He

5 the bone, scatters the sauce in every body's face. generally daubs himself with soup and grease, though his napkin is commonly stuck through a button-hole, and tickles his chin. When he drinks, he coughs in his glass, and besprinkles the company. Besides all this, he has strange tricks and gestures; such as snuffing up his nose, making faces, putting his fingers in his nose, or blowing it, and locking afterwards in his handkerchief, so as greatly to disgust the company. His hands are troublesome to him, when he has not something in them; and he does not 6 know where to put them, but keeps them in perpetual motion. All this, I own, is not in any degree criminal; but it is highly disagreeable and ridiculous in company, and ought most carefully to be guarded against, by every one that desires to please.

There is, likewise, an awkwardness of expression and words, which ought to be avoided; such as false English, bad pronunciation, old sayings, and vulgar proverbs; which are so many proofs of a poor education. For example, if, instead of saying that tastes are different, and 7 that every man has his own peculiar one, you should let off a vulgar proverb, and say, that "what is one man's meat is another man's poison;" or else, "Every one to his liking, as the good man said when he kissed his cow;" the company would be persuaded that you had never associated with any but low persons.

To mistake or forget names; to speak of " What-d'yecall-him," or, "Thingum," or, "How-d'ye-call her," is excessively awkward and vulgar. To begin a story or nar8 ration, when you are not perfect in it, and cannot go through with it, but are forced, possibly, to say in the middle of it," I have forgotten the rest," is very unpleasant and bungling. One must be extremely exact, clear, and perspicuous in every thing one says; otherwise, instead of entertaining or informing others, one only tires and puzzles them.

The voice and manner of speaking, too, are not to be neglected. Some people almost shut their mouths when they speak; and mutter so, that they are not to be under9 stood: others speak so fast, and sputter, that they are equally unintelligible. Some always speak as loud as if they were talking to deaf people; and others so low, that

one cannot hear them. All these, and many other habits, are awkward and disagreeable, and are to be avoided by attention. You cannot imagine how necessary it is to mind all these little things. I have seen many people, with great talents, ill received, for want of having these talents too; and others well received, only from their little talents, and who had no great ones.

LESSON LXXXIV.

Remarkable Instances of Adaptation and Contrivance in Nature.-BROUGHAM.

1 If any quantity of matter, as a pound of wood or iron, is fashioned into a rod of a certain length, say one foot, the rod will be strong in proportion to its thickness; and, if the figure is the same, that thickness can only be increased by making it hollow. Therefore, hollow rods or tubes, of the same length and quantity of matter, have more strength than solid ones. This is a principle so well understood now, that engineers make their axles and other parts of machinery hollow, and, therefore, stronger with the same weight, than they would be if thinner and solid. Now the 2 bones of animals are all more or less hollow; and are therefore, stronger with the same weight and quantity of matter than they otherwise could be. But birds have the largest bones in proportion to their weight: their bones are more hollow than those of animals which do not fly; and therefore, they have strength without having to carry more weight than is absolutely necessary. Their quills derive strength from the same construction. They have another peculiarity to help their flight. No other animals have any communication between the air-vessels of their lungs and 3 the hollow parts of their bodies: but birds have; and by this means, they can blow out their bodies as we do a bladder, and thus make themselves lighter, when they would either make their flight towards the ground slower, or rise more swiftly, or float more easily in the air. Fishes possess a power of the same kind, though not by the same means. They have air-bladders in their bodies, and can puff them out, or press them closer, at pleasure-when they want to

rise in the water, they fill out the bladder, and this lightens them. If the bladder breaks, the fish remains at the bot4 tom, and can only be held up by the most laborious exertion of the fins and tail. Accordingly, flat fish, as skaits and flounders, which have no air-bladders, seldom rise from the bottom, but are found lying on banks in the sea, or at the bottom of sea rivers.

