I would advise you to take notes, or, what would answer better still, to write down, after every lesson, as much of it as you can recollect. And, in order to give you a little assistance, I shall lend you the heads or index, which I occasionally consult for the sake of preserving some method and arrangement in these conversations. Unless you follow some such plan, you cannot expect to retain nearly all that you learn, how great soever be the impression it may make on you at first.
EMILY.
I will certainly follow your advice.—Hitherto I have found that I recollected pretty well what you have taught us; but the history of carbon is a more extensive subject than any of the simple bodies we have yet examined.
MRS. B.
I have little more to say on carbon at present; but hereafter you will see that it performs a considerable part in most chemical operations.
CAROLINE.
That is, I suppose, owing to its entering into the composition of so great a variety of substances?
MRS. B.
Certainly; it is the basis, you have seen, of all vegetable matter; and you will find that it is very essential to the process of animalization. But in the mineral kingdom also, particularly in its form of carbonic acid, we shall often discover it combined with a great variety of substances.
In chemical operations, carbon is particularly useful, from its very great attraction for oxygen, as it will absorb this substance from many oxygenated or burnt bodies, and thus deoxygenate, or unburn them, and restore them to their original combustible state.