put his thumb on the side of his nose, and made a sort of wriggling with his fingers. The speaker began to giggle, and the next moment the whole house was convulsed with laughter. 17. "I was thrown back on my seat, as if a bombshell had exploded at my feet. The member from Bowlingville, seeing my embarrassment, rose and moved that the house do now adjourn.' So I snatched up my hat, and retreated under cover of the smoke." 1. "I'LL go and peep at the pimpernel, And 'tis like to be fine, I shall go to the fair, For my schoolmates are there : So, pimpernel, what bode the clouds and the sky?" 2. Now the pimpernel flower had folded up Her little gold star in her coral cup; And unto the maid Thus her warning said: "Though the sun smile down, There's a gathering frown O'er the checkered blue of the clouded sky: 3. The maid first looked sad, and then looked cross; Gave her foot a fling, and her head a toss. "Say you so, indeed, You mean little weed? To more credulous people your warning tell; 4. "Stay at home," quoth the flower. "In sooth, not I; I'll don my straw hat with a silken tie; White, checkered with pink, And then let me think I'll consider my gown, for I'd fain look well.” 5. The fair maiden straight donned her best array, And forth to the festival hied away; But scarce had she gone Ere the storm came on; She cried, oft and again, “O, would I had minded yon boding flower, And were safe at home from the pelting shower!" 6. Now, maidens, the tale that I tell would say, EVAPORATION BY ATTRACTION. INDUC TION. 1. WHEN water is spilled upon wood, there is an attraction between the wood and the water, so that it adheres to the wood; and, in fact, there is a similar attraction between water and almost all solid substances. 2. The air has also a strong and very peculiar attraction for water; and when any water is lying upon a board, the air over it gradually takes it up. The particles of water rise up, one after another, and mingle with the air and float away. 3. We cannot see them, for they are very small, and they rise very gradually, and they make no difference in the appearance of the air when they have mingled with it. It is something like sugar dissolving in a cup of warm water. 4. The water has an attraction for the sugar, and takes the particles off from it gradually, and floats them away, until all the sugar is diffused equally over the whole cup of water. So the air takes up the water. This is what we call drying. It is the water going off into the air, because the attraction of the air for it is stronger, than that of the solid substance it rests upon. If you 5. But oil will not dry up in that way. pour oil upon a board, and leave it for months, when you come back you will find it oily still. This is because there is a stronger attraction between the oil and the board, than there is between the oil and the air. 6. It is generally the case, that when water has any thing mixed with it, or dissolved in it, if you expose it to the air, the water will evaporate and leave the other substance dry. Ink, for instance, consists of a black coloring matter dissolved in water. The water will evaporate, and leave all the black part behind on the paper. 7. "Then it seems that nothing will dry up water," said Charles. but "I don't think of any thing," said his teacher. "Then I have learned one thing, haven't I?" said he. 8. " No, you have not learned yet that nothing will evaporate but water, from such poor reasoning as this. It would be very poor induction." “Induction?" said Charles. "What is induc tion?" 9. "Why, when we say a thing is always true, because it is true in all the cases we have known, that is induction." "Is that a good argument?" said Charles. 10. "Yes, sometimes; but we cannot establish a general truth in that way, unless we have taken a great deal of pains, to get all the facts we can possibly collect. It would not be safe, for us to judge from the very few liquids that we happen to think of just now. Boys are very apt to make false inductions in a thousand ways. 11. "Once I took you out in the fields to get some strawberries. I told you, I knew of a place where they were very thick and large. As soon as we got into the field a little way, and you happened, at first, to find them few and small, you said, 'This is not a good field at all.'” 12. "Was that a false induction?" said Charles. "Yes; from a very few particulars, you came to a general conclusion, and your conclusion was wrong; for we afterwards found them very large and very plentiful. 13. "To have made a sound induction, you ought to have waited, till you had gone over the field in various directions; and if you found them few and small wherever you went, then you might properly have supposed it to have been a poor field for strawberries." 14. “Why, then I should have known; for I should have seen the field all over." "No, you would, in fact, have actually seen only a small part of all the strawberries, and places for strawberries, in the whole field. But, after seeing a considerable part of it, you might, perhaps, have safely inferred that the rest would correspond. 15. "This would have been induction; that is, inferring a general conclusion from a knowledge of a small number of particulars. 16. "But we can never be perfectly sure in induc tion, even where we are most careful and cautious, and, therefore, we must take great pains not to judge hastily. There is no way by which people make more mistakes, than by coming to general conclusions from too small a number of facts." COLUMBINE. 1. BRING lilies for a maiden's grave, Tulips for all who love through life Bring each for each, in bower and hall, 2. "The columbine? Full many a flower 3. Examine well each floweret's form; That claims a fancied semblance there, 4. Know ye the cap which Folly wears Does not the columbine recall |