less impressive when conveyed by the familiar and cherished voice. 14. In closing the paper, I beg leave to add, this is a pleasure for the poor man's house; and for this I love it. The poor man, if educated, is in our day placed almost on a level with the prince, in respect to the best part of literary wealth. Let him ponder the suggestion, and enjoy the privilege. CHAPTER XVI. THE FAKENHAM GHOST. 1. THE lawns were dry in Euston park, 2. Benighted was an ancient dame, 3. Her footsteps knew no idle stops, And echoed to the darksome copse 4. Where clamorous rooks, yet scarcely hushed, And many a wing the foliage brushed, 5. The dappled herds of grazing deer* 6. Darker it grew, and darker fears When now a short quick step she hears 7. She turned, it stopped; nor could she see But as she strove the sprite to flee, 8. Now terror seized her quaking frame, 9. Yet, once again, amidst her fright, When, through the cheating gloom of night, 10. Regardless of whate'er she felt, It followed down the plain; She owned her sins, and down she knelt, 11. Then on she sped, and hope grew strong, Which, pushing hard, so long it swung 14. Out came her husband, much surprised, 15. The candle's gleam pierced through the night, Some short space o'er the green, And there the little trotting sprite 16. An ass's foal had lost its dam, 17. No goblin he, no imp of sin, 18. His little hoofs would rattle round The matron learned to love the sound 19. A favorite the ghost became, And long he lived, and spread his fame, CHAPTER XVII. ODE TO THE PLOUGH. 1. FAR back in the ages, The plough with wreaths was crowned, Entwined the chaplet round; Disdained the toil By which the world was nourished, Now the world her fault repairs, And weeps her crimes, amid the cares 2. The proud throne shall crumble, The tribes of earth shall humble His pomp away, The fame that heroes cherish; CHAPTER XVIII CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE. 1. I MENTION the following facts only in the hope of showing you that there is a pleasure in studying the sciences, and when we come to natural history, we shall find the study of that still more amusing. The animal and vegetable worlds are well worthy of observation. 2. Probably you all know what is meant by a cycloid. If we make a spot on the periphery of a wheel travelling on a plane, the figure which that spot describes is a cycloid. Now, there is no figure in which a body can be moved with so much velocity, and such regularity of speed-not even the straight line. Mathematicians discovered this not many years ago; but nature's God taught it to the eagle, before mathematics were invented. When the eagle pounces upon his prey, he describes the figure of a cycloid. 3. A globe placed in water, or in air, in moving meets with resistance, and its velocity will be retarded. If you alter the globe to the form of an egg, there will be less resistance. And then there is a form called the solid of least resistance, which mathematicians studied for many years to discover; and when they had discovered it, they found they had the form of a fish's head! Nature had "rigged out" the fish into just such a figure. 4. The feathers of birds, and each particular part of them, are arranged at such an angle as to be most efficient in assisting flight. The human eye has a mirror on which objects are reflected, and a nerve by which these reflections are conveyed to the brain; and thus we are enabled to take an interest in the objects which pass before the eye. Now, when the eye is too convex, we use one kind of glasses to correct the fault; and if it be not convex enough, or if we wish to look at objects at a different distance, we use glasses of entirely another description. 5. But as birds cannot get spectacles, Providence has given them a method of supplying the deficiency. They have the power of contracting the eye, of making it more convex, so as to see the specks which float in the atmosphere, and catch them for food; and also of flattening the eye, to see a great distance, and observe whether any vulture or other enemy is threatening to destroy them. 6. In addition to this they have a film, or coating, which can be suddenly thrown down over the eye to protect it; because, at the velocity with which they fly, and with the delicate texture of their eye, the least speck of dust would act upon it as a penknife thrust into the human eye. This film is to protect the eye; and the same thing exists to some extent in the eye of the horse. 7. The horse has a large eye, very liable to take dust. This coating in the horse's eye is called the haw, or third |