was quite weary of it at times. But you say that the
diamond is dear because it is rare. Is that its only merit?"
"Not entirely. Its transparency, its brilliancy when it
has been cut so as to refract the light, even the difficulty of
this cutting, and its extreme hardness, make it a very
interesting body for the scientist, and, I should add, very
useful in the arts. You know it can only be polished with
its own dust, and that it is its peculiar hardness which has
caused it to be used for many years for rock-boring pur-
poses. Without its help, not only would it be very difficult
to work in glass and other hard substances, but the boring
of tunnels, mine-galleries, and deep wells would be much
more difficult."
"I understand now," said Alice, who began to have a slight respect for the poor diamonds she had hitherto so despised. "But, Mr. Cyprien, this carbon, of which you say the diamond is composed, in a crystalline state-that is right, isn't it?-this carbon, what is it?"
"A simple body, not a metal, and one of the most widely distributed bodies in nature," answered Cyrien. "All organic matter without exception possesses it. Wood, meat, bread, vegetables, etc., all have it among their con- stituents!"
"How strange!" said Miss Watkins. "To think that those bushes, the grass, the tree, the flesh of my ostrich Dada, and my own, and yours, Mr. Cyprien, are all partly made of carbon-like diamonds! Is everything carbon in this world?"
"Well, some people have been suspecting something of the sort for a considerable time. And contemporary science is making rapid advances toward some such solution. That is to say, the tendency is to reduce the number of simple bodies, and prove many of the old elements to be mere compounds. The spectroscope has lately thrown quite a new light on chemistry, and the sixty-two substances classed hitherto as elements would seem to be but forms of one-hydrogen perhaps-under different electric, dynamic, and calorific forms."
"Oh! you frighten me, Mr. Cyprien, with your long words," said Miss Watkins. "Let us only talk about carbon. Why do not you chemists crystallize it as you did the sulphur in those pretty needles the other day? It
