columns, and head one "for," and the other "against."

Having so put them down you must weigh all fairly; and having done that, you will have done your best to come to a right decision; and knowing this you will feel more confidence in taking the course decided upon and therefore more likely to succeed in it.

Home Exercise.-1. Define difficulty, illustration, delighted, mars, arrives. 2. What is the best course to take in any matter of doubtful acting? 3. Write a reply to the letter of invitation in this lesson.

REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE,

(Not to be found in any of the books.)

Adjudged, decided upon.
Lawyer, one who studies
the law as a profession.
Discerning, seeing clearly.
Condemn, to find guilty

of a crime.
Decisive, without doubt.
Report, an account of.

Argued, reasoned out. Undoubtedly, without any doubt.

Designed, made for a set

purpose. Intended, meant for. Court, those about a king or judge.

BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,

The spectacles set them unhappily wrong; The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,

To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the

cause

With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning;

While chief-baron Ear sat to balance the laws So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear, And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find

That the Nose has had spectacles always in

wear,

Which amounts to possession time out of mind.

Then holding the spectacles up to the court,Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle

As wide as the bridge of the Nose is; in short, Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

Again, would your lordship a moment suppose ('Tis a case that has happened, and may be again)

That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,

Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?

On the whole it appears, and my argument shows,

With a reasoning the court will never condemn,

That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,

And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.

Then shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how,)

He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes; But what were his arguments few people know,

For the court did not think they were equally wise.

So his lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone,

Decisive and clear, without one if or but,That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on, By daylight or candlelight, Eyes should be

shut.

COWPER.

Home Exercise.-1. Learn two or more stanzas of this piece. 2. Parse the first two lines. 3. Give the substance of the argument on behalf of the Nose.

HOW TO OBSERVE, No. 5.

Nature, all objects made
by God.

Foundation, that which
supports.
Contained, held in.
Foreigner, one of another
country.

Devoted, given up to.

Testimony, speaking for a truth.

Naturalist, one who stu dies animals.

Exceptional, out of the usual course.

Excursion, a journey for a purpose.

WE have already shown that a knowledge of facts must form the basis or foundation of all scientific knowledge. To collect facts is then the first step in the road to science. But not only is this the first step, there is no period in which the observation of facts can be given up. Nature is so vast and varied, that a whole lifetime devoted to this object would not make one fully acquainted with all, or even a small part of, the facts that are contained in the wide works of God.

It is true that in science, as in many other matters, we have to rely upon the observation of others for many things that are beyond our reach. For instance, a person who has never been out of his own country can only know anything of the climate and conditions of foreign parts through the teachings of others. You will elsewhere learn how to test the truth of what we are told, so that we may be as sure of some facts that we have only heard of as of others we have seen for ourselves.

Let us now try to see how this observation of facts should be carried on.

We will suppose that a foreigner comes to our country from some distant region, say, Central Africa. He arrives on a beautiful July day. He finds it warm and pleasant, though not intensely hot. He may have carefully observed the degree of warmth, and compared it with that of his own country; but would he really, from that one day's observation, know much of our climate? Certainly not. For in a few days or weeks he may find the dry warm weather give place to rain and much less heat. That might give place to heat again, when gradually, but certainly, as a few months roll on, he would first become acquainted with frost, ice, and snow.

Take another case. Suppose an Englishman, who knows well the changes of climate experienced in his own country, were taken to Australia. Say, that he arrives there at Christmas time. All his past experience of Christmas is of cold and frost, but now he finds a heat greater than that of our summer; and knowing that Christmas at home has been followed by the greater warmth of spring and summer, he may conclude that the heat there will also increase, and that July there will be as much warmer than our own July as the Christmas of the one is warmer than that of the other.

But we know from the testimony of others that this would not be the case; for the heat of the Australian Christmas will give place to autumn, and that to a winter in June, July, and August. In fact, the seasons, though dif