education, and enjoying all the | advantages which wealth can procure. Such a sudden change of position and prospects would, in many instances, prove injurious to the moral character; but with a mind based upon the solid principles which our young friend possesses, little fear may be entertained that such will be the result. Ion. I like that boy for speaking the truth-but, I like him even more for being honest. When he ran up to the gentleman's house to tell him, and when he said, "I am very sorry, sir, but I have broken your window," that showed that he had the principle of truth. But, when he said, "If you will be kind enough to take the money a little at a time," and drew the few halfpence from hiç pocket, to lay on the table-that showed that he had the principle of honesty. L. Yes. He wanted to do more than speak the truth. He wanted to give back to the gentleman all that belonged to him. W. I see now,-he wished not to deprive him of anything that was his-and that was, HONESTY. A SONG FOR OCTOBER. CAN you catch the flying shadows of the clouds that onward speed? Can you change the alternations of darkness and of light? How futile are such questions, addressed to mortal man, A wafted seed, a shadow, of light a feeble gleam, A leaf shook from the tree of life upon the hurrying stream. And now when leaves fall thickly, and hollow boom and swell We should be meek and humble, and with a holy fear, Worship, and pray, and watch throughout this "Sabbath of the year." Lo! what a glorious temple the Architect Divine Hath built for our devotions,-for every heart a shrine, Amid the rustling branches, and amid the whisp'ring leaves, H. G. ADAMA VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. WILLIE'S FRAMEWORK. THE BONES OF THE FACE. M. We noticed, last week, the bones of the upper part of the head -the skull. This week we will observe the bones of the lower partthe face. I wish you first to point out the different openings, or holes in the face, which are worth noticing. Ion. Let me, please, mamma. There are the holes for the eyesthe sockets you called them-then the hole for the nose-and then, there must be another hole for the ear, somewhere. Ah, I have found it here it is. It is drawn in the picture just at the end of the lower jaw bones. And, again, there must be a hole where the head is fastened to the neck—a hole for the spinal cord to pass through, to be joined to the brain. See, I have found four holes! M. Now I will give you some new names for them. In speaking of any one of them, do not call it a hole, but, an orifice. So you may say that the different openings in the face are The sockets for the eyes, is joined to the neck. Let us look, secondly, at the bones of the face. How many bones do you see? W. Here is a bone in front, mamma. The top of it forms part of the edge for the eye's socket, and the bottom part contains a row of teeth. I suppose, from that, the bone is one of the jaw bones. M. Yes; it is the upper jaw bone. Ion. Then here is another bone. It is behind the first one. Part of its edge also forms the sockets for the eye;-and it ends in a straight ridge which you see in front of the temple bone. What is this one called, mamma? M. Put your hand up to your face and try if you can feel the bone, Ion-you will soon know what to call it. Ion. I can feel it, mamma, it is under my cheek. It is called the cheek bone, I suppose. And, I can see in the picture two little bones placed just where the bridge of my nose is they are nose bones, I suppose. M. You had better say nasal bones. That is a better word;it is made from the Latin word nasus, a nose. W. And, lastly, mamma, for this one is the last I can see, there is the lower jaw bone. L. Now, I will count up the principal parts which we have noticed. Those of the face are 1. The sockets, for the eyes. The cheek bones. 6. The nasal bones. 7. The upper jaw bone. 8. The lower jaw bone. M. Very well, Lucy. Let us now think of something else. You know that the skull contains the brain,-the organ of thinking, as you called it. What orgens do you find in the face? W. There are several organs:the eyes, the organs for seeingthe nose, the organ for smellingand the ears. I can tell you, mamma, why these organs are placed in the lower part of the head-it is because they are all servants to the great organ above them. They get the knowledge, and send it up through the nerves to the brain. You know what I mean. The eye gets an idea of the size, or the colour of thingsthe ears get the ideas of sounds, and of beautiful music, and so on. Then they send these ideas up to our brain to be thought about. Ion. Ah, ah, ah!