“ Thus the idle and irresolute youth trifles over his books, or wastes in play his precious moments; deferring the task of improvement, which at first is easy to accomplish, but which will become more and more difficult, the longer it is neglected. ”

“ Though I don't believe, replied Euphronius, that Sophron's ears are more acute than yours, yet I disapprove of your hasty decision concerning the impossibility of what you to little understand. You are ignorant of the nature of sound, and of the various means by which it may be encreased, or quickened in its progress; and modesty should lead you, in such a case to suspend your judgment till you have made the proper and necessary inquiries. An opportunity now presents itsels, which will afford Sophron the satisfaction he desires. ”

“ THE Sloth is an animal of South America, and is so ill formed for motion, that a few paces are often the journey of a week; and so indispoled to move, that he never changes his place, but when impelled by the feverest stings of hunger. He lives upon the leaves, fruit, and flowers of trees, and often on the bark itself, when nothing besides is left for his subsistence. ”

“ The kite is hovering in the air, and disappointed of his prey, may perhaps dart upon the hen herself, and bear her off in his talons!
Does not this fight suggest to you the tenderness and affection of your mother? Her watchful care protected you in the helpless period of infancy, when she nourished you with her milk, taught your limbs to move, and your tongue to lisp its unformed accents. In childhood she has mourned o-over your little griefs; has rejoiced in your innocent delights; has administered to you the healing balm in sickness ”

“ But this curious philosophical fact, said he, suggests a most important moral reflection. When you suffer yourselves to be ruffled by passion, your minds resemble the puddle in a storm. But reason, if you hearken to her voice, will then, like oil poured upon the water, calm the turbulence within you, and you to serenity and peace.
Scepticism condemned.
SOPHRON asserted that he could hear the slightest scratch of a pin at the distance of ten yards. It is impossible, said Alexis, and immediately appealed to Euphronius, who was walking with them. ”

“ Can you admire the maternal affection of the bear, and not feel in your heart the warmest emotions of gratitude, for the stronger and more permanent tenderness, you have so long experienced from your parents? ”

“ As a large quantity of food is necessary for his support, he generally strips a tree of all its verdure in less than a fortnight. And being then destitute of food, he drops down, like a lifeless mass, from the branches to the ground. ”

“ You now behold the greatest Philosopher of the age, Sir Isaac Newton, investigating the nature of light and colours by a series of experiments, no less curious than useful, though you deem them childish and insignificant. ”

“ HORACE, a celebrated Roman Poet, relates that a country man, who wanted to pass a river, slood loitering on the banks of it, in the foolish expectation that a current so rapid would soon discharge its waters. ”

“ Alexis obeyed, and distinctly heard the sound; which being conveyed through the tubes of the wood, was augmented in loudness, as in a speaking trumpet, or the horn of the huntsman.
Scepticism and credulity are equally unfavourable to the acquisition of knowledge. The latter anticipates, and the former precludes all enquiry. One leaves the mind satisfied with error, the other with ignorance.
Lying.
MENDACULUS was a youth of good parts, and of amiable, dispositions; but by keeping bad company he had contracted, in an extreme degree, the odious habit of lying. ”

“ He could not persuade him to believe that flies are capable of pain, and have a right, no less than ourselves, to life, liberty, and enjoyment. The signs of agony, which when tormented, they express by the quick and various contortions of their bodies, he neither understood nor would attend to. ”

“ WHEN the great Conde commanded the Spanish army, and laid siege to one of the French towns in Flanders, a soldier being ill treated by a general officer, and struck several times with a cane, for some disrespectful words he had let fall, answered very coolly, that he should soon make him repent of it. Fifteen days afterwards, the same general officer ordered the colonel of the trenches to find a bold and intrepid fellow, to execute an important enterprise, for which he promised a reward of a hundred pistoles. ”

“ They always fix their abode by the side of a lake or river; and in order to make a dead water in that part which lies above and below, they erect with incredible labour, a dam or pier, perhaps fourscore or a hundred feet long, and ten or twelve feet thick at the base. ”

“ The walls of their habitations are perpendicular, and about two feet thick: If any wood project from them, they cut it off with their teeth, which are more serviceable than paws. And by the help of their tails, they plaister all their works with a kind of mortar, which they prepare of dry grass and clay mixed together. ”