me add, to unwrinkle the aged, for, by reviving the pleasant recollections of youth, what a cheering glow is cast over the evening of life!"

"And," interposed Mr. Seymour, "I hope you will also add, to assist the young in acquiring knowledge, as well as to aid the sage in his labours to extend it; for I may here inform you that, by means of the soap-bubble, Faraday has succeeded in discovering new laws regarding the magnetic action of different gases; and you well know that to the kite Franklin was indebted for the consummation of his electrical discoveries."

"Very true," answered the vicar, "and not only did the kite enable him to discharge the thunder-cloud of its dangers; but its slender string, along which the lightning travelled safely to the earth, may be said to have shadowed forth the wonderful invention of the electric telegraph."*

"It might also be easily shown that the rudiments of the steam-engine first appeared in the form of a toy," observed the vicar.

"I suppose you allude to the Eolipyle of Hero of Alexandria?"

66

Exactly so; and I have been told that our gas-lights were first suggested by boys filling the bowl of a tobacco-pipe with burning coal, and inflaming the vapour that issued from its tube.-Sic parvis componere magnas.'

Mr. Seymour here remarked that many of our valuable inventions were little else than cleverly-developed toys, separated from each other, he was ready to admit, by no inconsiderable chasm: thus did Humboldt witness on the shores of the Oronoco the native copper-coloured children of the forest amusing themselves by rubbing the dry, flat, shining reeds of some leguminous plant, for the purpose of causing them to attract fibres of cotton, or bamboo; and he very philosophically exclaims, "How wide is the interval which separates this simple knowledge of electrical excite

* Professor Andrews lately announced, in the Chemical Section of the British Association at Glasgow, that he had decomposed water by atmospheric electricity, obtained by means of a properly-adjusted kite.

ment by friction from the invention of the metallic conductor, the voltaic pile, and the magnetic telegraph!"

"All you have thus related," observed the vicar, "at least proves, what I am sure must afford you the highest satisfaction, that even these wild children of the forest entertained PHILOSOPHY IN SPORT."

"Let me farther say, in illustration of my subject," continued Mr. Seymour, "that the wide interval which separates the boyish sport on the shores of the Oronoco from the electrical messenger, is not more striking than is the transition from the fleeting shadow of the departing lover, playfully cast on the wall by the secret lamp of the Corinthian maid, to the photographic portrait now permanently stamped, with all the expressions of life, by the subtle and invisible spirit that dwells in the sunbeam."

"That is certainly a most marvellous invention," said the vicar. "It is just as if you looked into a glass, and left your face behind you: talk not then to me of fairy tales, until you can show that their presiding genii can produce something equally wonderful."

The foregoing digression having been concluded, the party at once proceeded to the Lodge, where Mr. Seymour produced a piece of apparatus for the purpose of exhibiting the experiment he had promised, in illustration of the doctrine of the collision of elastic bodies.

"Here are two ivory balls," said he, "suspended by threads; I shall draw one of them, A, a little on one side; now I let it go, it strikes, you see, against the other ball, B, and drives it off to a distance equal to that through which the first ball fell; but the motion of A is stopped, because, when it struck B, it received in return a blow B A equal to that it gave, and its motion was consequently destroyed. To extend the experiment,

here are six ivory balls hanging in a row; I will draw the first out of the perpendicular and let it fall against the second; see! see! none of the balls ap

pear to move except the last, which you perceive flies off as

far as the first ball fell. I should like to hear you explain this."

Tom observed that, when the first ball struck the second, it received a blow in return, which destroyed its motion; and that the second ball, although it did not appear to move, must have struck against the third, the reaction of which set it at rest; that the action of the third ball must have been destroyed by the reaction of the fourth, and so on, until motion was communicated to the last ball, which, not being reacted upon, flew off.

Mr. Seymour commended Tom for his explanation; but he begged him to understand that such an effect only occurred when the balls were elastic; and he proceeded to exhibit the difference between elastic and inelastic bodies by another experiment. "When you raise one of these inelastic. balls, made of clay, out of the perpendicular,

A

and let it fall against the other, E, the action and reaction, not being augmented by the force of elasticity, are insufficient to destroy the motion of the former; only part of the motion D will, ed E D therefore, be communicated to E, and the two balls will move together to d e, which are less distant from the vertical line than the ball was before it fell."

