line; and accordingly an ancient philosopher compared the men whom he was told so moved, to crabs hanging by their claws. But the whole is confirmed by facts, and explained by the philosophy of the attraction of gravitation.

All bodies, on or near the earth's surface, have a tendency, or seeming inclination, to descend toward its centre or middle part. It therefore follows, not only that the two figures in our

picture are both attracted to the centre of the globe; but that if each of them should drop

from his hand an orange, or any other object, each object, though otherwise in opposite directions, would fall or gravitate, and be attracted, toward the centre of the globe, and thus remain upon it.

A few words more, however, on the figure of the earth. The navigators who have sailed round the world have proved, that, in one direction at least, viz. from east to west, the earth is round; but still it has been thought by some that it is not so from north to south. But this is a very mistaken notion, as I hope to show you by the help of this diagram. Let the line a b represent a portion of the earth's surface, c d a spectator looking along the surface of the ocean.

m

If, now, a ship should come in sight, her top

masts would just be seen along the line d n, as when she approached to g, the lower sails would be visible to the spectator; and when she arrived at m, he would see the whole vessel.

Now this would be the case in whatever direction the vessel might be sailing, which is a very satisfactory proof that the earth is of a globular form.

How large, then, is the earth! When we come to the foot of a mountain, and look up, and behold it, its magnitude fills us with awe and wonder; but the largest mountain is a mere speck, compared with our vast globe!

But, large as the earth is, the stars, which twinkle in the heavens, and appear to us so small, are immeasurably larger than the earth, as I have told you. Look up at one of the stars in the sky, and imagine yourself upon it. The earth, dwindled by the distance, would be entirely invisible.

WE say, the sun rises in the morning, and sets at night. The sun appears to rise and set, but it The sun is stationary, or nearly so. That is, it remains always in the same spot, or nearly in the same spot, in the heaven.

does not.

Does the sun rise and set, or not?

But you will say, The sun does rise and set, for I have seen it. Not so fast, my little boy! At the beginning of the chapter is a picture of a candle and an apple. The candle shines upon the apple just as the sun shines upon the earth. The candle shines upon but one side of the apple at a time. So the sun shines upon but one side of the earth at a time. Where the candle does not shine upon the apple it is dark. Where the sun does not shine upon the earth it is dark, and we call it night. If the apple were to be turned round, the sun would shine upon the other side. The earth turns round, and the sun shines upon the other side.

Thus, it is the earth that moves, and not the sun. It turns quite round once in twenty-four hours. We cannot see its motion, yet it is really in constant activity. It turns from west to east, and whirls around with almost inconceivable velocity. Strange as it may seem, we each of

Why does the sun appear to rise and set? How often does the earth turn round? Which way does it turn?