subsequent imitation of the Jews by | tant Poor Law Commissioner will a false prophet called Mahomet, and his followers, is so revolting a course that it needs no illustration. Ion, What does he mean by "needs no illustration?"* It is a pleasant task for me to draw away your attention from these degenerate races, and to contrast them with that most exalted and civilised nation, the Irish. Their proverbial good treatment of our "body" is at once natural and simple. One extract from the report of an Assis This question should be answered. It is good for children to find occasionally words and modes of expression which require explanation. A child acquires much of his materials for thought, and his vocabulary, in two ways: 1st, By noticing ideas, and inquiring for the words to express them. 2ndly, By noticing words-and inquiring for the ideas they are intended to convey. The first is, with some truth, said to be the natural way-but, on the other hand, children in their daily intercourse with adults gather many thoughts from new expressions, especially when the position of the words helps to demonstrate their meaning. Whenever a strange word or mode expression, such as the above (or the word reminiscences in another part of the lesson), is placed so that the child may feel he needs the idea-it will lead to inquiry. The habits of investigation, and of searching for the hidden meaning of words, which are thus formed, are similar to those afterwards required in the process of "translating" a language. It has been deemed necessary to write this note, because, in these lessons, many such expressions will Occasionally be found, which the true disciples of Pestalozzi will deprecate, while many critics will pronounce them "too difficult for children." suffice:-"Whatever may be the poverty and privations of the labourer and his family, the pig is almost sure to be coddled up with a good warm dinner, and a snug corner in the cabin; and the Assistant Commissioner has more than once been puzzled to know whether his bed, or the children's, contained the cleanest and the most straw. The great importance of this animal to the labourer (for he is almost their only means of paying the rent), is quite sufficient to account for their care and anxiety to promote his thriving."Appendix F, Poor Law Inquiry, p. 385. How chilling and dark is the thought of a Mohammedan after this! Perhaps a few words of Mr. Inglis, and of the late Mr. Cobbett, may with advantage be added:"I used to be shocked at seeing a pig's snout at a cabin door, but soon I began to bless the sight, and to pity the poor wretches who possessed no pig. It was always to me a pleasant sight where I saw him who pays the 'rint' walk leisurely in and out of the door, or heard his comfortable grunt within." Again. Mr. Cobbett:"In England, his creature comforts may be greater, but in Ireland, the pig and the peasant are fellow lodgers. Sure, and doesn't he help to pay the rint?' is the exclamation all over Ireland." of Lastly, and above all, I must add that fifteen years ago the value the pigs in Ireland, £16,693,685. What must be their value now? was Enough! The high position taken by myself at the opening of my introduction is proved! We will at once W. No, stop! That won't do! | You made a great bother about your position ten minutes ago, and said that your "exact position" would be a cloudy mystery, or something. Bacon. But I mean now, the position of pigs in— W. There, don't talk so. They have all manner of positions-sitting up; lying down; standing; kneeling-no one wants you to prove that. You are an Irish pig! that is proved. youths, whom my friend told me in a grunt were spalpeens. But, the fourth day-Ah, when in the morning the gates opened, there came two gentlemen, and a man with a short heavy mallet in his hand. They began to talk about us. The man pointed to several in one corner, and said that they were intended to supply the Navy. He showed the two visitors the salting-house, the slaughtering trough, the blood vat, the hooks, the hot water, and many other things, Bacon. Yes, that is just the point I was coming to. A few personal details may now be not Soon after, there came four men uninteresting. But no, I must with sharp knives. Each one, standnot stop! Indeed, I cannot thinking at the corner of the yard, was again of the cabin, the children, told by the man with the mallet the hot potatoes, and the pot! to make ready. And then, alas! The history of my life contains the scene that followed-and the reminiscences too warm, affecting, uproar! I saw one of my friends and tender to be touched upon. receive a violent blow on the head The history of my death more from the man's mallet, so that he particularly concerns our subject. fell to the ground stunned. He was then carried to the killing trough by one of the men with a knife, and then-but really, I'd rather stop. No more! I fled at once to the farthest corner of the yard, and may I never try to describe that scene! Ah, the squealing and screeching, the kickings and struggles, the blood, the hot water, the steam all over the yard. Bv the evening more than 200 out of 350, and I amongst the number, were hanging on the hooks under the shed. I was purchased of my master by a man called a pig-drover or pig-jobber. This man drove me with a large company of strangers from one farm to another, where we were joined by fresh pigs, until we formed a large drove, and were taken to market. We were soon driven from market again, to a town called Sligo. Here we passed through the principal streets, until we came to a narrow lane in a dirty part of the town, at the end of which was a square and comfortable looking cabin, called "the killing yard." I spent three happy days there. It seemed to be some annual meeting of pigs, for there were altogether about 350 of us. I spent part of my time with a friend at the two crazy gates, where we held conversations through the large peep-holes with some saucy Some of my fellow carcases were sent to the great town of Belfast, and one day I found myself hanging up in a dairy, when I was awoke by hearing a farmer's wife talking about me to a maid. "First," she said, "you are to remove the bristles on the skinthis is done by covering the carcase lightly with straw, and by setting fire to it; you will thus singe it, and will give the bacon a fine firmness. "Secondly, take each of these sides, or flitches, as we call them, and rub them with salt inside (on the fleshy sides). "Thirdly, when the flitches are well salted, place them in this trough-but mind that you tilt the trough, so that all the drippings may run away-never let your bacon lie sopping in brine. "Fourthly, keep it in salt until I come back from the north-which sir!