Before we close this chapter, we cannot resist the pleasure of informing our readers that Major Snapwell, in company with his legal adviser, had quitted Overton, for the purpose of making such preliminary arrangements as the purchase of an estate must necessarily require. It is not our intention to accompany them; nor shall we travel over the plains of parchment, nor wade through the rivers of ink, which separate the confines of verbal agreement and legal possession; but, claiming the prerogative of authors, we shall dip our wing in the cup of inspiration, and, by a single flourish of our feathered talisman, drive away a swarm of buzzing lawyers, and at once put the worthy major in the undisturbed possession of his newly-purchased mansion, and install him in one of Daw's most comfortable elbow-chairs, surrounded by all the luxuries of polished life.

MR. SEYMOUR AND HIS FAMILY VISIT THE MAJOR AT OSTERLEY PARK.A CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE VICAR AND THE MAJOR.-THE SUCKER. -COHESIVE ATTRACTION.-PRESSURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE.-MEANING OF THE TERM SUCTION.-CERTAIN ANIMALS ATTACH THEMSELVES TO ROCKS BY A CONTRIVANCE ANALOGOUS TO THE SUCKER.-THE LIMPET. -THE WALRUS.-THE LAMPREY.-LOCOMOTIVE ORGANS OF THE HOUSEFLY. A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.-A SCENE IN THE VILLAGE, IN WHICH DR. DOSEALL FIGURES AS A PRINCIPAL PERFORMER. THE VICAR'S SENSIBLE REMONSTRANCE.-THE DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE AT DIFFERENT ALTITUDES.-THE BOTTLE IMPS.-THE POP-GUN.-THE AIRGUN. AN ANTIQUARIAN DISCUSSION, IN WHICH THE VICAR AND MAJOR SNAPWELL GREATLY DISTINGUISH THEMSELVES.

In the course of the ensuing week Mr. and Mrs. Seymour proceeded to offer their congratulations to the new proprietor of Osterley Park. On being ushered into the library, they were not a little surprised and startled by the loud voice of the major, who, addressing Mr. Twaddleton, exclaimed,

"Never will I again suspect the antiquity of your rarities, nor question the rarity of your antiquities."

"Mr. and Mrs. Seymour," said the major, "welcome to Osterley Park. You find me, as usual, engaged with our

friend in a learned controversy, and I begin to fear that my warmth may have offended him."

No,

"Offended me!" exclaimed the vicar, "oh no. indeed, my dear Major Snapwell; a difference of opinion on an antiquarian subject may excite my regret, and in some cases, as in the present instance, awaken my pity; but it cannot offend me; it can never occasion any feeling like anger: that would be to visit the folly of others upon myself."

"What is the subject of your difference, gentlemen ?" asked Mr. Seymour.

"The evidences of druidical rites, as deducible from certain cavities to be found in granitic rocks, and which have received the appellation of rock basins," replied the major.

"And of which," exclaimed Mr. Twaddleton, “I have a most unquestionable specimen, collected by no less a geologist than the curator of the cabinet at Penzance, from that ancient metropolis of the druids, Carn-bre hill."

"I admit," said the major, "that I never before saw so perfect a specimen; it is as spheroidal internally as if it had been actually shaped by a turning-lathe."

"And yet, in spite of such evidence," replied the vicar, "you question its sacred origin, and deny its ever having been used as a pool of lustration!"

Mr. Seymour here interposed.-"Upon a subject of purely historical difficulty, I might feel diffident in offering myself as an umpire between such learned antiquaries; but, as the origin of rock basins' involves a geological question, I will venture to deliver an opinion. Depend upon it, vicar, that you are maintaining a position that cannot be defended; these uncouth cavities, together with all the fancied statuary of Borlase (30), have never been shaped by any chisel but the tooth of time, nor have any artists but the elements been engaged in their formation." "What say you to that, vicar ?" triumphantly exclaimed the major.

"Oh, impiety, impiety!" cried the vicar;

'Hostis habet muros, ruit alto a culmine Troja,'