Passage (Michael Faraday, *The Chemical History of a Candle*, Lecture I, 1860–61, continued): "In this wood we have one of the most beautiful illustrations of the general nature of a candle that I can possibly give. The fuel provided, the means of bringing that fuel to the place of chemical action, the regular and gradual supply of air to that place of action — heat and light — all produced by a little piece of wood of this kind, forming, in fact, a natural candle. But we must speak of candles as they are in commerce. Here are a couple of candles commonly called dips. They are made of lengths of cotton cut off, hung up by a loop, dipped into melted tallow, taken out again and cooled, then re-dipped until there is an accumulation of tallow round the cotton." What is the function of the sentence "But we must speak of candles as they are in commerce"?
ATo shift from a natural-philosophical introduction (the *candle-wood* analogy) to the practical, manufactured candles that will be the lecture's main subject.
BTo complain that commercial candles are inferior.
CTo digress into a history of candle-making.
DTo argue that natural and commercial candles have nothing in common.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A. To shift from a natural-philosophical introduction (the *candle-wood* analogy) to the practical, manufactured candles that will be the lecture's main subject.
*But we must speak of...* is a classic rhetorical pivot. Faraday has just used the wood as a *natural* exemplar; now he announces a turn to the manufactured case (*as they are in commerce*). The rest of the paragraph describes how dip candles are made.
This is a *transition* sentence, not a value judgement (so not B/D) and not a digression (not C).
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