-it's as firm! Fed, sir, on barley-meal,-peas-meal, skim milk, and butter milk!-FINE BACON." And that is all I remember. W. There, papa. I said that the pig would make a rigmarole. He has given us a story long enough for five pages! M. And now we will make up a lesson. Lesson 11. THE RASHER OF 1. Papa's Rasher of Bacon con sists of bone, lean, fat, and skin. These parts differ in their colour: will be in about seven or eight-the bone is of a brownish-white weeks time-and, change the salt every five days." All this was done to us until the "Missus" came back from the north-when there came the darkest period of my existencewe were hung up in a lodginghouse called the chimney. The change of air and of scene was by no means agreeable. Oh, the heat of the place sometimes!-and the smoke. After a month, we were taken down. They said I was smoked, which I thought was quite true-and the farmer said I was "Bacon," which I knew was not true. I was pig, and nothing else -dead pig. W. No. You were bacon. Bacon. You may say what you like, I always was, and am, and shall be "pig"-you are as bad as the man who, after the farmer had packed me in sawdust, and carried me to market, tried to sell me. He called me "flitch of bacon" all day long. "There, sir!" he said, "if that had been fed entirely on potatoes, like other Irish bacon, the fat would have been loose and flabby-but feel it, colour; the lean is of a dark red colour; the fat is yellowish-white; and the skin is of a dark brown colour. They differ also in consistency:the bone is hard; the lean is solid; the fat is soft; and the skin is tough. They differ a little in surface:the skin is rough and scrubby; the fat is smooth and slippery. Bacon has a nice, palatable, unctuous, saline, and savoury taste. 2. Bacon is procured from the Pig, an animal whose flesh has from the earliest times formed food for mankind, except the Jews and Mahometans. It was valued by the Roman people, and was the household food in England during the times of the Saxons; but it was neglected by the Normans. In present times, however, the pigs of Ireland, and of Suffolk and Berkshire in England, are very famous. 3. When pigs' flesh is to be made into bacon, it is first singed, then salted, and then smoked over a wood fire. It is then said to be "cured," and the side of the pig is called a flitch of bacon. THE CRUST OF THE EARTH. SKETCH OF GEOLOGY. W. I liked that history of Coal, papa. I mean to sit on the coalskuttle while we have this lesson. There! now I am on the ancient forest. Ion. And we have been examining the coals, and thinking about them very much. Here is an old coal!-older than Adam. Only suppose, now, that a man could have been in one of those forests, and have known all about it. He would have said, "Thou, carbon gas, floating in the air-thou wilt not be destroyed and be useless. Thou shalt be put away fcr tens of thousands of years, and shall then come forth again to boil the pot!" W. And the kettle. which we called the sixth day. Ah! there were giants on the earth in those days. W. Oh, please, papa, let us learn some tales about giants. P. Well, I have made you a picture of one. W. May we see him, papa ? Had he black curly hair and a beard? P. Dear me, no! He was not a man. If you look in your Bible for the beginning of the sixth day, you will find that man was not yet created, there were only the "creeping things" on the earth. W. Then they were Reptiles. Giant reptiles! We learned of the reptiles in our Natural History lesson last week. L. And they seem, papa, to have been made in their proper order. The first animals we heard of the history of the rocks were the Radiated Animals. Next find some Molluscous and Articulated Animals, and then when we come to the Vertebrated Animals, we find that the lowest class -THE FISHES-were made first. L. And (but you mean, I sup-in pose, to boil the potatoes in the pot. Pots do not require boiling)—we and thus to boil the water in the steam-engines, and to carry hundreds of people along the railroads or across the ocean. I never read of anything so strange in a book. P. Yes. If a man had made such an account by himself, people would have said, "It is a fairy tale." But, ah! in God's great "book of nature" there are wonders greater than man can invent; and if we could only once peep into the secrets of the Creator, we should say, "We have never known such strange fairy tales before." You shall have another "fairy tale" to-day, if you like. After the sinking of the forests, and the formation of the coal fields, a new layer of limestone was made. Soon after this must have begun that immense period of time Ion. Yes. And the class above the fishes are the reptiles. W. But reptiles are such small things. Frogs, toads, and lizards. The tortoises and boa-constrictors are rather large. There are no large reptiles -none that would make good giants, except the CRO CODILES. P. And my giant is a sort of crocodile-only he is such a monster. Here he is! Here he is. THIRTY FEET LONG! If we could only bring one into our house, and lay him along the passage, we should want to lay the rest of his body along the stairs, while his head would have to be put out of the landing window. The Icthyosaurus. W. His tail would peep out ander the door. L. And perhaps hang down the steps. Ion. But it would spoil his tail to put it under the door; it would jam it. His head might be out of the window-that would be the best place for it, because he could not bite! W. And he would not know that we were examining him. I should think that they hardly liked to look at each other-they must have been afraid. P. No. These giants, when they came, were masters of the whole world. In "the fifth day," the fishes were the highest animals, and were lords over all the others. But now, in the sixth day, as the air was becoming purer, and the land cooler, and fitted for animals to live upon-they were obliged to submit to this new and superior race-the reptiles. W. But, papa-our friend the giant seems as though he could swim a little-like the other reptiles. P. Yes. God formed them to live in the water and land too, according to the troublesome and unsettled state of the times. Think, what a fine picture the world must have been at the beginning of this sixth day. Think, there were even greater giants! You know how very wide the road is at the end of our street -it is very wide. L. Yes, papa. P. Well, then-some of these reptiles had bodies which would have reached from one side of the road to the other. They were more than FIFTY feet long! Now let us see how these gentlemen-these noblemenW. Say these barons, papa. |