If all nice old lecturers were minded as little as one I know
of;--
DORA. And if they all meant as little what they say, would they
not deserve it? But we'll come--we'll come, and cry.
LECTURE 9.
CRYSTAL SORROWS
Working Lecture in Schoolroom.
L. We have been hitherto talking, children, as if crystals might
live, and play, and quarrel, and behave ill or well, according to
their characters, without interruption from anything else. But so
far from this being so, nearly all crystals, whatever their
characters, have to live a hard life of it, and meet with many
misfortunes. If we could see far enough, we should find, indeed,
that, at the root, all their vices were misfortunes: but to-day I
want you to see what sort of troubles the best crystals have to go
through, occasionally, by no fault of their own.
This black thing, which is one of the prettiest of the very few
pretty black things in the world, is called "Tourmaline." It may
be transparent, and green, or red, as well as black; and then no
stone can be prettier (only, all the light that gets into it, I
believe, comes out a good deal the worse; and is not itself again
for a long while). But this is the commonest state of it,--opaque,
and as black as jet.
MARY.
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