Final answer:
The author emphasizes the critical importance of fire for survival and portrays the invention of the match as a significant advancement, showcasing its convenience and reliability compared to traditional fire-starting methods.
Step-by-step explanation:
The author convinces readers that the match is one of the most wonderful things in the world by highlighting the difficulty and critical nature of creating fire. The narrative describes a man's struggle to build a fire in a survival situation, emphasizing how vital a flame is for life and how precarious it is to maintain. The invention of the match represented a significant advancement in providing a reliable means of making fire, which could mean the difference between life and death. The excerpt shows the painstaking efforts it took to start a fire, the disaster of losing it, and how matches ultimately provided a quicker, safer, and more reliable solution.