n this final lesson I wish,” said Mr. Wilton, “to bring before you some general views of the whole subject of the agency and management of heat.
“When Jesus had fed the five thousand men upon the mountain side by the Sea of Galilee, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.’ The Christ who spoke these words was the same Christ by whom ‘all things were created that are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible.’ These words inculcate the propriety of saving, the very opposite of extravagance and wastefulness. The same prudent economy we find in all God’s works. Nothing is wasted. God provides bountifully; he is not stinted in his works; we find nothing narrow or mean; his resources are ample for all his undertakings. Perhaps a careless observer might charge him with prodigality and wastefulness. The wilderness rejoices in beauty and fertility upon which no human eye gazes, and which supplies no human want.
‘Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.’
Rich fruit grows ruddy and golden in the autumnal sun only to fall and decay. How small a part of the seeds which might germinate and reproduce the parent plant ever fulfill this their legitimate object! But this is not waste. As for the beauty with which the unpeopled wastes are smiling, we know not what other beings besides man ‘grow glad at the sight.’ Fruits and grains and seeds were appointed as much to nourish the animal kingdom as to reproduce plants and trees. And that which decays is not wasted. The oak lifts high its leafy arms and does battle with the tempests for a century, and then having served its purpose in Nature, if man does not call it to the higher mission of serving his purposes, Nature begins to pull down the structure she has reared and rebuild the elements in other forms—such forms as man perchance may need. The fruit that falls and decays is not wasted; it shall blush with golden tints in other forms and in other years. God pulls down the old that he may build the new. The same elements appear and reappear in a thousand shapes. There is endless change, but no waste. This sentiment, ‘Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost,’ which is proclaimed throughout all Nature, is uttered most emphatically in the management of heat. God has provided most bountiful stores of heat, but has left no heat to go to waste. Will you, Mr. Hume, suggest one of the general arrangements for the economical use of heat?”
“I think that the arrangement for economizing heat which ought to be mentioned first is the confinement of heat to the locality where it is needed.”
“Will you explain that a little farther, Mr. Hume?”
“All living creatures are confined near the surface of the earth. They penetrate only a few feet into the earth and soar a few hundred feet above it. Heat is therefore confined to the region of the earth’s surface. It penetrates but a little way below the surface, and when warm air rises into the higher regions, heat becomes latent. The higher parts of the atmosphere are cold, and in the empty spaces of the heavens the temperature is we know not how low. God has provided for heating only that part of the world which needs to be heated. I think you spoke of this in some one of the earlier lessons.”
“Perhaps I did. But I refer to it again to call especial attention to the idea of the economical use of heat. Who will mention another method by which heat is economized?”
No one answered.