-and, while you are thinking so much about ideas, Willie, you are forgetting a very important organ-the mouth, and the teeth in it! It finds ideas which are not sent up to the brain, but down to the trunk of my body, to be left in an organ there, called the stomach, it often gives the stomach an idea of a good dinner. I wonder what would become of the other organs, and all the ideas they send up to the brain, if it were not for this organ! M. Yes, this is a very important organ, Ion. Although the face contains the organs which are called the senses-yet the largest part of it is formed by the jaws, which are used in eating. So the face contains the eating part of your head, and the skull contains the thinking part. You may learn something from this. Listen. If you exercise one organ more than another, it will often increase in size. What broad shoulders, and strong arms, some of the porters have, who carry such heavy loads. I dare say you have often noticed them. So, when a man exercises his mind very much, his brain becomes larger, and his skull, too-at the same time, his face sometimes becomes small and thin. But if you ever notice a man who cats and drinks very much, his jaw bones seem to increase, and his face becomes much larger -while, as he has not much time to think, his skull does not grow so fast, and is small. Here is a drawing for you of a man who is fond of thinking, and of another man who is too fond of eating. man. Why, his face is twice as large as his skull. M. Yes. And, as the lower annnals are not able to think, their W. Ah! I have seen men walking through the streets with their heads L. Ah, they only live to eat. M. If I had time to make you some drawings of a monkey's head and a dog's head, you would understand it better. I will just tell you one thing more. You know that your head is placed on the top of your spine, not on the same level like the head of a cow. If you look in the drawing for the hole where the head is joined to the spine, you will see that the largest and heaviest part is in front, so that your head is more likely to lean forward than backward. M. Yes, our heads would fall forward too much, but for the very strong muscles which are placed at the back of the neck,-they act something like cords, for they are fastened to the occipital bone, and draw the head backwards. But they are not always useful. The other night, when your papa came home late, he was very tired; and, as he sat upright in his chair, he fell asleep. Then, those muscles at the back of his neck were relaxed (or loosened). And you may remember that, as they could not hold his head back, it began gradually to fall forward. L. Yes, he nodded. M. And then nodded again; until, at last, it fell down on his breast, so! "Dropping" off to sleep. Now, you know why people nod, sometimes, when they go to sleep. W. Yes, because the front part of the head is so heavy-but then, they should lie down when they want to rest, and not try to sit upright. THE SAXON KINGDOM. P. I am glad to tell you of a good king at last. CANUTE, although he was a Dane, was a better man than many of the Saxons. The poor Saxons were very much frightened and dispirited about this time, so that one Dane was thought to be equal to ten Englishmen. They had not only suffered from the troubles of war, but there had been a great scarcity of corn. A fearful disease had destroyed numbers of their cattle, and another disease had destroyed the people themselves. So now, England was governed by the Danes; and, when Canute found that he had the government of the country all to himself, he set to work in earnest to do good, and to help the people. He had heard of the glory of King Alfred, and of the good laws he had made; and, when he found that these laws had been forgotten during the wars in the bad reign of Ethelred, he determined to bring them into use again. So he called together the Wittenagemot (this assembly, you may remember, consisted of the clergymen, the nobles, and the wise men-something like our Parliament), and ordered that Alfred's laws should be brought out, and read, and used again. He ordered that the towns which had been burned and destroyed should be rebuilt. He divided England into four great parts, so that he might be better able to govern the country, and make his people happy. He encouraged learned men to come and live here, and caused many new schools to be established. He also sent young men to be taught in the colleges at Rome. But, like all kings in those days, he was very fond of war, and of power. He kept up a very large body of Danish soldiers, and in one year he made the nation pay a tax of nearly £100,000 to feed and clothe them. At this time the county of Cumberland belonged to the Scots, so he marched against their King Malcolm, and made him do homage for it. He set sail for Sweden and took possession of the country; so then, he was King of Sweden and Norway, Denmark, and England, and was the richest and most powerful king in those times. The people, therefore, thought that they could not say too much of his greatness; and everybody's mouth was full of his praise. You have, I dare say, heard the tale of the flattery paid to him by his courtiers-that is, the men who lived. with him at his court. Flattery, every one should know, is a very bad thing. It is good to praise a man who does well; but it is not always good to praise him before his face. When, however, you give a man more praise than he deserves on purpose to please him, that is bad. It is falsehoodand is flattery. But if you praise him not because you like him, but because he is rich and strong, and you want to get something for yourself, that is very bad indeed-it is the worst kind of flattery. Canute knew this; he thought that flattery was a bad sneaking thing-a very cowardly thing-for anybody can make up praise, and say it. So when he found that his courtiers tried to please him with praise that was not true, what would he say to them? W. Why, he would say, "Get away with your nonsense," or something of that sort. |