B. I sometimes eat a raw turnip. B. Then I do as well as I can; I work on, and never think of it. Mr. L. Are you not dry sometimes this hot weather? B. Yes, but there is water enough. Mr. L. Why, my little fellow, you are quite a philosopher. B. Sir? Mr. L. I say you are a philosopher, but I am sure you do not know what that means. B. No, Sir, no harm, I hope. Mr. L. No, no! (laughing.) Well, my boy, you seem to want nothing at all, so I shall not give you money to make you want any thing. But were you ever at school? B. No, Sir, but daddy says I shall go after harvest. Mr. L. You will want books then. B. Yes, the boys have all a Spellingbook and a Testament. Mr. L. Well, then, I will give you them-tell your daddy so, and that it is because I thought you a very good contented little boy. So now go to your sheep again. B. I will, Sir. Thank you. Mr. L. Good bye, Peter. B. Good bye, Sir. FLYING AND SWIMMING. How I wish I could fly! (cried Robert, as he was gazing after his pigeons that were exercising themselves in a morning's flight.) How fine it must be to, soar to such a height, and to dash through the air with so swift a motion. I doubt not (said his father) that the pigeons have great pleasure in it; but we have our pleasures too; and it is idle to indulge longings for things quite out of our power. R. But do you think it impossible for men to learn to fly? F. I do for I see they are not furnished by nature with organs requisite for the purpose. R. Might not artificial wings be contrived, such as Dædalus is said to have used? F. Possibly they might; but the difficulty would be to put them in motion. R. Why could not a man move them, if they were fastened to his shoulders, as well as a bird? F. Because he has got arms to move which the bird has not. The same organs which in quadrupeds are employed to move the fore legs, and in man, the arms, are spent by birds in the motion of the wings. Nay, the muscles or bundles of flesh, that move the wings, are proportionally much larger and stronger than those bestowed upon our arms; so that it is impossible, formed as we are, that we should use wings, were they made and fastened on with ever so much art. R. But angels, and cupids, and such things, are painted with wings; and I think they look very natural. · F. To you they may appear so; but an anatomist sees them at once to be monsters, which could not really exist. R. God might have created winged men, however, if he had pleased. F. No doubt; but they could not have had the same shape that men have now. They would have been different creatures, such as it was not in his plan to make. But you that long to flyconsider if you have made use of all the faculties already given you! You want to subdue the element of air-what can do with that of water? Can you you swim? R. No, not yet. F. Your companion Johnson, I think, can swim very well. R. Yes. F. Reflect, then, on the difference betwixt him and you. A boat oversets with you both in a deep stream. You plump at once to the bottom, and infallibly lose your life. He rises like a cork, darts away with the greatest ease, and reaches the side in perfect safety. Both of you, pursued by a bull, come to the side of a river. He jumps in and crosses it. You are drowned if you attempt it, and tossed by the bull if you do not. What an advantage he has over you! Yet you are furnished with exactly the same bodily powers that he is. How is this? R. Because he has been taught, and I have not. F. True, but it is an easy thing to learn, and requires no other instruction than boys can give one another when they bathe together: so that I wonder any body should neglect to acquire an |