which, collecting into clouds, is condensed in the cold regions of the air, and falls down in rain.

But our tea is done; so we will now put an end to our chemical lecture.

Pup. But is this real chemistry?

Tut. Yes, it is.

Pup. Why, I understand it all, without any difficulty.

Tut. I intended you should.

THE KIDNAPPERS.

MR. B. was accustomed to read in the evening to his young folk some select story, and then ask them in turn what they thought of it. From the reflections they made on these occasions, he was enabled to form a judgment of their dispositions, and was led to throw in remarks of his own, by which their hearts and understandings might be improved. One night, he read the following narrative from "Churchill's Voyages."

"In some voyages of discovery made from Denmark to Greenland, the sailors were instructed to seize some of the natives by force or stratagem, and bring them away. In consequence of these orders, several Greenlanders were kidnapped and brought to Denmark. Though they were treated there with kindness, the poor wretches were always melancholy, and were observed frequently to turn their faces towards the north, and sigh bitterly. They made several attempts to escape, by putting out to sea in their little canoes which had been brought with them. One of them had got as far as thirty leagues from land before he was overtaken. It was remarked, that this poor man, whenever he met a woman with a child in her arms, used to utter a deep sigh; whence it was conjectured that he had left a wife and child behind him. They all pined away, one after another, and died miserably

"Now, Edward," said he, "what is your opinion of this story ?"

Edward. Poor creatures! I think it was very barbarous to take them from home.

Mr. B. It was, indeed!

Ed. Have civilized nations any right to behave so to savages?

Mr. B. I think you may readily answer that question yourself. Suppose you were a savage-what would be your opinion ?

Ed. I dare say I should think it very wrong. But can savages think about right and wrong as we do? Mr. B. Why not? are they not men?

Ed. Yes-but not like civilized men, surely!

Mr. B. I know no important difference between ourselves and those people we are pleased to call savage, but in the degree of knowledge and virtue possessed by each. And I believe many individuals among the Greenlanders, as well as other unpolished people, exceed in these respects many among us. In the present case, I am sure the Danish sailors showed themselves the greater savages.

Ed. But what did they take away the Greenlanders for?

Mr. B. The pretence was, that they might be brought to be instructed in a Christian country, and then sent back to civilize their countrymen.

Ed. And was not that a good thing?

Mr. B. Certainly-if it had been done by proper means; but to attempt it by an act of violence and injustice could not be right; for they could teach them nothing so good as their example was bad; and the poor people were not likely to learn willingly from those who had begun with injuring them so cruelly.

Ed. I remember Captain Cook brought over somebody from Otaheite; and poor Le Boo was brought here from the Pelew Islands. But I believe they both came of their own accord.

Mr. B. They did. And it is a great proof of the

better way of thinking of modern voyagers than of former ones, that they do not consider it as justifiable to use violence, even for the supposed benefit of the people they visit.

Ed. I have read of taking possession of a newlydiscovered country by setting up the king's standard, or some such ceremony, though it was full of inhabitants.

Mr. B. Such was formerly the custom; and a more impudent mockery of all right and justice cannot be conceived. Yet this, I am sorry to say, is the title by which European nations claim the greatest part of their foreign settlements.

Ed. And might not the natives drive them out again, if they were able?

Mr. B. I am sure I do not know why they might not; for force can never give right.

Now, Harry, tell me what you think of the story.

Harry. I think it very strange that people should want to go back to such a cold, dismal place as Greenland.

Mr. B. Why, what country do you love best in all the world?

H. England, to be sure.

Mr. B. But England is by no means the warmest and finest country. Here are no grapes growing in the fields, nor oranges in the woods and hedges, as there are in more southern climates.

H. I should like them very well, to be sure—but then England is my own native country, where you, and mamma, and all my friends live. Besides, it is a very pleasant country, too.

Mr. B. As to your first reason, you must be sensible that the Greenlander can say just the same; and the poor fellow, who left a wife and children behind, must have had the strongest of all ties to make him wish to return. Do you think I should be easy to be separated from all of you?

H. No-and I am sure we should not be easy neither

Mr B. Home, my dear, wherever it is, is the spot towards which a good heart is the most strongly drawn. Then, as for the pleasantness of a place, that all depends upon habit. The Greenlander, being accustomed to the way of living, and all the objects of his own country, could not fancy any other so well. He loved whale-fat and seal as well as you can do pudding and beef. He thought rowing his little boat amidst the boisterous waves, pleasanter employment than driving a plough or a cart. He fenced himself against the winter's cold by warm clothing; and the long night of many weeks, which you would think so gloomy, was to him a season of ease and festivity in his habitation under-ground. It is a very kind and wise dispensation of Providence, that every part of the world is rendered the most agreeable to those who live in it.

Now, little Mary, what have you to say?

Mary. I have only to say, that if they were to offer to carry me away from home, I would scratch their eyes out.

Mr. B. Well said, my girl! stand up for yourself. Let nobody run away with you-against your will. Mary. That I won't.

ELEVENTH EVENING.

ON MANUFACTURES.

Father-Henry.

Hen. My dear father, you observed the other day that we had a great many manufactures in England. Pray, what is a manufacture?

Fa. A manufacture is something made by the hand of man. It is derived from two Latin words,—manus the hand, and facere, to make. Manufactures are, therefore, opposed to productions, which latter are

what the bounty of nature spontaneously affords us; as fruits, corn, marble.

Hen. But there is a great deal of trouble with corn; you have often made me take notice how much pains it costs the farmer to plough his ground, and put the seed in the earth, and keep it clean from weeds.

corn;

Fa. Very true; but the farmer does not make the he only prepares for it a proper soil and situation, and removes every hindrance arising from the hardness of the ground, or the neighbourhood of other plants, which might obstruct the secret and wonderful process of vegetation; but with the vegetation itself he has nothing to do. It is not his hand that draws out the slender fibres of the root, pushes up the green stalk, and, by degrees, the spiky ear; swells the grain, and embrowns it with that rich tinge of tawny russet, which informs the husbandman it is time to put in his sickle: all this operation is performed without his care or even knowledge.

Hen. Now, then, I understand; corn is a production, and bread a manufacture.

Fa. Bread is certainly, in strictness of speech, a manufacture; but we do not in general apply the term to anything in which the original material is so little changed. If we wanted to speak of bread philosophically, we should say, it is a preparation of

corn.

process

too

Hen. Is sugar a manufacture? Fa. No, for the same reason. Besides which, I do not recollect the term being applied to any article of food; I suppose from an idea that food is of too perishable a nature, and generally obtained by a simple to deserve the name. We say, therefore, sugarworks, oil-mills, chocolate-works; we do not say a beer-manufactory, but a brewery; but this is only a nicety of language; for, properly, all those are manufactories, if there be much of art and curiosity in th process.