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of the lowest division of animals. | is the mouth in the centre, and five great limbs branching out from it. What a tough skin it has-like leather!

They therefore connect the animals with the plants. There are others in this division, each one becoming more and more like a plant, until you arrive at one animal which resembles a vegetable so much, that for a long time men thought it was one. Even now, some people do not know exactly what to call it. You have the house in which some of these animals lived, in your bed-room, Willie. I saw you washing yourself with it. It is full of holes, made by these animals, and sucks up the water.

W. Oh, the Sponge, mamma! Z. I always thought it was a vegetable. How beautiful, that God should make a living thing which should be like an animal, and a vegetable too! It does seem to join the two kingdoms together.

M. I want you to notice something else in this hydra which makes it like a vegetable. Do you observe how its limbs grow?

Ion. Yes; they all grow from one part of its body-just as the branch of a tree grows from its trunk.

M. Here is an animal belonging to this division, which you know very well.

L. Yes; this is a star-fish. It grows in the same way. Here

M. And do you remember when we opened a star-fish? We found something inside which looked like a framework to it. It was made of a stony kind of substance. So you see that some of this division are not quite without skeletons, like the hydra and sponge. Now let us make a lesson about these animals.

LESSON No. 4.

The 4th Division are the lowest kind of animals, and seem to connect the animal and vegetable kingdom together, for,

1st. Their limbs all grow from one centre, like branches from the trunk of a tree.

2nd. They seem to have no skeleton, or regular shape, although the star-fish and some others have a tough leathery skin, like the bark of a tree.

3rd. They may be increased in number, by dividing them into many pieces.

W. Just as I increased my currant-bushes, by cutting "slips." 4th. They also increase in number by growing from each other.

W. Just as Lucy's rose-bushes have suckers growing from the same root.

5th. They seem to have no power of seeing, hearing, smelling, nor feeling, but altogether live and grow very much in the same way as plants.

6th. These animals are called BRANCHED ANIMALS.

THE ROMANS.-CARACTACUS. W. We are waiting for our History Lesson, Papa. Was it really a glory for Cæsar to kill those poor Britons? Ion. And to come over on purpose to rob them, and to burn their villages ?

P. Well, Willie, I do not think so, out there are hundreds of people even now who call such actions "glory."

W. But if a boy in our school knew more about fighting than any of the others, and then would always be "knocking them about," because they had not learned how to fight, we should call him a coward.

Ion. And if he fought the others on purpose to take away all they had? W. Then we should call him a "sneak"-not a conqueror.

Ion. Or, papa; you know that we have, each of us, a piece of garden. Now, if Willie, because he is the strongest, were to kill Lucy and me on purpose to take our gardens away from us

W. Oh! how can you talk so, Ion! Ion. But, I only say if you should do so.

W. Well, I should be hanged-of

course.

Ion. Then, why do not the Government hang those armies who go to kill other nations on purpose to take away their land?

W. Why, you forget. The Government send these soldiers-so the people of the government would have to punish themselves.

L. I think that. nations kill each other, because they are Heathens. Only such nations as the Romans, who have not learned about God, would do such things.

W. But the English are not Heathens. They are Christians, and have murdered natives in America, Africa, Australia, and India, on purpose to get their lands.

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Ion. How curious, that the men should be called by a different name, because they all happen to be together

by the side of each other-when they are killing! Suppose a man was sixty yards away from the others, and was to kill one of his enemies, would he be a warrior or a murderer?

W. That would depend upon which name he liked best. You may call the action what you please; but I think that the thing which is done— I mean the killing is just the same. There are not two killings-and there is no difference in the thing itself because it is done by several people.

Ion. So I think! To kill a man means "to make him die ;" and unless there is any other killing, it is the same, whether it is done by a man or a nation.

P. Well, Ion, that is quite true. It is just what any boy's common sense will teach him. Christian people are now beginning to believe that it is wrong to make wars, or to call them "glory."

L. Are they only beginning to believe, papa? How strange !

P. But there are some who say that, as there are always wicked people in the world who will rob and steal, if you let them, we ought to have soldiers to defend us.

W. But, papa, could not you teach these people better? Couldn't you prevent them from fighting or stealing, by being kind to them?

P. There are many people now,

Willie, who think that we could. You, Rome. When Caractacus arrived know there has been only one Teacher in the world, whose words we can be sure are quite true.

L. Yes, that is Jesus Christ.

there, he was placed, with some other chiefs, from different parts of the world, who were going to be made slaves. Iron chains were then fast

placed round his neck, and he was led through the wide streets of the city, to be shown to the people.

Ion. How did Caractacus feel when they stared at him?

P. Jesus Christ, then, wrote a lawened on his body; an iron collar was to show us how to live without fighting. It is written,-" Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." But that is a very hard law to keep. There is no doubt at all, that men would leave off fighting, if they all knew the law, and had hearts good enough to keep it. Ion. Then, of course, we ought to teach that law to one another as fast

as we can.

L. And so ought all English people, because it is Christ's law, and the English are Christians.

P. This is one of Jesus Christ's great laws, and no one can teach it until he has learned it. God will teach all of you, if you ask him.

Ion. Then, I am sure, I will ask him. I believe it is wicked to fight, unless you are obliged; perhaps it is wicked then. At all events, I think there ought not to be any soldiers made on purpose. I will never be a soldier!

W. I do not think that Cæsar was BO wicked. He had not learned that aw-because he lived before the time of Jesus Christ. Did he gain anything by fighting!

