But no such thing; there is no question of comparison or simile here; I state the fact itself, pure and simple as it stands: it is a market, for commercial intercourse and exchange are carried on there, as I told you before, and it is a charcoal market, because charcoal is, positively, the essential and chief article of commerce.
You are astonished, I dare say, and are ready to ask me whether I can possibly mean real charcoal, charcoal such as the cook puts into the furnace. Surely, say you, we have nothing like that in our bodies? Surely we don't eat that?
But I answer yes; real, true charcoal, and you do not dislike it; you eat of it even daily; nay, you do not swallow a single mouthful of food which does not contain its proportion of charcoal.
You laugh; but wait a little and listen.
When you are toasting a slice of bread for breakfast, and hold it too near the fire, what happens to it?
It turns quite black, does it not?
When mutton-chops are left too long unturned on the gridiron, what happens to them?
They turn quite black also.
When your brother forgets the apples which he has set to roast, what happens to them?
They turn quite black, as you have seen more than once.