which he created and were sent whirling and twisting to dissolution,
although to the last they clung to every object with which they came
in contact in their futile struggle to escape destruction.

Edestone loved to watch these little smoke phantoms, their first mad
rush to assume their beautiful form and the persistency with which
they clung to it until overtaken by another, were brushed aside, or
else drifted on in wavering elongated outlines and so gradually
disappeared.

They suggested to his fancy the struggling nations of the world,
battling with the currents and cross-currents near the storm-scarred
old earth, and continually endeavouring to rise above their fellows to
some calmer strata, where serene in their original form they could
look down with condescension upon their harassed and broken companions
below.

The little rings were, however, more interesting to him for another
and more practical reason. It was their toroidal movement around a
circular axis which moved independently in any direction that first
suggested to him the principles of his discovery.

Before him the fire upon the hearth sang and crackled as it tore
asunder the elements that had taken untold ages to assemble in their
present form, and with the prodigality of nature was joyfully rushing
them up the chimney to start them again upon their long and weary
journey through the ages.

The bubbles coming into existence in the bottom of his glass, rushing
in myriads through the pale yellow liquid to the top and obliteration,