GLIMPSES AT EVERYDAY WONDERS. would be cheap at that price, though there is no need why you should not have a happy as well as a holy life. Is it some companion who bolts the door against Jesus? Whatever it may be in the way, you are not doing yourself justice while your heart's door is shut, and Christ outside. Lydia became the friend of the Missionaries. She would not be content till they came and stayed at her house, and depend upon it she would see that they had plenty to eat. She seemed to think that they could not believe that she was converted, if they did not accept her kindness. Perhaps in some house where this is being read, there is a Preacher sitting by the fire. Did he bring the book-parcel with him, I wonder? There will be other Preachers come to the village twenty years hence. Will they stay at the same house? May be that depends on your opening your heart to Jesus. Should you do so, like your father and mother, you THE 157 will wish those who preach the Gospel to eat at your table sometimes. Lydia little thought, when she opened her heart to Jesus, that so many hundreds of years afterwards, in another part of Europe, boys and girls would read about her, and admire her for her kindness to the grand men who came first to her town as the messengers of Jesus. The fact is, no one can tell how much he may do for the world when he opens his heart to the Lord. The other day the postman brought to my house a letter from India, written by a very godly and earnest Missionary. I remember him when a boy saying that he would love the Saviour. I was sure when I gave him his first Class-ticket that the Lord had work for him to do. Will not you, then, like Lydia, attend to the voice of Jesus? and then, in years to come, it may be many miles from your home, many shall thank God that you received the Lord first, and His servants afterwards. GLIMPSES AT EVERY-DAY WONDERS. BY SARSON. HE next evening that Mr. Garbutt had time for a little chat with his children, he referred to what he had told them about the hand, and after satisfying himself that they had not forgotten it, he said: 'But now, though so much of man's superiority over the animal creation is owing to the hand, the hand of an idiot is of but little use to him. Can you tell me how this is?' 'Because he has no sense. know how to use it,' said Ethel. 'But why has he no sense?' He doesn't 'I suppose because he hasn't got any brains,' said Charlie. 'The more brains a fellow has the cleverer he is, isn't he, papa?' 'It does not depend so much upon the quantity as the quality of the brain. No one could live without any brains at all. Power or weakness of mind is in a great measure determined by the size, health and quality of the various nervous parts that go to make up the brain. Let disease or an accident impair it, and the greatest man that ever lived might lose his reason, and behave so strangely as to be dangerous to himself and every one around him. The brain is the instrument through which our mind works, and it is that which the most exalts us above the lower animals.' 'I suppose that the animals have no brains,' said Ethel. 'O yes, they have! Each has sufficient for its purpose, and therefore some have much more than others. Some have so little that it is impossible for us to teach them anything that they do not know by instinct. The hen cannot be taught not to scratch up seeds in the garden, but she is careful to lay her eggs in one nest, that she may hatch them all together. She is clever in finding food for her young and courageous in defending them. The bee constructs its cell on strictly geometric principles, and the working of a hive is something wonderful. The ant, too, appears to those who study her, very wise; but all the instinct they have seems to be given them for sustaining their own existence and continuing the species. We cannot say so of certain animals among the mammalia, as we call the class to which all our four-footed animals belong.' Ethel frankly admitted that she did not know what mammalia meant, and Charlie did not look very wise. 'Well, all animals which have red blood flowing in their veins, and which suckle their young, are in this class. You know that among these what we call the domestic animals, can have their natural habits completely changed by training. They will even exhibit certain moral qualities, such as obedience, fidelity and affection, and are capable of learning so much that they are invaluable servants to man. The elephant is remarkably sagacious. He retains for long, feelings both of gratitude and revenge, and will move a sick person or a child aside with his trunk rather than trample on them. The horse is sensitive and high-spirited, emulous and proud. knows when he is gaily caparisoned. If he is a racer, he cannot bear to be gained upon by another horse, and he loves the master who rides him, and the groom who curries and takes him out of harness. And as for the dog! why, time would fail to tell us of his accomplishments; yes, and of his exemplary domestic virtues also.' He 'I hope you will say a good word for pussy,' said Ethel. Pussy is as good any day as a dog.' 'A sleek, amiable, elegant little creature,' said Mr. Garbutt. 'She has more than an average of intelligence; but with consummate selfishness, she turns it all to her own account.' 