Men early found that fire was directly connected with their comfort and progress, and even essential to their existence. How they first obtained it is still matter of conjecture; whether it was brought down from the skies, as the ancient Greeks supposed, struck out from the flinty rock, evolved by the friction of dry wood, kindled by the lightning, or obtained from the flaming torch of the volcano, we can not tell. Certain it is, that having once been obtained, all the early races were very careful to preserve it. Among many it was regarded as sacred, and kept perpetually burning, both in their places of worship and in their homes. The officers appointed for its preservation were of the highest rank and influence. Among the titles assumed by Augustus Cæsar was that of keeper of the public fire. Whenever by accident the fire in the temple of Vesta, at Rome, was extinguished, all public business was at once suspended, because the connection between heaven and earth was believed to be severed, and must be restored before business could properly proceed. Grecian colonists carried fire to their new homes from the altar of Hestia. The “Prytaneum”[1] of the ancient Greeks and Romans was a place where the national fire was kept always burning; it was here the people gathered, foreign ambassadors received, and hospitalities of the state were offered. Here, too, heads of families obtained coals for lighting their household fires, which in turn became sacred, so that every hearth was an altar, where resided the Lares and Penates, the gods who presided over the welfare of the home. Fancies akin to these beliefs of olden time may still be found among the nations of the East and in northern Europe. MODERN FALLACIES.