I have now come to the last of the giants, and his character shall be summed up in few words. If you remember, I told you that, in winter nights, Giant Flare was a very agreeable companion, and the same thing may be said of Giant Rush. When the tea-urn simmers, and friends gather round the winter tea-table, Giants Flare and Rush ought always to be there. They are good company even when you have them one at a time; but still better when they are together.
Giant Rush is thought to be younger than his brother Bounce; but of this I have some doubt. Of the two, however, he is by far the most industrious. He draws up water out of mines; he blows the bellows of the blast-furnaces; saws timber; grinds and polishes metals, makes carriages run without horses, and forces ships through the waters of the great deep against both wind and tide. Besides these things, he has latterly begun to print newspapers and books, and in this department he will make himself more known than ever. These are his good deeds; but his bad ones are a sad reproach to him.
Would you believe it that, some time back, he undertook to do more destruction, and to destroy more lives in one hour, than Giant Bounce could in a day? Few people thought better than I did of Giant Rush before this; and, to speak the truth, I hardly thought the report was true. But when I saw him, with my own eyes, fire sixty or eighty bullets out of an iron tube, in less time than Giant Bounce could fire with the same instrument, I thought to myself, "O! if he can do this, he can do anything."
The giant then went into a large field, and, pointing a cannon into a high sand-bank, fired off a complete stream of cannon balls, enough, I should think, to bring down a house, if not a church, to the very ground. In short, I was quite frightened at his invention; and all that I hope now is, that no one will give him the least encouragement in his horrid undertaking.
Having now related what may appear to you rather a wonderful story, I must proceed to tell you the real names of the five giants, though it is by no means unlikely that you have already guessed them. The five giants, Flare, Roar, Blow, Bounce, and Rush, are, then, neither more nor less than the five gigantic powers, Fire, Water, Wind, Gunpowder, and Steam; and, though I may have related their adventures and achievements somewhat fancifully, if you will examine them you will find that they are strictly true. The influence of these giant powers in the world has been very great; and as your attention is now drawn to the subject, you will, perhaps, be disposed to think upon it more than you have hitherto done, connected so closely as it is with the comfort, the luxury, the knowledge, and indeed, also, with the happiness and misery of mankind. Had I been disposed, I might have made my relation much more wonderful; but I trust you have received from it, as it is, some amusement, and that it has not been altogether without instruction. It may be long before you again hear a true story of five giants; you will therefore do well to try to turn this one to advantage, and to inquire what it is, in each case, that gives force to the power. For you ought to understand that, in and with all the powers of nature, although man is allowed to make much use of them, and often to set them in operation; yet there is a greater Hand than his, though all unseen, which alone can control them. Whenever, then, we see either the water or the fire, or hear the wind, let us remember that these are so many elements which God has intrusted to the use of man, and that for an abuse of their capacities we shall be held accountable.
METH. EPIS. S. S. UNION.