Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/82

58 ties which bound me to my fellow atoms seemed indissoluble.

“At length the rock of which I was a constituent was subjected to a new mutation by volcanic agency. The pent-up fires of the earth burst through the ancient reef, and liberated myriads of its component atoms. For some time I remained unaffected by the commotion, but eventually I felt the disturbing effects of the intense heat, and found that my bonds were loosened. I was no longer a rock atom, and the ascending stream of fiery particles bore me into the atmosphere.

“As for my old companions who had hitherto shared my reverses, only two of them attended me now, for the atom of calcium had persuaded one of the atoms of oxygen to remain with him in the rock. The metal was not fitted for an aërial life, and did not care to be separated from all his friends. What a marvellous difference the absence of those two atoms made in the group to which I belonged. When there were five of us we constituted a solid molecule; now we formed a compound gaseous atom.

“Who can describe the joys of an aërial atom? I have never yet been a part of a poet’s brain, and it is therefore quite out of my power to set forth in appropriate language the varied pleasures of an atmospheric existence. My roving life as an atom of