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this truth by tedious arguments , for all classes are at last aroused to see the benefits of education . Education is preached in our pulpits , the middle classes are talking French behind the counter , and working out equations at the desk ; while we , with less wits , are pondering
over papers on " self-education , " in Westminster and other Heviews , and wondering how long it will be , should the present mania continue , before our housemaids read Greek plays . Such hothouse education as this we do not advocate , as honesty in housemaids , with common knowledge , and not that common ignorance which they
generally possess , is virtue superior to Greek , conic sections , and astronomy . However , none should be deprived of a familiar acquaintance with the wonders of this world in which we live . The kingdoms of creation are many , and the study of our own body , with its veins , arteries , bones , nerves , and muscle , is sufficient to show that the subject is exhaustless , and those most versed in chemical phenomena are still but babes in knowledge .
Dr . Fownes has classified chemical elements m sixty-two parts , and they have been arranged by Ellis , for the sake of convenience , under the following heads : —1 , gases ; 2 , fluids ; 3 , solids . The last are metallic , the second non-metallic , and the first gaseous . The four primary gases , it may be necessary to observe , are hydrogen , oxygen , nitrogen , and chlorine . Four-fifths of the air we breathe consists of nitrogen , one-fifth is oxygen ; and there are other properties , as ammonia , carbonic acid , and carburetted hydrogen , which go
to supply the wants of man and vegetation . Carbonic acid gas , required by vegetation , is very heavy , and is the air which is expelled from our lungs , which , when mingled with pure air , we breathe again . Hydrogen is a light gas , and a bladder filled with it would rise up ,
and float about the ceiling of the room . When unmmgled with air , it burns with a pure flame ; when mingled with air , it goes off with a report . There is a great deal of hydrogen in water , which is an oxide of hydrogen . Place oxygen and Irydrogen in a jar together , and apply to them the flame of a candle , the result will be a loud explosion , and within the jar there will be no longer air , but drops of
water , — -water being composed of these two gases , in the proportion of eight parts oxygen to one part hydrogen . We might have chosen to confine ourselves especially to the chemistry of the air , did not several inviting little books bid us turn our attention to the ocean , and the wonders of the sea-shore . What a
mighty element is that sea of waters , ever rolling over giant rocks its mighty waves , that die away in the distance , mingled with blue sky , a silver line of light . Looking at that unfathomable mass , thousands of feet deep , who is not led , with feelings of emotion and awe , to remember , " The sea is His , and He made it . " What a contrast is there between that great ocean , and idlers who
throng its shores ,- —both how restless ; but one fulfilling the laws of God , the other drawling out existence . Thus , days at the sea-side have become , as Kingsley says , in his Glaucus ,- —¦ " a lifc-in-dcath , in which thousands spend the golden weeks of summer . " But novels
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
this truth by tedious arguments , for all classes are at last aroused to see the benefits of education . Education is preached in our pulpits , the middle classes are talking French behind the counter , and working out equations at the desk ; while we , with less wits , are pondering
over papers on " self-education , " in Westminster and other Heviews , and wondering how long it will be , should the present mania continue , before our housemaids read Greek plays . Such hothouse education as this we do not advocate , as honesty in housemaids , with common knowledge , and not that common ignorance which they
generally possess , is virtue superior to Greek , conic sections , and astronomy . However , none should be deprived of a familiar acquaintance with the wonders of this world in which we live . The kingdoms of creation are many , and the study of our own body , with its veins , arteries , bones , nerves , and muscle , is sufficient to show that the subject is exhaustless , and those most versed in chemical phenomena are still but babes in knowledge .
Dr . Fownes has classified chemical elements m sixty-two parts , and they have been arranged by Ellis , for the sake of convenience , under the following heads : —1 , gases ; 2 , fluids ; 3 , solids . The last are metallic , the second non-metallic , and the first gaseous . The four primary gases , it may be necessary to observe , are hydrogen , oxygen , nitrogen , and chlorine . Four-fifths of the air we breathe consists of nitrogen , one-fifth is oxygen ; and there are other properties , as ammonia , carbonic acid , and carburetted hydrogen , which go
to supply the wants of man and vegetation . Carbonic acid gas , required by vegetation , is very heavy , and is the air which is expelled from our lungs , which , when mingled with pure air , we breathe again . Hydrogen is a light gas , and a bladder filled with it would rise up ,
and float about the ceiling of the room . When unmmgled with air , it burns with a pure flame ; when mingled with air , it goes off with a report . There is a great deal of hydrogen in water , which is an oxide of hydrogen . Place oxygen and Irydrogen in a jar together , and apply to them the flame of a candle , the result will be a loud explosion , and within the jar there will be no longer air , but drops of
water , — -water being composed of these two gases , in the proportion of eight parts oxygen to one part hydrogen . We might have chosen to confine ourselves especially to the chemistry of the air , did not several inviting little books bid us turn our attention to the ocean , and the wonders of the sea-shore . What a
mighty element is that sea of waters , ever rolling over giant rocks its mighty waves , that die away in the distance , mingled with blue sky , a silver line of light . Looking at that unfathomable mass , thousands of feet deep , who is not led , with feelings of emotion and awe , to remember , " The sea is His , and He made it . " What a contrast is there between that great ocean , and idlers who
throng its shores ,- —both how restless ; but one fulfilling the laws of God , the other drawling out existence . Thus , days at the sea-side have become , as Kingsley says , in his Glaucus ,- —¦ " a lifc-in-dcath , in which thousands spend the golden weeks of summer . " But novels