The pressure and weight of the atmosphere, as shown by the barometer and air-pump, is near 15 pounds on every square inch, so that if we could entirely squeeze out the air between our two hands, they would cling together with a force equal to the pressure of double this weight, because 5 the air would press upon both hands; and, if we could contrive to suck or squeeze out the air between one hand and the wall, the hand would stick fast to the wall, being pressed on it with the weight of above two hundred weight, that is, near 15 pounds on every square inch of the hand. Now, by a late most curious discovery of Sir Edward Home, the distinguished anatomist, it is found that this is the very process by which flies, and other insects of a similar description, are enabled to walk up perpendicular surfaces, however smooth, as the sides of walls and panes of glass 6 in windows; and to walk as easily along the ceiling of a room, with their bodies downwards and their feet over head. Their feet, when examined by a microscope, are found to have flat skins or flaps, like the feet of web-footed animals, as ducks and geese; and they have towards the back part or heel, but inside the skin or flap, two very small toes, so connected with the flap as to draw it close down upon the glass or wall the fly walks on, and to squeeze out the air completely, so that there is a vacuum made between the foot and the glass or wall. The consequence of this is, that the air presses the foot on the wall with a very considerable force, compared with the weight of the fly; for, if its feet are to its body in the same proportion as ours are to our bodies, since we could support by a single hand on the ceiling of the room, (provided it made a vacuum,) more than our whole weight, namely, a weight of fifteen stone, the fly can easily move on four feet in the same manner, by help of the vacuum made under its feet. It has likewise been found that some of the larger sea animals are by the same construction, only upon a greater scale, enabled to climb the

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8 perpendicular and smooth surfaces of the ice hills among which they live. Some kinds of lizard have the same power of climbing, and of creeping with their bodies downwards along the ceiling of a room; and the means by which they are enabled to do so are the same. In the large feet of these animals, the contrivance is easily observed, of the two toes or tightners, by which the skin of the foot is pinned down, and the air excluded in the act of walking or climbing; but it is the very same, only upon a larger scale, with the mechanism of a fly's or a butterfly's foot; and both 9 operations, the climbing of the sea-horse on the ice, and the creeping of the fly on the window or the ceiling, are performed exactly by the same power-the weight of the atmosphere—which causes the quicksilver to stand in the weather-glass, the wind to whistle through a key-hole, and the piston to descend in a steam-engine.

The contrivance by which some creeper plants are enabled to climb walls, and fix themselves, deserves attention. The Virginia creeper has a small tendril, ending in a claw, 10 each toe of which has a knob, thickly set with extremely small bristles; they grow into the invisible pores of the wall, and swelling, stick there as long as the plant grows, and prevent the branch from falling; but when the plant dies, they become thin again, and drop out, so that the branch falls down. The Vanilla plant of the West Indies, climbs around trees likewise by means of tendrils; but when it has fixed itself, the tendrils drop off, and leaves are formed.

LESSON LXXXV.

PART II.

1 The Rein-deer inhabits a country covered with snow the greater part of the year. Observe how admirably its hoof is formed for going over that cold and light substance, without sinking in it, or being frozen. The under side is covered entirely with hair, of a warm and close texture; and the hoof, altogether, is very broad, acting exactly like the snowshoes which men have constructed, for giving them a larger space to stand on than their feet, and thus to avoid sinking. Moreover, the deer spreads the hoof as wide as possible

when it touches the ground; but, as this breadth would be 2 inconvenient in the air, by occasioning a greater resistance while he is moving along, no sooner does he lift the hoof, than the two parts into which it is cloven fall together, and so lessen the surface exposed to the air, just as we may recollect the birds doing with their bodies and wings. The shape and structure of the hoof is also well adapted to scrape away the snow, and enable the animal to get at the particular kind of moss (or lichen) on which he feeds. This plant, unlike others, is in its full growth during the winter season; and the rein-deer, accordingly, thrives from 3 its abundance, notwithstanding the unfavorable effects of extreme cold upon the animal system.

There are some insects, of which the males have wings, and the females are grubs.or worms. Of these, the Glowworm is the most remarkable: it is the female, and the male is a fly, which would be unable to find her out, creeping as she does, in the dark lanes, but for the shining light which she gives, to attract him.

There is a singular fish found in the Mediterranean, called the Nautilus, from its skill in navigation. The back 4 of its shell resembles the hulk of a ship; on this it throws itself, and spreads a thin membrane to serve for a sail, paddling itself on with feet as oars.

The Ostrich lays s and hatches her eggs in the sands; her form being ill adapted to that process, she has a natural oven, furnished by the sand and the strong heat of the sun. The Cuckoo is known to build no nest for herself, but to lay in the nests of other birds; but late observations show that she does not lay indiscriminately in the nest of all birds; she only chooses the nest of those which have bills 5 of the same kind with herself, and therefore, feed on the same kind of food. The Duck, and other birds breeding in muddy places, have a peculiar formation of the bill: it is both made so as to act like a strainer, separating the finer from the grosser parts of the liquid, and it is more furnished with nerves near the point, than the bills of birds which feed on substances exposed to the light; so that it serves better to grope in the dark stream for food, being more sensitive. The bill of the Snipe is covered with a curious network of nerves for the same purpose; but a bird, (the Toucan or Egg-sucker,) which chiefly feeds on the eggs found