which it will go? It will fall down to the floor. Yes, for we never see any thing fall up to the ceiling or to one side, but always downwards, because the earth draws all the smaller things which are near it towards itself. The earth draws all you little children towards it, and when you try to climb a hill, you find that lifting your feet from the earth is hard work. Will you watch what takes place when I let the ball of lead fall from my hand? It strikes the floor, and makes a loud noise. Now see if the same takes place when I drop the ball of cork? No, it makes only a faint sound. Why is this? The lead is heavy and the cork is light. I have here two more balls, one of wood and one of stone. Who will come and try their different weights? I am now going to place the four balls in this glass of water, and you must observe what happens. Two of them sink and two swim. Why do the cork and wooden balis swim? You cannot tell; well, I must explain to you that wood and cork are lighter than water, and so come to the surface; but lead and stone are heavier than water, and sink down in it. A fish swims in the water, because it is about the same weight as water; but an oyster lies at the bottom of the sea, because it has a heavy shell. If things upon the earth had no weight, men and animals would not require to be strong; but the larger an animal is, the more strength it must have, to be able to move about. Could any little child here lift me from the ground? No, you are too heavy, and we are not strong enough. Quite true, but I could lift any of you, because you are all lighter than I am, and I must have strength enough to be able to move my own weight. A horse can carry a man, because a horse is larger and heavier than a man, and has more strength. If a little child were to run a great way, would he not be tired? Yes, he would have to carry the weight of his own body all the way he went, and this would tire him. Look at the walls of the school-room. What are they made of? Are they not very heavy? Why do they not

fall? Because they are upright or vertical. Would they stand if they were inclined? No, they would then fall; for all heavy things which are not supported will fall straight down. When we stand, we take care to stand upright, or else we should fall. When people fall, we say they lose their balance; that is, they throw more of their weight to one side than to the other, which causes them to come to the ground. Would you stand near a wall that leaned to one side? No, it would be

dangerous to do so; it might fall and kill you.

Some things are very light, compared to others of the same size. Will you tell me of all the light things you know? Now name those that are heavy. Will you try to think of things that are bought and sold by weight? I have here a penny and a halfpenny; why is the penny worth more than the halfpenny? Because

it is larger and heavier. Yes, metals are valued by

weight.

When I put this iron weight into one scale, and this piece of wood in the other, what happens? The scale with the iron sinks down; the other rises. Why is this? Because the iron is heavier. And which is the larger? The wood. What should you then say of the wood? It is a lighter substance than the iron. I now put a package of wool into one scale, and the piece of wood in the other. Which appears the heavier now? The wood. Which is the larger? The package of wool. So we find that wool is lighter than wood in proportion to its size. All things which we see have weight. Even the air has some weight, as you will learn in a future lesson. If it were not so, we should have no power to move or to work; without weight, the workman's hammer would not strike, the water would not turn the mill to grind the corn, or the wind move the great ships over the sea, to fetch us good things from distant countries. Even the rain could not fall from the sky to make things grow, if it had not some weight; so that when we find it difficult and laborious to move about,

or carry heavy things, we should remember how useful and necessary it is for things to have weight, and how God, in his wisdom and goodness, made every thing just as heavy as it should be. He made the air light for us to breathe and to move about in, the heavy stones to build our houses, light wool and cotton to make us warm clothes, and heavy metals to make our tools. Let us always think that He has made every thing in the way it should be.

SOUND.

First lessons on this subject should not be of a musical character, but chiefly confined to the discrimination of ordinary sounds. The attention of the pupils may be directed to the varieties of the human voice in children and grown persons, in men and women, and in different individuals; also to the different modes of utterance, as speaking, calling, singing, whispering, and so on. Sounds may be produced experimentally, as by the ringing of bells, the noise made by striking various bodies and by other means; and these should be divided into sharp, grave, loud, faint, or as many varieties as can be exhibited.

The next step is to require the pupils to observe sounds for themselves. Children, when first called upon to mention the sounds they are acquainted with, will not, perhaps, be able to remember more than ten or twelve; but we have known many who, in a week or two after their attention had been directed to the subject, could enumerate upwards of one hundred. It is useful to lead them to classify their observations, as into the voices of beasts, birds, sounds produced by insects, by the footfall of men and animals, by the motion of carriages and machinery, by workmen in performing various mechanical operations, sounds produced by the motion of water, air, and by other natural causes. Sounds may also be divided into kinds, as roaring, rumbling, crashing, crackling, murmuring, rolling, tinkling,

H

echoing, and so on, the intention of such exercises being to connect words with definite ideas, and to cultivate habits of correct observation.

DIRECTIONS FOR A LESSON ON SOUND.

Strike in succession two bells, one much sharper in tone than the other, and call attention to the different pitch in their sounds. Let the children try to produce high and low tones with the voice. Produce sudden sharp noises, as by striking hard substances, by the breaking of wood, or by the children calling out in a high key and stopping suddenly; then sounds of an opposite character, as by the rapid movement of the feet of many children, as they sit in the gallery, by rolling any heavy object on the floor, or by the lower tones of the voice. Call attention to such slight sounds as those produced by the rubbing or striking of various substances, and then let the children listen with closed eyes, and try to determine the causes which produce them. Place several children out of sight and let them speak in succession, while the class try to discriminate their voices. Direct attention to the feelings expressed by the human voice in exclamations of sorrow, joy, pain, terror, mirth, and other emotions, and to the voices of animals expressive of their feelings and wants.

Explain the difference between inarticulate sounds, such as laughing, sobbing, muttering, screaming; and articulate sounds, as speaking and singing.

The kind and amount of instruction given in each lesson must, of course, depend entirely upon the age and advancement of the pupils; the subject may as easily be treated in a way to suit a child of three as of ten years of age, and such preliminary lessons are an excellent preparation for correctness of ear in speaking and singing. Indeed, when developed, the imitative power of children is so great that no refinement of tone or inflections of voice are difficult to them, and hence the importance of a pure pronunciation and correct manner

of speaking in the teacher, as defects in this respect are but too readily imitated and bad habits formed.

DEVELOPING LESSONS ON OBJECTS.

When, by the preceding series of lessons, some idea of the general properties of things has been imparted, the observation of particular objects should be commenced; but we must always keep clearly in view the principle on which this kind of lesson rests, viz. that the children should discover for themselves the qualities of the object under examination, the teacher merely supplying the words needed to express them, for to tell the pupil that such and such qualities exist in it, which we are not able to demonstrate, will not develope his faculties. Hence it follows, that attention should be called only to the more palpable and striking characteristics, and that, if possible, the same quality should be traced through several examples, and even contrasted with its opposite, to render it more evident.

Suppose, for instance, two such substances as glass and india-rubber were chosen for a lesson. The most striking properties of the glass are that it is transparent, hard, brittle, sonorous, rigid, reflective. These are rendered more evident by contrasting them with the qualities of the india-rubber, which is opaque, soft, tough, not sonorous, flexible, dull. The idea of transparency may be rendered more general by reference to water, air, mica, crystals, and other examples, and also by extending the idea of the opposite property of opacity, and so on with the remaining qualities. We will now proceed to an example of this kind of teaching.

LESSON ON COAL AND CHALK.

Teacher.-Tell me what you observe in the object I now show you? Children. It is white. Is it quite white? Yes, quite white. What else have you seen of the same kind of white? Linen, paper, snow. me the colour of this object. It is black. Is it black

Tell