MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS. 173 



with the tone of modern life and thought, and could not have been 

 established in modern times. Nevertheless, they stand firmly on their 

 ancient foundations, and will long continue to stand, more or less al- 

 tered and repaired in accordance with modern exigencies. 



But the Mormon church is an exception ; it has been founded in 

 these latter days, and may be said to have introduced a new order 

 of ecclesiastical architecture, although ancient materials have been 

 largely employed. Hence the doctrines and history of this church 

 appear to deserve careful study, for it presents to us a living example 

 of what its mightier predecessors must have been in their early ca- 

 reer. The extinct dinornis may be studied in the existing apteryx, 

 and thus (borrowing a fresh metaphor) among the fossils of the past 

 we seem to find one recent specimen, still full of organic life, illustrat- 

 ing the laws of growth, the habits, and the constitution of those spe- 

 cies whose dry bones alone remain to us now. The living apteryx 

 seems to be doomed ere long to become like its fossil congeners ; if 

 so, the time for study and observation is short. 



Even those who have least sympathy with the peculiar doctrines 

 of the Mormons may be willing to enter a protest in their favor, when 

 the issue really lies between religious liberty and persecution. They 

 are the only Christian sect that has suffered in our own days severe 

 persecution at the hands of professing Christians, and their cause on 

 that account demands especial sympathy from all who advocate ab- 

 solute religious toleration. Fortnightly Review. 



MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS. 1 



By Rev. ARTHUR RIGG, M. A. 



CUTTING edges are sometimes doubled, and thus the chisel 

 passes into another group of tools shears. The most common 

 of these is the ordinary household scissors opened and closed by 

 hand; when required for heavier work, then one handle is fixed in a . 

 vise, and both hands can be employed upon the other lengthened 

 arm (see Figs. 1 and 2). At other times this double chisel opens with 

 a spring, and then the workman only employs himself in closing such 

 upon their work (Fig. 3). Compound lever power is sometimes intro- 

 duced, and, as an example of this, here is a pair of very light shears 

 called the "little giant" (Fig. 4), the mechanical contrivances in which 

 are so adjusted that we can, smoothly and without jar, cut an iron rod 

 one inch wide by one-quarter inch thick. The lightness of the tool 

 and the ease in cutting are very noticeable. It is an American con- 



1 From a lecture delivered before the London Society of Arts. 



