SECT. XV. Of Fire.


Do you see that fire that seems kindled in the stars, and spreads
its light on all sides? Do you see that flame which certain
mountains vomit up, and which the earth feeds with sulphur within
its entrails? That same fire peaceably lurks in the veins of
flints, and expects to break out, till the collision of another body
excites it to shock cities and mountains. Man has found the way to
kindle it, and apply it to all his uses, both to bend the hardest
metals, and to feed with wood, even in the most frozen climes, a
flame that serves him instead of the sun, when the sun removes from
him. That subtle flame glides and penetrates into all seeds. It
is, as it were, the soul of all living things; it consumes all that
is impure, and renews what it has purified. Fire lends its force
and activity to weak men. It blows up, on a sudden, buildings and
rocks. But have we a mind to confine it to a more moderate use? It
warms man, and makes all sorts of food fit for his eating. The
ancients, in admiration of fire, believed it to be a celestial gift,
which man had stolen from the gods.


SECT. XVI. Of Heaven.


It is time to lift up our eyes to heaven. What power has built over
our heads so vast and so magnificent an arch? What a stupendous
variety of admirable objects is here? It is, no doubt, to present
us with a noble spectacle that an Omnipotent Hand has set before our
eyes so great and so bright objects. It is in order to raise our