We said in the last lecture that without the sunbeams the earth
would be cold, dark, and frost-ridden. With sunbeams, but
without air, it would indeed have burning heat, side by side with
darkness and ice, but it could have no soft light. our planet
might look beautiful to others, as the moon does to us, but it
could have comparatively few beauties of its own. With the
sunbeams and the air, we see it has much to make it beautiful.
But a third worker is wanted before our planet can revel in
activity and life. This worker is water; and in the next lecture
we shall learn something of the beauty and the usefulness of the
"drops of water" on their travels.



Week 10

LECTURE IV. A DROP OF WATER ON ITS TRAVELS

We are going to spend an hour to-day in following a drop of water
on its travels. If I dip my finger in this basin of water and
lift it up again, I bring with it a small glistening
drop out of the body of water below, and hold it before you. Tell
me, have you any idea where this drop has been? what changes it
has undergone, and what work it has been doing during all the
long ages that water has lain on the face of the earth? It is a
drop now, but it was not so before I lifted it out of the basin;
then it was part of a sheet of water, and will be so again if I
let it fall. Again, if I were to put this basin on the stove till
all the water had boiled away, where would my drop be then? Where