The Diving Bell | Page 2

stand there with the water hardly over his feet. There is a
good deal of machinery about a diving bell, it is true. But I need not
take up much time in describing it. It is necessary for the man to
breathe, of course, while he is in the diving bell; and as the air it
contains is soon rendered impure by breathing, fresh air must be
introduced into the bell by means of a pump, or in some other way. I
am not very familiar with the necessary machinery, to tell the truth. I
never explored the bottom of a river in this way, and I think it will be a
long time before I make such a voyage.
The diving bell has been used for a good many useful purposes--to lay
the foundations of docks and the piers of bridges; to collect pearls at
Ceylon, and coral at other places.
I am not sure but the diving bell is getting somewhat out of use now.

People have found out another way of groping along on the bottom of
rivers and seas. They do it frequently, I believe, by means of a kind of
armor made of India rubber. But so far as my book is concerned, it is of
no consequence whether the diving bell is out of use or not. I shall use
the title, at all events.
If, after my account of the diving bell, you still ask why I choose to
give such a name to the budget I have prepared for you, I can answer
your question very easily.
I think you will find something worth looking at in the budget--not
pearls, or pieces of coral, or lost treasures, exactly, but still something
which will please you, and something which, when you get hold of it,
will be worth keeping and laying up in some snug corner of your
memory box. I say when you get hold of it; for the valuable things I
have for you do not all lie on the surface. You will have to search for
them a little. That is, you will have to think. When you have read one
of my stories, or fables, you may find it necessary to stop, and ask
yourself "What does Uncle Frank mean by all this?" In other words,
you will have to use the diving bell, and see if you can't hunt up
something in the story or the fable, which will be useful to you, and
which will make you wiser and better. Now you see why I have called
my book The Diving Bell, don't you?

II.
THINKING AND LAUGHING.
It is Uncle Frank's notion, that it is a good thing to laugh, but a better
thing to think. A great many people, however, old as well as young,
and young as well as old, live and die without thinking much. They
lose three quarters of the benefit they ought to get from reading, and
from what they see and learn as they go through the world, by never
diving below the surface of things. I don't suppose it is so with you. I
hope not, at all events. If it is so, then you had better shut up this book,
and pass it over to some young friend of yours, who has learned to

think, and who loves to read books that will help him about thinking.
No, on the whole, you needn't do any such thing. Just read the
book--read it through. Perhaps you will get a taste for such reading,
while you are going through the book.
I must tell you an anecdote just here. You will not refuse to read that, at
any rate.
Not long ago I was in a book store, looking over some new books
which I saw on the counter, when a fine-looking boy, who appeared to
be about nine years old, came in. He had a shilling in his hand, and said
he wanted to buy a book.
"But what book do you want?" one of the clerks asked.
The boy could not tell what it was exactly. But it was a "funny
book"--he was sure of that--and it cost a shilling.
Well, it finally turned out that the book which the little fellow wanted
was a comic almanac--a book filled with miserable pictures--pictures of
men and beasts twisted into all sorts of odd shapes--and vulgar jokes,
and scraps of low wit.
"Will you let me look at it?" I asked the little boy as the clerk handed
the book to him.
"Yes, sir," said he.
I took the almanac, and turned over some of its leaves. There was not a
particle of information in the book, except what related to the sun, and
moon, and stars, and that formed but