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height on a stone. Many people have seen this ; 

 and the great Mr. Watt, whose observation was 

 always aliv, watched one of these sagacious 

 crows taking up a crab into the air, which it 

 repeatedly let fall on a rock, till the shell was 

 completely broken. The same ingenuity has 

 been observed in another species of the crow 

 family, in North America : a blue jay, which 

 had been tamed, finding the dried seeds of In- 

 dian corn too hard to break, placed one in the 

 corner of a shelf in the green-house, between the 

 wall and a plant box : having thus secured it 

 on three sides, he easily contrived to break it ; 

 and, having once succeeded, he continued ever 

 after to apply the same means. 



. We have had a grand discussion in 

 our walk this morning, on genius. Mary's opi- 

 nion is, that it never exists originally ; and that 

 wherever biography affords us the opportunity of 

 learning the small circumstances of early life, 

 we may observe that something had occurred to 

 turn the attention, while young, to that pursuit, 

 in which successful perseverance had been after- 

 wards ascribed to genius. For instance, in the 

 thirteenth century, some Greek painters being 

 employed in the churches of Florence, the youth- 

 ful Cimabue gazed for whole days in admiration 

 of their work : he afterwards devoted himself to 

 the art, and quickly surpassed his masters. Here, 



