T. Ay; they are a very material comfort in a climate like ours, where we so often wish to let in the light, and keep out the cold wind and rain. What could be more gloomy, than to sit in the dark, or with no other light than came in through small holes, covered with oiled paper or bladder, unable to see anything passing without doors! Yet this must have been the case with the most sumptuous palaces, before the invention of window-glass, which was much later than that of bottles and drinking-glasses.

H. I think looking-glasses are very beautiful.

7. They are, indeed, very elegant pieces of furniture, and very costly, too. The art of casting glass into large plates, big enough to reach from the bottom to the top of a room, was some years ago introduced into this country from France. But the most splendid and brilliant manner of employing glass, is in lustres and chandeliers, hung round with drops, cut so as to reflect the light with all the colours of the rainbow. Some of the shops in London, filled with these articles, appear to realize all the wonders of an enchanted palace, in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.

G. But are not spectacles, and other optical glasses, more useful than all these ?

T. I did not mean to pass them over, I assure you. By the curious invention of optical glasses of various kinds, not only the natural defects of sight have been remedied, and old age has been in some measure lightened of one of its calamities, but the sense of seeing has been wonderfully extended. The telescope has brought distant objects within our view, while the microscope has given us a clear survey of near objects too minute for our unassisted eyes. By means of both, some of the most important discoveries of the moderns have been made; so that glass has proved not less admirable in promoting science, than in contributing to splendour and convenience. Since the recent removal of a heavy impost on the manufacture of glass, great improvements have been effected in the art; and

We

glass is now applied to a thousand domestic and other purposes, for which it was never thought of before. The "Crystal Palace," as it is called, erected in Hyde Park, for the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, is in a great measure constructed of glass. Coloured ornamental glass, of various sorts, formerly imported at a heavy cost, is also now manufactured in England. Well-I don't know that I have anything more at present to say, relative to the class of earths. have gone through the principal circumstances belonging to their three great divisions, the calcareous, argillaceous, and siliceous. You will remember, however, that most of the earths and stones offered by nature, are not in any one of these kinds perfectly pure, but contain a mixture of one or both the others. There is not a pebble, that you can pick up, which would not exercise the skill of a mineralogist fully to ascertain its properties, and the materials of its composition. So inexhaustible is nature!

TWENTY-THIRD EVENING.

SHOW AND USE; OR, THE TWO PRESENTS. ONE morning, Lord Richmore, coming down to breakfast, was welcomed with the tidings that his favourite mare, Miss Slim, had brought a foal, and also that a she-ass, kept for his lady's use, as a milker, had dropped a young one. His lordship smiled at the inequality of the presents nature had made him. for the foal," said he to the groom, "that, you know, has been long promised to my neighbour, Mr. Scamper. For young Balaam, you may dispose of him as you please." The groom thanked his lordship, and said he would then give him to Isaac, the woodman.

"As

In due time, Miss Slim's foal, which was the son of a noted racer, was taken to Squire Scamper's, who

received him with great delight, and out of compliment to the donor, named him Young Peer. He was brought up with at least as much care and tenderness as the Squire's own children-kept in a warm stable, fed with the best of corn and hay, duly dressed, and regularly exercised. As he grew up, he gave tokens of great beauty. His colour was bright bay, with a white star on his forehead; his coat was fine, and shone like silk; and every point about him seemed to promise perfection of shape and make. Everybody admired him, as the completest colt that could be seen.

So fine a creature could not be destined to any common employment. After he had passed his third year, he was sent to Newmarket, to be trained for the turf, and a groom was appointed to the care of him alone. His master, who could not well afford the expense, saved part of it by turning off a domestic tutor, whom he kept for the education of his sons, and was content with sending them to the curate of the parish.

At four years old, Young Peer started for a subscription purse, and came in second out of a number of competitors. Soon after, he won a country plate, and filled his master with joy and triumph. The Squire now turned all his attention to the turf, made matches, betted high, and was at first tolerably successful. At length, having ventured all the money he could raise upon one grand match, Young Peer ran on the wrong side of the post, was distanced, and the Squire ruined.

Meantime, young Balaam went into Isaac's possession, where he had a very different training. He was left to pick up his living as he could, in the lanes and commons; and, on the coldest days in winter, he had no other shelter than the lee-side of the cottage, out of which he was often glad to pluck the thatch for a subsistence. As soon as ever he was able to bear a rider, Isaac's children got upon him, sometimes two or three at once; and, if he did not go to their mind,

a broomstick or bunch of furze was freely applied to his hide. Nevertheless, he grew up, as the children themselves did, strong and healthy; and, though he was rather bare on the ribs, his shape was good, and his limbs vigorous.

It was not long before his master thought of putting him to some use; so, taking him to the wood, he fastened a load of fagots on his back, and sent him, with his son Tom, to the next town. Tom sold the fagots, and, mounting upon Balaam, rode him home. As Isaac could get plenty of fagots and chips, he found it a profitable trade to send them for daily sale upon Balaam's back. Having a little garden, which, from the barrenness of the soil, yielded him nothing of value, he bethought him of loading Balaam back from town with dung, for manure. Though all he could bring at once was contained in two small panniers, yet this in time amounted to enough to meet the soil of his whole garden, so that he grew very good cabbages and potatoes, to the great relief of his family. Isaac being now sensible of the value of his ass, began to treat him with more attention. He got a small stack of rushy hay for his winter fodder, and, with his own hands, built him a little shed of boughs and mud, in order to shelter him from the bad weather. He would not suffer any of his family to use Baalam ill, and, after his daily journeys, he was allowed to ramble at pleasure. He was now and then cleaned and dressed, and, upon the whole, made a reputable figure. Isaac took in more land from the waste, so that by degrees he became a little farmer, and kept a horse and cart, a cow, and two or three pigs. This made him quite a rich man, but he had always the gratitude to impute his prosperity to the good services of Balaam, the groom's present; while the Squire cursed Young Peer, as the cause of his ruin, and many a time wished his lordship had kept his dainty gift to himself.

315

THE CRUCIFORM-FLOWERED PLANTS.

Tutor George-Harry.

George. How rich yon field looks, with its yellow flowers. I wonder what they can be?

Tutor. Suppose you go and see whether you can ascertain, and bring a stalk of the flowers with you. G. (returning). I know now they are turnips.

T. I thought you would make it out, when you got near them. These turnips are left to seed, which is the reason why you see them run to flower. Commonly, they are pulled up sooner.

Harry. I should not have thought a turnip had so sweet a flower.

G. I think I have smelt others like them. Pray, sir, what class of plants do they belong to?

T. To a very numerous one, with which it is worth your while to get acquainted. Let us sit down and examine them. The petals, you observe, consist of four flat leaves set opposite to each other, or crosswise. From this circumstance the flowers have been called cruciform. As most plants with flowers of this kind bear their seeds in pods, they have also been called the siliquose plants, siliqua being the Latin for a pod.

G. But the papilionaceous flowers bear pods, too.

T. True; and therefore the name is not a good one. Now, pull off the petals one by one. You see, they are fastened by long claws within the flower-cup. Now count the chives.

H. There are six.

G. But they are not all of the same length-two are.much shorter than the rest.

T. Well observed. It is from this that Linnæus has formed a particular class of the whole tribe, which he calls tetradynamia, a word implying four powers, or the power of four, as though the four