get beautiful thoughts of God's wisdom. Ah, and thoughts of his love and goodness too, when you understand it properly. You have forgotten to notice its shape.

Ion. I was wondering at that, mamma-Instead of being a nice, straight, perpendicular bone, so

it is curved; there are two curves in it-a double curve. Why is that?

M. There is a very nice reason for it, Ion. If these vertebræ were placed on top of one another 80 as to make a straight line-it would happen, whenever by accident you had a knock on the top of your head, that each bone would strike on the one beneath it.

W. I understand, mamma-they would "jar" against each other.

M. That, you know, would be very disagreeable, especially if there were no cartilage or gristle between the vertebræ. And, again, it would happen, you were to jump down six stairs, as you do sometimes, and come down suddenly on your feet the shock would produce the same "jarring" of the vertebræ against each other-but, in an upward direction - from the bottom of your spine to the top; and it would produce a very bad effect on your brain.

W. I see, mamma, and I suppose that the jarring is not so bad with a curved spine as it would be with a straight one.

M. No. If you received a hard blow on your head, the force, inst ad of striking the bones against

each other, would merely cause the whole spine to bend more-just like a spring.

Ion. Ah! how God must have thought when he made us! He knew that we would want to jump, sometimes.

M. And yet, Ion, if you had ordered your own spine, you would have liked a "nice, straight, perpendicular bone." I can tell you another curious thing about this curve. It causes your body to get shorter every day.

W. How can that be, mamma? Why, we should grow down to nothing, like candles!

M. Listen. The cartilage between your vertebræ is elastic(you know very well what that means). Now a man, in the daytime, instead of lying down, is either standing or walkingthe weight of his head is always resting on the spine. This you

can see in Figure 1. So, it happens in the course of the day, that the head continually bearing on the vertebræ, presses them closer together-this pressure causes the

spine to curve more-as I told you a violent blow would do. It thus becomes shorter-and at night, when a man goes to bed, he is about half-an-inch shorter than he was, when he got up in the morning. You see this in Figure 2.

W. That is curious!-Ah! but then he gets right again in the night, mamma. When he lies down the cartilage stretches again-of course it does!

Ion. Ah, mamma, you only told us part of the truth-that was as bad as Mr. Ganeall.

M. I left that for you to find out. But now you may sit down and write the lesson-The 1st lesson on your framework. Lucy will do it.

Lesson 8. THE FRAMEWORK OF VERTEBRATED ANIMALS - THE SPINE.

Backboned Animals consists of three principal parts, viz.—

1. THE HEAD, 2. THE TRUNK, 3. THE LIMBS.

(2.) The Trunk has several bones, the principal of which is THE SPINE. This Spine consist of several ring-like bones called VERTEBRÆ. These ver. tebræ are so placed above each other that their holes form a long TUBE. The tube forms a case for a sort of Pith called the SPINAL CORD.

(3.) This Spinal Cord is connected at one end with the brain, and is also connected with the nerves, at the little openings between the vertebræ.

(4.) THE SPINE IS THEREFORE A MOST REMARKABLE BONE-for it is very strong and yet flexible-and, at the same time, it protects the spinal cord, that important organ which conveys sensations from our nerves to the

THE SAXON KINGDOM.

EDRED, EDWY, EDGAR.

Ion. I liked that story of Athelstane last week, papa-so much.

P. Yes, I knew you would. But I forgot to tell you one thing. These Danes kept their promise, and never came again. They couldn't do that.

W. Why not, papa?

P. There was something, now, in the hearts even of these rude men that would not let them do so! The king could not always stop them with the sword-they were not afraid to fight.

But, "There's a power can conquer the sword." Do you know what that means?

W. Why, it is stronger than the sword-can do more, I suppose.

P. Yes. The sword brings quarrels and disorder on the earth; but this power prevents quarrels, and brings peace and order. It is called LOVE.

before then, there was a bad power working very strongly on the earth, and it brought-ah! far worse slavery than that of the Danes.

This bad power, which is called SUPERSTITION, not only taught men to do wickedness, and foolishness, but to call good things bad, and bad things good.

W. Ah! it taught the priests to burn John Huss, and call that a good thing!

P. I must stop now to tell you of some of this foolishness. JESUS CHRIST had said that He was the "door" to heaven, and that men could only enter heaven through Him;-but, the people were taught that there was a wooden doorthat the Apostle Peter had real iron keys, and that he was the only person who could open this door.

And, how do you think that the apostle was to be persuaded to do this for them? Why, with MONEY!! You may well thank God that we have His Word now; for in these days, even little children who might hear such nonsense would not believe it!

