282 THE MECHANICAL WONDERS (TF A nEATfCeVt. 



makes a thousand new and admirable combinations. He 

 passes through a thousand imaginary scenes, tries his courage, 

 tasks his ingenuity, and thus becomes gradually prepared to 

 meet almost any of the many-coloured events of human life. 

 If he observes- the passengers, he reads their countenances, 

 conjectures their past history, and forms a superficial notion 

 of their wisdom or folly, their virtue or vice, their satisfac- 

 tion or misery. If he observes the scenes that oc.cur, it is 

 with the eye of an artist. Every object is capable of suggest- 

 ing to him a volume of reflections. 



The time of these two persons in one respect resembles; 

 it has brought them both to Hyde-park Corner. In every 

 other respect how dissimilar ! 



Probably nothing has contributed so much to generate 

 these opposite habits of mind, as an early taste for reading. 

 Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways. 

 They force us to reflect ; they present direct ideas of various 

 kinds, and they suggest indirect ones. In a well-written 

 book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the 

 happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence ; and it 

 is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such com- 

 panions, without attaining some resemblance of them. 



Godwin. 



LESSON 131. 



77ie Mechanical Wonders of a Feather. 



LRm'ina (plural iaminaB,) thin plate, one coat laid over another. 

 Every single feather is a mechanical wonder. If we look 

 at the quill, we find properties not easily brought together, 

 strength and lightness. I know few things more remarka- 

 ble tlian tlie strength and ligiitness of the very pen with 

 which I am now v/riting. If we cast our eyes towards the 

 upper part of the stem, we see a material made for the pur- 

 pose, used in no other class of animals, and in no other part 

 oi' birds ; tough, light, pliant, elastic. The pith, also, which 

 feeds the feathers, is neither bone, flesh, membrane, nor 

 tendoo. But the most artificial part of a feather is the beard^ 

 or as it is sometimes called, the vaiie ; which we usuallj 