'I'm glad she can't understand you, papa' said Ethel, kissing Miss Tabitha between her little black-spotted ears. 'I wonder if you think Charlie's bunnies selfish.' 'To be sure they are, especially Papa Bunny, who would kill his own children if he could get to them, because, like Baby, they take up more of their mamma's time and attention than is always agreeable. Still, it may be satisfactory to Charlie to know that rabbits are really far in advance of some of the other animals with respect to the amount of brain that nature has given them.' 'Both the kangaroo and the gorilla are very small-brained. The brain of an average European child four years old, is four times larger than the gorilla when it is fully grown. I should also tell you that the reason why we find it more difficult in swimming to keep the head above water than our fourfooted friends, is because with us the weight of brain is so much greater in proportion to our size. The elephant and the whale are the only animals-for the whale, you know, is an animal-whose brains are larger than a man's. But now, little folks, I have some letters to write; you can have an hour's romp in the play-room before bed-time. We must have a little more talk about the brain another evening.' WALKS AROUND LONDON. And I am told that in all Europe there is not a more beautiful building, used as this one has been, than this hospital. For many years a Royal Palace stood on this spot, which, becoming old and allowed to go to ruin, was pulled down, and a new one commenced. And during the reign of William and Mary, the Queen made the good suggestion, that as the old and worn-out soldiers had their hospital and asylum at Chelsea, the old sailors ought to have one also. was a happy thought, and the sailors for many long years have blest this good Queen Mary for it. And here was just the spot for such an asylum, where the old jack tars could look out upon the younger ones as they went down to the sea in ships. It 'Why not,' said Sir C. Wren, 'give up Greenwich Palace, make of it a large building, and use that for the old tars' restingplace?' Wren's suggestion was accepted, he made his designs, and gave them and his services as a gift. At first one hundred veteran sailors were admitted here; three years later three hundred and fifty had been admitted, and so on until at length more than two thousand seven hundred bronzed and broken-down seamen, many of them maimed, all of them aged, found shelter within the walls of Greenwich Hospital. Here they had their library, reading-rooms, little cabins, their picture-gallery, their open courtyards for exercise, their covered walks for bad weather, and a park to stroll in in sunny weather. But they are gone, and Greenwich will no more be noted for its groups of merry-eyed, bronzed-faced, patched-up old sailors spinning yarns of their seafaring life. In the quiet of their homes, amongst relatives and friends, they spend their last days. The picture-gallery the old sailors had, or the Painted Hall as it is named, is what now attracts most attention from visitors; for besides a finely-painted ceiling, it has a good collection of pictures. These, of course, ANSWER TO PUZZLE-PICTURE. 159 And are chiefly representations of sea-fights and portraits of our great seamen. Perhaps the most interesting part is the Nelson room, where we find pictures illustrating Nelson's life, from the time when, as a midshipman, he tried to kill a bear in the Arctic regions, to his death on board the Victory. amongst other relics, we may see the coat he wore when he received his death-wound at Trafalgar. Models of ships and statues are amongst the other attractions of this museum; as also the many articles found amongst the ice and snow when Captain M'Clintock discovered that Sir John Franklin and his men had died in the Arctic regions. In the naval school at the back of the hospital, eight hundred sons of seamen receive a free education and are trained for the sea. The Observatory at the top of yonder hill was placed there for the benefit of pilots and sailors, in order to find out the motions of the moon and the places of the fixed stars. It has a most wonderful clock, which keeps exact time, and which sets the time for all the clocks in England. For this purpose other clocks are connected with this one by telegraph wires, which carry the time forward and bring back an answer. The current of electricity leaving Greenwich takes the signal given by this clock, and then brings back an brings back an answer from the other clocks, saying how far they are wrong. A gentleman was being taken round by the Astronomer Royal, and as they were passing in front of a galvanic battery the great clock at Westminster was replying. It was sending word that it was going well, and was only the twentieth part of a second slow. Twice a day it let this gentleman know how it was going. The park is very fine, and is full of hills and dales where you may have as much climbing up and rolling down as you like. No. V.-MANUFACTORIES OF LONDON. Many useful articles are made in London. In Lambeth and Southwark there are glass and iron works; steam engines are also made there. In Clerkenwell they make watches and jewellery. Silk is woven in Spital fields. Ships are built at Blackwall and other parts. |
