Madam How and Lady Why; Or, First Lessons in Earth Lore for ChildrenKingsley, Charles
History
Madam How and Lady Why; Or, First Lessons in Earth Lore for Children
Kingsley, Charles
Geology -- Juvenile literature; Natural history -- Juvenile literature
I see you are astonished at the notion that water can make Alps. But it
was just because I knew you would be astonished at Madam How's doing so
great a thing with so simple a tool, that I began by showing you how she
was doing the same thing in a small way here upon these flats. For the
safest way to learn Madam How's methods is to watch her at work in little
corners at commonplace business, which will not astonish or frighten us,
nor put huge hasty guesses and dreams into our heads. Sir Isaac Newton,
some will tell you, found out the great law of gravitation, which holds
true of all the suns and stars in heaven, by watching an apple fall: and
even if he did not find it out so, he found it out, we know, by careful
thinking over the plain and commonplace fact, that things have weight. So
do you be humble and patient, and watch Madam How at work on little
things. For that is the way to see her at work upon all space and time.
What? you have a question more to ask?
Oh! I talked about Madam How lifting up Hartford Bridge Flat. How could
she do that? My dear child, that is a long story, and I must tell it you
some other time. Meanwhile, did you ever see the lid of a kettle rise up
and shake when the water inside boiled? Of course; and of course, too,
remember that Madam How must have done it. Then think over between this
and our next talk, what that can possibly have to do with her lifting up
Hartford Bridge Flat. But you have been longing, perhaps, all this time
to hear more about Lady Why, and why she set Madam How to make
Bracknell's Bottom.
My dear child, the only answer I dare give to that is: Whatever other
purposes she may have made it for, she made it at least for this--that
you and I should come to it this day, and look at, and talk over it, and
become thereby wiser and more earnest, and we will hope more humble and
better people. Whatever else Lady Why may wish or not wish, this she
wishes always, to make all men wise and all men good. For what is
written of her whom, as in a parable, I have called Lady Why?
"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of
old.
"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth
was.
"When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no
fountains abounding with water.
"Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
"While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest
part of the dust of the world.
"When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon
the face of the depth:
"When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains
of the deep:
"When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His
commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth:
"Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His
delight, rejoicing always before Him:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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