axis perpendicular to the plane of what is now
called its orbit. Its only revolution was the diurnal."

"And the changes of the seasons?"

"Had not yet taken place. The days and nights were equal; there were no
ecl