T. They are weeds, or noxious plants, with respect to us; but doubtless they have their uses in the creation. There is a kind of tares, however, which, when grown by themselves, are excellent food for cattle. Some of our papilionaceous plants are able enough to shift for themselves; for gorse or furze is of the number.

G. What, that prickly bush all covered over with yellow flowers, that overruns our common?

T. Yes. Then there is broom, a plant as big, but without thorns, and with larger flowers. This is as frequent as furze in some places.

H. I know it grows in abundance in the Broomfield.

T. It does; but the naming of fields and places from it is a proof that it is not so common as the other.

G. We have some bushes of white broom in the shrubbery, and some trees of Spanish broom.

T. True. You have also a small tree which flowers early, and bears a great many pendent branches of yellow blossoms, that look peculiarly beautiful when intermixed with the purple lilacs.

H. I know it-laburnum.

T. Right. That is one of our class of plants, too. Then there is a large tree, with delicate little leaves, protected by long thorns, and bearing bunches of white papilionaceous flowers.

G. I know which you mean, but I cannot tell the

name.

T. It is the bastard acacia, or locust-tree, a native of America. Thus, you see, we have traced this class of plants through all sizes, from the trefoil that covers the turf, to a large tree. I should not, however, forget two others, the liquorice, and the tamarind. The liquorice, with the sweet root of which you are well acquainted, grows in the warmer countries, especially Spain, but is cultivated in England. The tamarind is a larger spreading tree, growing in the West

Indies, and valued for its shade, as well as for the cooling acid pulp of its pods, which are preserved with sugar, and sent over to us.

H. I know them very well.

T. Well-do you think, now, you shall both be able to discover a papilionaceous flower when you meet with it again?

G. I believe I shall, if they are all like these we have been examining.

T. They have all the same parts, though variously proportioned. What are these?

G. There is the standard, and there are the two wings.

H. And the keel.

T. Right-the keel, sometimes cleft into two, and then it is an irregular, five-leaved flower. The chives are generally ten, of which one stands apart from the rest. The pistil single, and ending in a pod. Another circumstance, common to most of this tribe, is, that their leaves are winged or pinnated; that is, having leaflets set opposite each other upon a middle rib. You see this structure in these bean-leaves. But in the clovers there are only two opposite leaflets, and one terminating; whence their name of trefoil, or threeleaf. What we call a club on cards is properly a cloverleaf, and the French call it trèfle, which means the

same.

G. I think this tribe of plants almost as useful as the grasses.

T. They, perhaps, come the next in utility; but their seeds, such as beans and peas, are not quite such good nourishment as corn; and bread cannot be made of them.

G. But clover is better than grass for cattle.

T. It is more fattening, and makes cows yield plenty of fine milk. Well-let us march.

205

ON MAN.

Charles. You gave me the definition of a horse some time ago. Pray, sir, how is a man defined?

Father. That is worth inquiring. Let us consider, then. He must either stand by himself, or be ranked among the quadrupeds; for there are no other twolegged animals but birds, which he certainly does not resemble.

C. But how can he be made a quadruped?

F. By setting him to crawl on the ground, in which case, he will as much resemble a baboon, as a baboon set on his hind legs resembles a man. In reality, there is little difference between the arms of a man and the fore legs of a quadruped; and, in all other circumstances of internal and external structure, they are evidently formed upon the same model.

C. I suppose that we must call him a digitated quadruped, that generally goes upon its hind legs.

F. A naturalist could not reckon him otherwise; and, accordingly, Linnæus has placed him in the same division with apes, macocos, and bats.

C. Apes, macocos, and bats!

F. Yes they have all four cutting teeth in the upper jaw, and teats on the breast. How do you like your relations ?

C. Not at all!

F. Then we will get rid of them by applying to the other part of human nature-the mind. Man is an animal possessed of reason, and the only one; at least in an equal degree, or anything like a near approach to it. This, therefore, is sufficient to define him.

C. I have often heard, that man is a rational creature, and I have a notion what that means; but I should like to have an exact definition of reason.

F. Reason is the faculty by which we compare ideas, and draw conclusions. A man walking in the woods

of an unknown country finds a bow. He compares it in his mind with other bows, and forms the conclusion that it must have been made by man, and that, therefore, the country is probably inhabited. He discovers a hut; sees in it half-burnt wood, and finds that the ashes are not quite cold. He concludes, therefore, with certainty, not only that there are inhabitants, but that they cannot be far distant. No other animal could do this.

C. But would not a dog, who had been used to live with men, run into such a hut, and expect to find people in it ?

F. He probably would-and this, I acknowledge, is very like reason, for he may be supposed to compare in his mind, the hut he has lived in with that which he sees, and to conclude, that as there were men in the former, there are men in the latter. But how little does this aid him. He finds no men there, and he is unable, by any marks, to form a judgment how long they have been absent, or what sort of people they were; still less does he form any plan of conduct in consequence of his discovery.

C. Then, is not the difference only, that man has much reason, and brutes little ?

F. If we adhere to the mere words of the definition of reason, I believe this must be admitted; but in the exercise of it, the superiority of the human faculties is so great, that man is in many points absolutely distinguished from brutes. In the first place, he has the use of speech, which no other animal has attained.

C. Cannot many animals make themselves understood by one another by their cries ?

F. They can make known their common wants and desires, but they cannot discourse, or, it is presumed, communicate ideas stored up in the memory. It is this faculty, which makes man an improvable being, the wisdom and experience acquired by one individual, being thus transmitted to others, and so on in an endless series of progression.-There is no reason to suppose

that the dogs of the present day are more knowing than those which lived a thousand years ago; but the men of this age are much better acquainted with numberless arts and sciences, than their remote ancestors; since by the use of speech, and of writing (which is speech addressed to the eye), every age adds its own discoveries to all former ones. This knowledge of the past also gives a man a great insight into the future. Shakspeare excellently defines man, by saying, that he is a creature" made with large discourse, looking before and after."

C. Brute animals must surely know something of the future, when they lay up a store of provision for the winter?

Man

F. No-it is pretty certain that this is not the case, for they will do it as much the first year of their lives as any other. Young bees turned out of their hive, as soon as they have swarmed, and got a habitation, begin laying up honey, though they cannot possibly foresee the use they shall have for it. There are a vast number of actions of this sort in brute animals, which are directed to a useful end, but an end of which the animal knows nothing. And this is what we call instinct, and properly distinguished from reason. has less of it than almost any other animal, because he requires it less. Another point of essential difference is, that man is the only animal that makes use of instruments in any of his actions. He is a toolmaking and machine-making animal. By means of this faculty alone, he is everywhere Lord of the creation, and has equally triumphed over the subtlety of the cunning, the swiftness of the fleet, and the force of the strong. He is the only animal that has found out the use of fire, a most important acquisition.

C. I have read of some large apes, that will come and sit round a fire in the woods, when men have left it, but have not the sense to keep it in, by throwing on sticks.

F. Still less, then, could they light a fire. In conse