The dew-drop is a very good imitation of a diamond, and to the lover of God's works, quite as precious as the stone set in gold. It does not consist of carbon--it probably may have a mite of carbonic acid in its embrace--but that is not necessary to our purpose: all we want to know is, _the different atomic conditions_ of which bodies are susceptible, and the very dissimilar appearances they exhibit under the variations of atomic states. It doesn't glisten so much as the diamond, _because it is round_--if we could cut it into a number of _facets_, it would refract light almost as perfectly as the diamond. It is not _solid_--but we can freeze it, and we shall at once exhibit two different atomic conditions, that will represent nearly enough the diamond, and the liquid carbonic acid. Then, if we evaporate the dew-drop, we shall produce a volume of vapour nearly _two thousand times as large as the dew-drop_. The steam will be white; but we have only to imagine it black, and then we get an analogy of the differences of the atomic conditions that prevail in _the diamond_, _carbonic acid_, and _charcoal_, _tinder_, _lamp-black_, or any light form of carbon. Of course we have been illustrating _atomic conditions only_, and not chemical composition. There are a few other facts connected with carbon that merit consideration. Carbonic acid gas, _entering the lungs_, is a _deadly poison_; but _entering the stomach_, which lies close under the lungs, and is over-lapped by them, it is a _refreshing beverage_. Although charcoal, when burnt, gives off the most poisonous gas, it seems to be very jealous of other gaseous poisons; for if it be powdered, and set about in pans where there is a poisonous atmosphere, it will seize hold of poisonous gases, and, by absorbing, imprison them. Even in a drop of toast and water, the charred bread seizes hold of whatever impurities exist in the water; and water passed through beds of charcoal, becomes filtered, and made beautifully pure, being compelled to give up to the charcoal whatever is obnoxious. If a piece of meat that has already commenced putrifying, be sprinkled with charcoal, it will not only object to the meat putrifying any further, but it will _sweeten that which has already undergone putrefaction_. Although, in the form of gas, it will poison the blood, and cause speedy stupefaction and death; if it be powdered, and stitched into a piece of silk, and worn before the mouth as a respirator, it will say to all poisonous gases that come to the mouth with the air, "I have taken this post to defend the lungs, and I arrest you, on a charge of murderous intention." Such are the various facts connected with carbon; and they forcibly indicate that those