Your inference is extremely well drawn, Emily; but the foundation on which it rests is not sound; for the fact is, that terrestrial or culinary heat, though it cannot pass through the denser transparent mediums, such as glass or water, without loss, traverses the atmosphere completely: so that all the heat which the earth radiates, unless it meet with clouds or any foreign body to intercept its passage, passes into the distant regions of the universe.
CAROLINE.
What a pity that so much heat should be wasted!
MRS. B.
Before you are tempted to object to any law of nature, reflect whether it may not prove to be one of the numberless dispensations of Providence for our good. If all the heat which the earth has received from the sun, since the creation had been accumulated in it, its temperature by this time would, no doubt, have been more elevated than any human being could have borne.
CAROLINE.
I spoke indeed very inconsiderately. But, Mrs. B., though the earth, at such a high temperature, might have scorched our feet, we should always have had a cool refreshing air to breathe, since the radiation of the earth does not heat the atmosphere.
EMILY.
The cool air would have afforded but very insufficient refreshment, whilst our bodies were exposed to the burning radiation of the earth.
MRS. B.