And remember, too, that he is not like you, who have some one else to teach you.

He has had to teach himself, and find out for himself, and make his own tools, and work in the dark besides.

And I think it is very much to his credit that he ever found out that diamond and charcoal were the same things.

You would never have found it out for yourself, you will agree.
No: but how did he do it?
He taught a very famous chemist, Lavoisier, about ninety years ago, how to burn a diamond in oxygen--and a very difficult trick that is; and Lavoisier found that the diamond when burnt turned almost entirely into carbonic acid and water, as blacklead and charcoal do; and more, that each of them turned into the same quantity of carbonic acid, And so he knew, as surely as man can know anything, that all these things, however different to our eyes and fingers, are really made of the same thing,--pure carbon.
But what makes them look and feel so different?
That Analysis does not know yet.

Perhaps he will find out some day; for he is very patient, and very diligent, as you ought to be.