“Would you,” said Charlotte, “if it is not taking you away too much from the immediate subject, tell me briefly what is meant here by Affinities?”

“I shall be very glad indeed,” replied the Captain, to whom Charlotte had addressed herself.  “That is, I will tell you as well as I can.  My ideas on the subject date ten years back; whether the scientific world continues to think the same about it, I cannot tell.”

“It is most disagreeable,” cried Edward, “that one cannot now-a-days learn a thing once for all, and have done with it.  Our forefathers could keep to what they were taught when they were young; but we have, every five years, to make revolutions with them, if we do not wish to drop altogether out of fashion.”

“We women need not be so particular,” said Charlotte; “and, to speak the truth, I only want to know the meaning of the word.  There is nothing more ridiculous in society than to misuse a strange technical word; and I only wish you to tell me in what sense the expression is made use of in connection with these things.  What its scientific application is I am quite contented to leave to the learned; who, by-the-by, as far as I have been able to observe, do not find it easy to agree among themselves.”

“Whereabouts shall we begin,” said Edward, after a pause, to the Captain, “to come most quickly to the point?”

The latter, after thinking as little while, replied shortly: 

“You must let me make what will seem a wide sweep; we shall be on our subject almost immediately.”

Charlotte settled her work at her side, promising the fullest attention.

The Captain began: 

“In all natural objects with which we are acquainted, we observe immediately that they have a certain relation to themselves.  It may sound ridiculous to be asserting what is obvious to every one; but it is only by coming to a clear understanding together about what we know, that we can advance to what we do not know.”

“I think,” interrupted Edward, “we can make the thing more clear to her, and to ourselves, with examples; conceive water, or oil, or quicksilver; among these you will see a certain oneness, a certain connection of their parts; and this oneness is never lost, except through force or some other determining cause.  Let the cause cease to operate, and at once the parts unite again.”

“Unquestionably,” said Charlotte, “that is plain; rain-drops readily unite and form streams; and when we were children, it was our delight to play with quicksilver, and wonder at the little globules splitting and parting and running into one another.”

“And here,” said the Captain, “let me just cursorily mention one remarkable thing—­I mean, that the full, complete correlation of parts which the fluid state makes possible, shows itself distinctly and universally in the globular form.  The falling water-drop is round; you yourself spoke of the globules of quicksilver; and a drop of melted lead let fall, if it has time to harden before it reaches the ground, is found at the bottom in the shape of a ball.”