P. Cæsar did not gain much else besides "glory:" for, after he was dead, the Britons rebelled once more. The Romans did not try to conquer them again, until about 100 years afterwards. The Emperor CLAUDIUS CESAR then sent a great general with an army. He conquered some of the British tribes, and made them pay tribute-money, and after much fighting, and killing, he took their leader, CARACTACUS, prisoner, and sent him to the Emperor Claudius, at

P. He did not seem to notice them, for his mind was full of astonishment at the wonderful city of Rome. Oh! thought he, what grand marble temples! What immense houses! Here is a broad market-place! What tall aqueducts! What a wonderful city! Then, he thought of his own poor home, and his poor wife and children,-and he wondered more to himself why the Romans should want to take his little house away from him, and to make his countrymen miserable, when they seemed so happy themselves. Then he thought again, "I'll ask them why they do so."

So, when he came and stood in the presence of the great Emperor, his heart was full of grief-and, without feeling any fear or shame, he looked in his face and said to him, "Oh ! Emperor Claudius, how is it, that you, who have such a magnificence at home, can envy me my poor little cottage in Britain ?"

W. Yes, why couldn't they let him alone, poor fellow ! Did the Emperor punish him for being impudent?

No when he saw that Caractacus was in earnest, he felt that his reproach was not impudence, but truth. I have told you before that everybody must give way to truth, and so did the Emperor. He ordered the chains and the iron collar to be taken off from Caractacus; then, he gave him some money, and sent him back to his own dear home.

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Ion. Because all the particles of the sugar means the same as all the sugar; and, if all the sugar is solid, then sugar is solid. Don't you understand that?

W. Oh yes. And yet you see that is not solid,-for, look, the particles make way for my finger.

M. The truth is, that you are making a mistake in calling each little grain a particle. We do not call a piece of anything "a particle," until it is so small that we can hardly see it. If you take one of the smallest pieces of the sugar, and put it in a magnifying glass, you will find that

it has hundreds of particles. Such a little piece is called a grain.

So you must not say of sugar that it is solid, or liquid; but that it is "granulous."

W. That will make three quali ties. Sugar is sweet, brown, and granulous. I know something else that is granulous. Sand is, and so is salt. -and sago.

Ion. But there is a difference between sand and sugar. If you pu sugar in the water, it will melt, and sand will not.

M. It is not exactly right to say that it will melt. We say that a thing is melted if its particles are separated i by heat-or, rather, caloric.

W. Yes, when you put lead in the fire it melts that means, its particles leave go from each other, and flow about.

L. And that is what is done to the sugar; when you put it in tea-even in cold tea,-the water gets in between the particles of every grain.

Ion. And then it makes them "leave go" from each other.

M. Say separate-"leave go" is such a babyish word.

Ion. Well, the tea makes the particles of the grain separate from each other. Then, they set out on an excursion between the particles of the water-flow about in it, I should say. W. Or, mix with it.

Ion. Yes, and so they give the tea a sweet taste.

L. But, really, the tea has not a sweet taste-only the particles of sugar, flowing about in the tea, taste sweet.

Ion. I know that; because, once, when mamma gave me some tea, I did not know that I was to stir it, and the tea tasted bitter for a long time. The truth was, that the particles of the sugar, because they had not been "stirred up," were afraid to

come to the top, and remained swim- | grains came from the West. You ming about at the bottom. shall hear what they say:

W. But when you drank to the bottom of your cup

Ion. Then the tea tasted very sweet. L. What are we to say is done to the sugar, mamma, when its particles are separated by the water-if it is not melted?

M. We say that it is dissolved. This word "dissolved," is made from a Latin word, "solvere," to loosen.

W. Then, dissolved just means that the particles are let loose?

M. Yes, and substances which may be dissolved by water or any other liquid, are called "soluble."

W. Then we have found four qualities. The sugar is sweet, brown, granulous, and soluble. Please, mamma, will you let us hear its history now? Will you tell us where it comes from?

Ion. Mamma, I should like, for a change, if you would let the sugar give its own history, just as the Butterfly did. Grains of sugar can talk, I daresay, as much as Butterflies. E. Yes; when mamma helps

them.

will put some
Now, listen to

M. Very well, I sugar in this spoon. them :"We poor grains of sugar have been very much ill-used, and squeezed, and beaten, and boiled, and otherwise abused:-and, we know, from what you said just now, that, because our taste is good, you are going to drown us in your tea, and swallow us up for food."

L. Oh! poor things--they have just learned that they are soluble. But, mamma, they are talking in rhyme; is that the way they talk in the countries sugar comes from? Please let them talk properly.

M. That is the language of the East. People are rather musical in those parts; but, I forgot, the sugar

"Please to bring the map, and look between North and South America; then you will see a number of islands called the WEST INDIES. In one of these islands, called JAMAICA, we were born. This island is a very hot place, and so are all the countries in the part which we call the "middle" of the world. But the plants there never care for the heat,-they grow all the better for it. You should see the mighty trees,—the bamboo canes, the banyan, and the palm trees! They look very fine and large, but nothing could have looked so fine as our canes, in which we were born.

"Oh! take us back to the West Indies, and then we will show you a sight! You should have lived in a house near our plantation, when we were growing. There were thousands of canes, and inside some of these canes we lived in the form of juice."

Papa. Yes, and you ought to know that there is sugar in nearly all plants. You may make sugar out of a cabbage-stalk.

W. And I have read in a book about the French people making sugar from beet-root.

P. It is the sugar in plants which nourishes you. There is sugar in hay, and grass.

L. Yes. We often say that the hay smells sweet; I suppose that is why the cows like it. But, what is a sugar-cane, papa?

P. It is a plant which grows up with a long stalk, and without any pith in it. It has knots on it, just like a reed or a straw.

Ion. I have a little cane up-stairs; I will run and fetch it. See! there is no pith in it, but it has a number of little holes.

P. And there are many other plants in the West Indies, which grow in a different way from that of

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