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position by the argu7ne}Uiun ad puerum. " You are a thing, 

 and you have your moods — sometimes a smile is on your face, 

 but sometimes your face is quite full of frowns and tears." 

 The apt little scholar soon satisfies himself that he is a thing, 

 and finds out that things like himself have afiections and 

 moods. When he looks about after his lesson is over, he 

 sees the poker smiling at the tongs, while the face of the 

 shovel is full of tears, and looks offended and angry. The 

 tabula rasa of the child, that has been carefully protected 

 from the contaminating influence of Jack the Giant killer, 

 and remains uninjured by ridiculous fairy tales, soon has im- 

 pressed upon it the truths of exact physical science. The 

 little pupil is able to demonstrate most conclusively to him- 

 self and his little friends when the chairs and tables are 

 feeling vigorous and active, and when the dog and the dining 

 table and the canary bird are perfectly dull and listless ! But 

 let us be serious, and proceed to the next step in the lesson on 

 the definition of Physics. The physicist says, " Now, if you 

 think a little you will see that the things around you are sub- 

 ject to moods very like yours." The little pupil is to think in 

 order that he may see that the objects around him have moods 

 like his own. They smile and frown, and feel vigorous or list- 

 less just as he does ! But he and the things around are not 

 the only possessors of faces. Nature has a face. " To-day 

 the face of nature looks bright and happy, and full of smiles ; 

 to-morrow the same face is dark and lowering," and so on. 



But I have not yet got far in the definition of Physics, 

 and it is but fair that I should bring under your notice the 

 last paragraph of the definition, in which the subject of 

 causation is referred to. "Now, if we see you crying and 

 unhappy, we ask, what is the cause of this mood, and we 

 always find there is a cause (physical ?) ; or if we find you 

 listless and sleepy, and wanting in energ}^, we enquire what 

 is the meaning of all this, and we find that it has a meaning 



