They had learned to tame some of the animals, which came down from the hills to feed; and on the broad green pasture-land, you might have seen flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle, which they would watch over during the day, leading them from one green spot to another. So these men, as their flocks increased, gathered riches; some began to be masters, and some servants. They were said to be in a pastoral state, and were called SHEPHERDS. L. Just like Abraham. The Bible says that he was rich in cattle, and silver, and gold. W. And the Bible says, too, that he had sheep, and oxen, and menservants and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels. Do not the Arabs live in such a state now? P. Yes. There were others on the Island in a more civilised state, whom I will describe next time. Ion. Please, papa, tell us the name of the Island before you leav off. P. The Island is the one on which you are standing now. Ion. Perhaps there was a hut in our garden. P. It was called Britain, and the people were called Britons. Ion. How long ago was it? P. A long time. Try and think of the time. Nineteen hundred years ago. Fifty years before the birth of our Saviour. L. Now let us make up a lesson. (1.) About 1900 years ago, which was 50 years before Christ, this country was called Britain. (2.) The People were called Britons. (3.) Some of the Britons lived in a savage state, and were HUNTERS; some lived in a pastoral state, and were SHEPHERDS; and others— W. We shall learn about another day. 1 GOD bless our native land, May Heaven's protecting hand Still guard our shore! 2 May just and righteous laws And bless our Isle! 'Kind Heaven may smile. 3 And not this land alone, From shore to shore! The wide world o'er 4 God save our gracious Queen, Long live our gracious Queen, God save the Queen! Send her victorious, God save the Queen! THE TABLE-CLOTH. Lucy. I do not know anything about Object Lessons. Mamma, what are they for? Mamma. First,-To teach you to observe minutely. More than half the knowledge which men possess, they get by carefully noticing things. W. That is easy; we are to use our eyes, I suppose. M. Yes, and other organs also; you do not observe sounds with your eyes. W. No; I use my ears. M. And how do you notice different scents? W. Oh, I do not understand that at all, mamma! Please, where is an object to begin with? M. There are plenty of objects everywhere. Here on the breakfasttable is a good stock of lessons. The piece of bread and butter you are eating-you have never noticed it half enough. L. And the milk, and egg. M. Yes; we will talk about the bread, butter, sugar, milk, the egg, the salt, coffee, papa's cocoa, the boiling water, bacon, knife and fork, plate, tea-cup, spoon, coffee-pot, the table-cloth, and the mats: one ob W. I observe them with my nose.ject every Thursday morning at M. And the differences in taste- breakfast-time. between the taste of milk, and milk and water, for instance? W. I find that out with my tongue. M. And if you want to know whether your plate is hot or cold? W. I can tell that by feeling. M. So you have several organs to observe with. W. Yes; organs for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling,there are five. M. They are called the five senses. | These senses are, all day long, bringing some knowledge or other to your mind. The Object Lessons will lead you to use them more carefully and slowly,-and afterwards to form words for expressing your observations with exactness. In the course of time you will learn many things. You will have to look at two or three objects together, and to notice in what they are alike, and in what they differ-to compare them as we say. Then you will learn to find out the reason why they differto reflect; and when you can observe, compare, and reflect carefully, you shall learn to arrange your objects in classes. We shall not have time for a long lesson now-suppose we begin with the table-cloth. Now, Willie-take great notice with your eyes, and tell me all its parts. W. My eyes tell me it has no parts at all;-it is one large piece. M. Then you must have very bad eyes, Willie-look again. Ion. Here is the corner of the cloth in my lap. This is one part, is it not? The table-cloth has corners. M. Quite right, Ion. Now, move your finger from that corner to Lucy's corner, without taking it off the cloth, and you will find that it may travel to her in four directions. Ion. I can move my finger along this edge, or the other-in two directions. W. That is another part-the edge. edges-two parts. Ion. Or, instead of going round the edges, I may move my finger across the face of the cloth to Lucy. M. Do not say "the cloth's face," say surface. Your finger may travel in another way across the under surface -that will make four directions. W. Ali, then, the cloth has four parts the edges, corners, upper surface, and under surface. And I see another! In what part is the urn placed? Ada. In the middle; that is fit to make into a table-cloth. another part. pulled up. The seeds are then beaten out; the stalks are soaked in water, and dried, and beaten, and combed, and bleached, and so on, until they become bundles of fibres L. Here is another part, which I made myself--the "hem" round it. Ion. And then you made some stitches, they must be parts of the cloth. L. What is done with the seeds? M. They are sold to the chemists, and others, and are called linseed. W. So my linseed-tea, and the table-cloth, come from the same plant. L. And the linseed-oil which Jane rubs the furniture with. M. Goods made from the flaxplant are called "linen" goods. They are manufactured in Leeds, Dundee, Dunfermline, and the north of Ireland. You may look for these places on the map. Come, Willie, try if your eyes are any better now. Can you tell me the parts of the table-cloth? Object Lesson No. 1.