Soon, soon, in this smooth little bay we will land; See how like a crescent 'tis shaped,-"

He stops by mischance, from his boyish hand,
The long, heavy oar has escaped.

He springs to regain it-"Stay, brother stay!
The boat is o'erturning-

The wave,

The glittering wave, that lured them astray,
Now closes for aye, o'er their grave.

LESSON 37.

The little Persian, who would not tell a Falsehood.

Among the Persians there is a sect called the Sooffees, and one of the most distinguished saints of this sect, was Abdool Kauder. It is related, that in early childhood, he was smitten with a desire of devoting himself to sacred things, and wished to go to Bagdad to obtain knowledge.

She

His mother gave her consent; and taking out eighty deenars, (a denomination of money used in Persia,) she told him that, as he had a brother, half of that would be all his inheritance. made him promise, solemnly, when she gave it to him, never to tell a lie,-and then bade him farewell, exclaiming-"Go, my son, I give thee to God; we shall not meet again till the day of judgment !"

He went on, till he came near to Hamadan, when the company with which he was travelling, was plundered by sixty horsemen. One of the robbers asked him what he had got? "Forty deenars," said Abdool Kauder, are sewed under my garment." The fellow laughed, thinking that he was joking him. "What have you got?" said anoth

66

er. He gave the same answer.

When they were

dividing the spoil, he was called to an eminence, where their chief stood. "What property have you, my little fellow ?" said he.

"I have told two of your people, already," replied the boy. "I have forty deenars sewed up carefully in my clothes." The chief desired them

to be ripped open, and found the money.

"And how came you," said he, with surprise, "to declare so openly, what has been so carefully hidden ?" "Because," Abdool Kauder replied, "I will not be false to my mother, to whom I have promised that I will never conceal the truth."

"Child," said the robber," hast thou such a sense of duty to thy mother, at thy years, and am I insensible at my age, of the duty I owe to my God? Give me thy hand, innocent boy," he continued, "that I may swear repentance upon it." He did so, and his followers were all alike, struck with the scene. "You have been our leader in guilt," said they to their chief, "be the same in the paths of virtue ;" and they instantly, at his order, made restitution of the spoil, and vowed repentance on the hand of the boy.

Tutor. Come-the tea is ready. Lay by your book and let us talk a little. You have assisted in tea-making a great many times, and yet I dare say you never considered what kind of an operation it

was.

1

Pupil. An operation of cookery is it not?

T. You may call it so, but it is properly an operation of chemistry.

P. Of chemistry? I thought that had been a very deep sort of business.

T. 0-there are many things in common life that belong to the deepest sciences. Making tea is the chemical operation called infusion, which is, when a hot liquor is poured upon a substance in order to extract something from it. The water you see, extracts from the tea-leaves their color, taste and flavour.

P. Would not cold water do the same?

T. It would, but more slowly. Heat assists almost all liquors in their power of extracting the virtues of herbs and other substances. When any thing is put to steep in a cold liquor, it is called maceration. The ingredients of which ink is made are macerated. In these cases, you see, the whole substance does not mix with the liquor, but only part of it. The reason is that part of it is soluble in the liquor, and part not.

P. What is the meaning of that?

T. Solution is when a solid put into a fluid entirely disappears in it, leaving the liquor clear. Thus when I throw this lump of sugar into my tea, you see it gradually wastes away till it is all gone; and then I can taste it in every drop of my tea; but the tea is clear as before.

P. Salt would do the same.

T. It would. But if I were to throw in a lump of chalk, it would lie undissolved at the bottom. P. But it would make the water white.

T. True, while it was stirred; and then it would be a diffusion. But while the chalk was thus mixed with the liquor, it would lose its transparency or clearness, and not recover it again, till by standing, the chalk had all subsided, and left the liquor as it was before.

P. How is the cream mixed with the tea?

Now

T. Why, that is only diffused, for it takes away the transparency of the tea. In time, the cream would rise to the top, leaving the tea clear. suppose you had a mixture of sugar, salt, chalk, and tea-leaves, and were to throw it into water, either hot or cold;-what would be the effect? P. The sugar and salt would melt and disappear. The tea-leaves would yield their color and taste. The chalk-I do not know what would become of that.

T. Why, if the mixture were stirred, the chalk would be diffused through it, and make it turbid or

muddy; but on standing it would leave it unchanged. The clear liquor would contain a solution of salt, sugar, and those particles of the tea, in which its color and taste consisted; the remainder of the tea and chalk would lie undissolved.

P. Will all liquors dissolve the same things? T. By no means. Many things dissolve in water, that will not in spirit of wine; and many dissolve in spirit of wine, that will not in water. And upon this difference many curious matters in the arts are founded. Thus spirit varnish is made of a solution of various gums or resins in spirits that will not dissolve in water. Therefore, when it has been laid over any surface with a brush, and is become dry, the rain or moisture of the air will not affect it. This is the case with the beautiful varnish laid upon coaches. On the other hand, the varnish left by gum-water could not be washed off by spirits.

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

P. But is this real chemistry?

T. Yes, it is.

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

T. I intended you should.

LESSON 39.

Personification, or the Statue of Washington. Catharine and Julia were cousins. They were sitting together, one day, both industriously employed, and both looking very happy. Presently, they began to talk about what they had seen, and where they had been. "I went to the State House, this morning, with father and mother, to see the statue of Washington," said Catharine.