here, even before it is carried up to make clouds. We have to
thank this invisible vapour in the air for protecting us from the
burning heat of the sun by day and intolerable frost by night.

Let us for a moment imagine that we can see all that we know
exists between us and the sun. First, we have the fine ether
across which the sunbeams travel, beating down upon our earth
with immense force, so that in the sandy desert they are like a
burning fire. Then we have the coarser atmosphere of oxygen and
nitrogen atoms hanging in this ether, and bending the minute sun-
waves out of their direct path. But they do very little to hinder
them on their way, and this is why in very dry countries the
sun's heat is so intense. The rays beat down mercilessly, and
nothing opposes them. Lastly, in damp countries we have the
larger but still invisible particles of vapour hanging about
among the air-atoms. Now, these watery particles, although they
are very few (only about one twenty-fifth part of the whole
atmosphere), do hinder the sun-waves. For they are very greedy of
heat, and though the light-waves pass easily through them, they
catch the heat-waves and use them to help themselves to expand.
And so, when there is invisible vapour in the air, the sunbeams
come to us deprived of some of their heat-waves, and we
can remain in the sunshine without suffering from the heat.

This is how the water-vapour shields us by day, but by night it
is still more useful. During the day our earth and the air near
it have been storing up the heat which has been poured down on
them, and at night, when the sun goes down, all this heat begins
to escape again. Now, if there were no vapour in the air, this
heat would rush back into space so rapidly that the ground would