-THE TABLE- (1) Our Table-cloth is a piece of linen with four edges-four cornersan Under Surface, Upper Surface Middle, Hem, Stitches, Pattern, Border, and Fibres. (2) The linen is procured from the stalk of the flax plant, which is grown in YORKSHIRE, IRELAND, FLANDERS, fc. (3) Table-cloths are made at LEEDS, DUNDEE, DUNFERMLINE, &c. GOD might have bade the earth bring forth He might have made enough, enough For med'cine, luxury, and food, Then wherefore, wherefore were they made SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, AND FLUIDS. P. Come, Lucy! I have a long story to tell you about ADOLF. L. Who is "Adolf," papa? P. You shall hear. Adolf, and his brother and sister, went up on a tall cliff. "Ah!" he said, "I have thought of something. You, my brother, are going to learn of the animals on the earth. You, my sister, are going to learn of all the beautiful trees and plants. And now, I, too, have found something to learn about; I will learn of the WORLD ITSELF, on which they live. "Yes," said he, "I can see many things even already. Look, yonder, at the broad green ocean! See the rolling waves, with their white foam dashing against the rocks! Do you hear the angry wind whistling to them? Listen, now!-it is howling and beating them about, and the poor waves are roaring for fear. Whew! Here it comes. Mind! It will blow you over. You cannot see it, and yet it is stronger than you are. "Do you notice the dark iron-grey | cloud which seems almost to touch the Ocean? How thick and heavy it looks! Old Wind' seems inclined to make it move on. But ah! it is rather hard work for him. He can only persuade it to jog along slowly. "See the long range of hills behind us, with their round white heads, made of chalk. Here are flint-stones to examine, and black earth; a bank of red earth, and shingle, and sand. "Now," said Adolf to his sister, "whilst you are learning about your trees, I mean to notice all these things. I will travel all over the world, and will learn of the deep waters, and the high mountains, with their snows, glaciers, and waterfalls. I will learn of the fields of ice at the Poles, and the burning deserts of L. And, papa, shall we hear of alı the places he saw? P. Yes. We will begin now. He first learned, what you all know, that the world is a globe turning on its axis. Then he found out that, although it seemed to be an immense world, after all it is but a little speck compared with some of the stars which God has made. He found that the middle of this globe consists of heavy rocks made of granite, &c., which are covered over with a CRUST OF EARTH." W. That earth is lighter than the rocks. I dug some of it this morning with my spade. P. Then, the greater part of this crust-all, except the high parts, where man and the animals live-is surrounded by a still lighter substance. L. That is WATER. You need not dig that, Willie. It is so light, that I can move it by blowing it with my breath. P. And then he found that the earth and water are surrounded by something else-thinner, and lighter still-so that a drop of water will sink through it. L. That is AIR. P. By taking great notice, he found that the three great divisions EARTH, WATER, and AIR, are all composed of very little parts, called particles. ther. The particles of the earth hold fast | this, they would both fall down togeto each other, so that we can walk and tread on them without sinking: therefore, the earth is called solid. Ion. The stones are very solid; but, when Jane bought a lump of salt yesterday, I moved some of its particles away from the others, only by touching them with my finger. P. Still, when she placed the salt on the table, and you did not rub it, it kept its shape, and the particles did not fall away from each other so it is solid. But let us go down in the kitchen. Here is a glass full of the next substance-Water. Willie, just turn it over, and put it in a lump on the table. W. I'll try. Ah, papa, look! Instead of keeping the shape it had in the glass, the water has allowed its particles to run away from it, everywhere. Mind, Lucy! Some of them are running into your lap, and some have gone on a visit to the floor. The particles of the water are sprawling all over the table, and do not keep in any particular shape. L. That is because they cannot hold together so much as the particles of the earth. Ion. Then water is not solid. P. No, it is not. Yet there must be a little power, which holds its particles together. All look at this drop, at the end of my finger. It has more than a million particles, yet there is some power keeping them close to each other in a round shape. L. Yes, the particles at the lower part of the drop hold fast to the particles of the upper part. Ion. And there is some power holding the outside particles to those inside. W. And the same power holds the drop to papa's finger. But that power is not strong enough to hold together the particles of two drops. If you were to try and 'oin another one to P. That is true. Now bring me another glass of water. See, Willie ! Directly I put my solid finger on the top of the water, and push, the particles make way for it. L. That is because they are so loose; the power which holds them together cannot prevent your finger from separating them. I see the difference between Water and solid things-There is not so much power to hold its particles together. What do you call the water, papa, if it is not solid? P. We call it liquid. All of you repeat this after me. The particles of water are so loose, that they can only hang together so as to form a drop-so water is called LIQUID. Ion. And now-THE AIR. W. The particles in the air must be very small, for I cannot even see them. Ion. And they are so loose, that even the drops of rain fall through them. Yet they have some substance, I suppose? P. Yes. Take this empty bladder, Willie, and blow into it. Ion. How it is swelling! W. Yes, of course, the particles of air from my mouth move it. Now, I will open the bladder again, and let the particles out. Listen! Here they come. Hark! what a hurry they are in. I can hear them. I can feel them against my cheek, but cannot see them. P. See this feather which I have thrown up in the air, how slowly it comes down! L. Yes, there must be particles in the air to keep it up so long. P. Now let us find a name for the air. Repeat this, together:-The air is composed of particles, so small that we cannot see them. They are always flowing about, and cannot hold together |