was not about living things at all, and I
looked over to get the thread of it right again."

"It was the comparison which led you wrong and confused you," said
Edward. "The subject is nothing but earths and minerals. But man is a
true Narcissus; he delights to see his own image everywhere; and he
spreads himself underneath the universe, like the amalgam behind the
glass."

"Quite true," continued the Captain. "That is the way in which he treats
everything external to himself. His wisdom and his folly, his will and
his caprice, he attributes alike to the animal, the plant, the elements,
and the gods."

"Would you," said Charlotte, "if it is not taking you away too much from
the immediate subject, tell me briefly what is meant here by
Affinities?"

"I shall be very glad indeed," replied the Captain, to whom Charlotte
had addressed herself. "That is, I will tell you as well as I can. My
ideas on the subject date ten years back; whether the scientific world
continues to think the same about it, I cannot tell."

"It is most disagreeable," cried Edward, "that one cannot now-a-days
learn a thing once for all, and have done with it. Our forefathers could
keep to what they were taught when they were young; but we have, every
five years, to make revolutions with them, if we do not wish to drop
altogether out of fashion."

"We women need not be so particular," said Charlotte; "and, to speak the
truth, I only want to know the meaning of the word. There is nothing
more ridiculous in society than to misuse a strange technical word; and
I only wish you to tell me in what sense the expression is made use of
in connection with these things. What its scientific application is I am
quite contented to leave to the learned; who, by-the-by, as far as I
have been able to observe, do not find it easy to agree among
themselves."

"Whereabouts shall we begin," said Edward, after a pause, to the
Captain, "to come most quickly to the point?"

The latter, after thinking as little while, replied shortly:

"You must let me make what will seem a wide sweep; we shall be on our
subject almost immediately."

Charlotte settled her work at her side, promising the fullest attention.

The Captain began:

"In all natural objects with which we are acquainted, we observe
immediately that they have a certain relation to themselves. It may
sound ridiculous to be asserting what is obvious to every one; but it is
only by coming to a clear understand