But the poor blind English people did! Every nobleman, and all who had money, were persuaded by the priests, that they must leave their country and go as "pilgrims" to Rome. They all imagined that it was not possible to reach heaven without first paying their compliments to St. Peter, who kept the keys, so away they went!-and everywhere the princes and priests looked out for a chance to cheat them. This love of pilgrimage, which was getting very strong in the reign of Edred, grew so fast, that about 100 years after, very large sums of money were gained by the kings of those countries

through which they passed, by making them pay tolls upon the road.

Then, when they reached Rome -there the Pope and clergy were ready, and waiting to "take money." They did not care that Jesus Christ had said, Come for salvation "without money and without price," but they opened a shop to which crowds of nobles, bishops, and kings, came eagerly to buy.

And they sold very strange things!

They pretended that they had whole legs and arms of Christ's apostles to sell, which were worth much money; and, that they "had on hand" a stock of bones, toes, and fingers, which were, all of them, first-rate articles. They called these things "holy relics;" and although they sold thousands of them, they still declared that they had more. They offered to sell things which they said were pieces of the cross;-nails from the cross; a tooth of St. Peter; -a shoe of the Apostle Andrew; and, you shall hear for how much they sold them! In the year 1021, an Archbishop of Canterbury, AGELNOTH, wanted an arm of St. Augustin-the missionary who, you may remember, first came to England-and he paid for that arm (whether it really was Augustin's, is doubtful) 60lbs. weight of gold, and 60,000lbs. weight of silver-an immense sum, greater than you can think of.

Again. In England, so foolish were the people, that forgetting our Saviour was very poor, they allowed the clergy, who taught about Him, to be rich. Ah, so rich, that if you had divided all England into three parts, one of these parts would have belonged to the priests:

-and whilst the people paid taxes for their lands, the priests paid

none.

With all this foolishness we must not be surprised that the people improved very slowly. Although Alfred and Athelstane had tried to teach them, they were still in a wretched state. Two out of every three of all the English, were either servants or slaves. The poor slaves were called Thralls, and they were sold in the marketplace with the oxen. Indeed, slaves and oxen were the living money of those days, and were used to pay debts with. Thus, a man was worth four cows, just as, now, a penny is worth four farthings.

No wonder, then, that in the times of the Saxon kings, the people were in a weak state. No wonder, that they were an easv prey to the Danes, and had to be taken care of like sheep-they were quite as foolish. No wonder, when the Saxon kings were afterwards driven away by the Norman-Danes, that they were soon subdued. Their minds were made slaves by superstition.-so they had no strength, nor spirit in them.

Dear children, I have taken the trouble to tell you these tales to our ancestors that you may learn something. Learn to use your minds, so that, in time, you may think for your selves! Do you want to serve God? Take his holy book, and ask Him to teach you. And, if you mean, when you grow up to be men, to love your country, and to sing, "Britons never shall be slaves"-go to Jesus, and be free yourselves. Go! learn from his Holy Spirit the right way to serve Him, whose service is PER FECT FREEDOM.

WATER.

M. Well! we have by this time learned something of the objects on our BREAKFAST-TABLE.

W. I will count them, mamma. We have had lessons on the Tablecloth, Bread, Butter, Sugar, Milk, Egg, Salt, Coffee, and papa's Cocoa; and, to-day, we are to learn of the Boiling Water in the Urn.

M. We will first observe it in its natural state. Here is a glass of cold water-now, find out its qualities, and make a description of it. At least, we will begin our description to-day.

W. Well-water is very thin. L. And it flows about-so it is fluid.

Ion. But its particles can hold together a little enough to form a drop-so it is liquid. L. It is clear.

L. Why, just as in the evening the red light of the sun strikes against the surface of the windows, and bends back again!

M. Or, just as a ball, when you

-it is transparent.

Ada. And it is bright. Ion. It is not only bright-but see how it sparkles!-It is sparkling.

It has no colour in it-so, it is colourless;-and, it has no tasteso, it is tasteless;-and, it has no smell-so, it is inodorous.

L. And it is like the mineralsit has no life-so, it is inanimate. And it has no "organs"—at least, I suppose not.

Lon. No, of course it has notwhat does it want them for?-it hasn't life!

L. Then it is inorganic.

M. You are talking of all its negative qualities, let me hear some of its positive qualities.

W. Then I am positive that I see my face in it.

M. I doubt that, Willie! for Nobody in the world has ever seen his own face, yet.

L. Or, just as the echoes of the cannon, at POOLEY, struck against the rocks and bounded back again!

M. Ah, you'll mystify Willie. A "reflection" just means a bending back again of the light-from the Latin words re, again, and flectère, to bend. Now, tell me some other reflective substances.

W. The coalscuttle, mammathe handle of the door-the glasses --a looking-glass. And so now I will say our "description" of water!

WATER is a thin, fluid, liquid, clear, transparent, bright, sparkling, colourless, tasteless, inodorous, inanimate, inorganic, and reflective substance. Now, if we write its effects

M. Not now-the Printer will not let us make the "lesson" any longer-because he says it is only to fill one page. Good-bye.