AUTHOE’S PEEFACE. 
Annually a great army of children leave 
our schools before they reach grades in which 
they can have the opportunity to study ele¬ 
mentary science. For such, in particular, this 
book has been written. If the young people 
who have read the proofs may be taken as a 
criterion, even those who have graduated from 
secondary schools will read the book with de¬ 
light and profit. It also furnishes the general 
reader with the facts of science that mil en¬ 
able him to enjoy the learned scientific articles 
in our periodicals. These are becoming more 
numerous from year to year. 
This volume presents the scientific subjects 
which are of highest interest to man, and which 
bear upon life at every hand. They are from 
the oldest records accessible to man. He may 
misinterpret them, but they can never be false; 
they are as true as nature itself. 
The first ten chapters present a brief sketch 
