lume of the liquid to a
small metal plate, is an absurdly primitive mechanical device. A brace
of pistons and a few valves would do it all. Do you perceive, my dear
sir," he said taking Valentin by the arm, "there is scarcely a substance
in existence that would not be compelled to dilate when fixed in between
these two indefinitely resisting surfaces?"

"What! the author of the _Lettres provinciales_ invented it?" Raphael
exclaimed.

"He and no other, sir. The science of mechanics knows no simpler nor
more beautiful contrivance. The opposite principle, the capacity of
expansion possessed by water, has brought the steam-engine into
being. But water will only expand up to a certain point, while its
incompressibility, being a force in a manner negative, is, of necessity,
infinite."

"If this skin is expanded," said Raphael, "I promise you to erect a
colossal statue to Blaise Pascal; to found a prize of a hundred thousand
francs to be offered every ten years for the solution of the grandest
problem of mechanical science effected during the interval; to find
dowries for all your cousins and second cousins, and finally to build an
asylum on purpose for impoverished or insane mathematicians."

"That would be exceedingly useful," Planchette replied. "We will go to
Spieghalter to-morrow, sir," he continued, with the serenity of a man
living on a plane wholly intellectual. "That distinguished mechanic has
just completed, after my own designs, an improved mechanical arrangement
by which a child could get a thousand trusses of hay inside his cap."

"Then good-bye till to-morrow."

"Till to-morrow, sir."

"Talk of mechanics!" cried Raphael; "isn't it the greatest of the
sciences? The other fellow with his onagers, classifications, ducks, and
species, and his phials full of bottled monstrosities, is at best only
fit for a billiard-marker in a saloon."

The next morning Raphael went off in great spirits to find Planchette,
and together they set out for the Rue de la Sante--auspicious
appellation! Arrived at Spieghalter's, the young man found himself in a
vast foundry; his eyes lighted upon a multitude of glowing and roaring
furnaces. There was a storm of sparks, a deluge of nails, an ocean
of pistons, vices, levers, valves, girders, files, and nuts; a sea of
melted metal, baulks of timber and bar-steel. Iron filings filled your
throat. There was iron in the atmosphere; the men were covered with it;
everything reeked of iron.