I will render this fact still farther intelligible by another diagram. Let B, as in the former case, represent the wall upon which the imperfectly-elastic body impinges in

E

B

G

K

H

M

I

A

the direction ▲ B.-The force will of course be resolved into two others, viz., into D B and F B ; the force D B, however, instead of being replaced by the opposite one в D, will now be represented by the shorter line B G ; or that of в H or B I, according to the degree of elasticity. If we, therefore, complete the parallelogram, в C, B K, or в м will be the diagonal path of the body; making, as you perceive, the angle of reflection, D B C, greater than that of incidence, A B D ; and where the body is perfectly inelastic, the force D B will be wholly destroyed, and, the force B E alone surviving, the body will be carried along the line в E. I have now," continued Mr Seymour, "explained to you the principal laws which govern those forces by which your ball or marbles are actuated. It is true that in practice you cannot expect the results should accurately coincide with the theory, because, in the first place, you cannot obtain marbles that are of equal density and elasticity, and of true figure; and in the next, there will be obstacles against which it is impossible to guard. The spinning of the marble will also have a material influence on its motion, as we have already discovered. In the game of billiards, where every obstacle is removed, as far as art can assist, the theory and practice are often strangely discordant. But we have dwelt sufficiently upon the subject; we will, therefore, return to the library, where I intend to exhibit an experiment in farther elucidation of the subject of collision."

The party accordingly proceeded on their return.

"I hope," said Mr Seymour, addressing himself to Mr Twaddleton, who was walking a few paces before him, “that the maiden ladies have not espied their vicar at a game of marbles; if they should, what a chuckling would there be at their next tea-party !”

"A fig for the spinsters!" exclaimed the vicar, as he hastily turned round, and arrested the progress of the party by his gesture. "You really speak, Mr Seymour, as though it were derogatory to my character to descend from the more austere pursuits to the simple but innocent amusements of youth. Believe me, Sir, that I am not so old as to have forgotten that I was once young.”

"Once young! say, ever young. I only lately observed, when you were playing with your ball and marbles, that they appeared to possess the power of restoring the vigour of youth, like the apples of the Scandinavian goddess Iduna,” observed Mr Seymour.

“And let me remind you," said the vicar, “that the Persian ambassador found even Agesilaus, the Lacedemonian monarch, riding on a stick."

"True; and the ambassadors of Henry the Fourth found him playing on the carpet with his children," said Mr Seymour. 'If you fall back upon authority, I am quite ready to stand as surety for your honourable acquittal. I suppose you remember that Socrates was partial to the recreation of riding on a wooden horse, for which, as Valerius Maximus informs us, his pupil Alcibiades laughed at him.”

"I care not who laughs at me," exclaimed the vicar: "the world may laugh again, and I may live to do it kindness.' I enjoy the amusements of youth, and am as willing as was old Acestes to join their games.* I entirely agree with Dr Paley, in regarding the pleasure they afford as a striking instance of the beneficence of the Deity

as Virgil has it."

'Deus nobis hæc otia fecit,'

The vicar proceeded in a strain of unusual animation—" Toys and games, my dear friend, have served to unbend the wise, to occupy the idle, to exercise the sedentary; † and, let me add, to unwrinkle the aged, for, by reviving the pleasant recollections of youth, what a cheering glow is cast over the evening of life!"

66

'And,” interposed Mr Seymour, "I hope you will also add, to assist the young in acquiring knowledge, as well as to aid the sage in his labours to extend it; for I may here inform you that, by means of the soap-bubble, Faraday has succeeded in discovering new laws regarding the magnetic action of different gases; and you well know that to the kite Franklin was indebted for the consummation of his electrical discoveries."

"Very true," answered the vicar, "and not only did the kite enable him to discharge the thunder-cloud of its dangers, but its slender string, along which the lightning travelled safely to the earth, may be said to have shadowed forth the wonderful invention of the electric telegraph." +

"It might also be easily shown that the rudiments of the steamengine first appeared in the form of a toy," observed the vicar.

66 I suppose you allude to the Eolipyle of Hero of Alexandria ?” "Exactly so; and I have been told that our gas-lights were first suggested by boys filling the bowl of a tobacco-pipe with burning

* En., lib. v., ver. 719.

+ Disraeli mentions, as a 'Curiosity of Literature," a poem on the games of children, written by a Dutchman, of the name of Katz, in which the author attempts to make the sports of youth subservient to moral instruction.

Professor Andrews lately announced, in the Chemical Section of the British Association at Glasgow, that he had decomposed water by atmospheric electricity, obtained by means of a properlyadjusted kite.

coal, and inflaming the vapour that issued from its tube—' Sic parvis componere magnas.'

Mr Seymour here remarked that many of our valuable inventions were little else than cleverly-developed toys, separated from each other, he was ready to admit, by no inconsiderable chasm: thus did Humboldt witness on the shores of the Oronoco the native coppercoloured children of the forest amusing themselves by rubbing the dry, flat, shining reeds of some leguminous plant, for the purpose of causing them to attract fibres of cotton or bamboo; and he very philosophically exclaims, "How wide is the interval which separates this simple knowledge of electrical excitement by friction from the invention of the metallic conductor, the voltaic pile, and the magnetic telegraph!"

"All you have thus related," observed the vicar, "at least proves, what I am sure must afford you the highest satisfaction, that even these wild children of the forest entertained PHILOSOPHY IN SPORT."

"Let me farther say, in illustration of my subject," continued Mr Seymour, "that the wide interval which separates the boyish sport on the shores of the Oronoco from the electrical messenger, is not more striking than is the transition from the fleeting shadow of the departing lover, playfully cast on the wall by the secret lamp of the Corinthian maid, to the photographic portrait now permanently stamped, with all the expressions of life, by the subtle and invisible spirit that dwells in the sunbeam."

"That is certainly a most marvellous invention," said the vicar. "It is just as if you looked into a glass, and left your face behind you: talk not then to me of fairy tales, until you can show that their presiding genii can produce something equally wonderful."

The foregoing digression having been concluded, the party at once proceeded to the Lodge, where Mr Seymour produced a piece of apparatus for the purpose of exhibiting the experiment he had promised, in illustration of the doctrine of the collision of elastic bodies.

"Here are two ivory balls," said he, "suspended by threads; I shall draw one of them, A, a little on one side; now I let it go, it strikes, you see, against the other ball, B, and drives it off to a distance equal to that through which the first ball fell; but the motion of a is stopped, because, when it struck B, it received in return

a blow equal to that it gave, and its motion was consequently

* Thermography has accomplished facos," as Southey, in the "Doctor," this, with other objects, and there is says, every morning in the lookingno doubt we do "leave our lathered glass.-ED.

destroyed. To extend the experiment, here are six ivory balls hanging in a row; I will draw the first out of the perpendicular and let it fall against the second; see! see! none of the balls appear to move except the last, which you perceive flies off as far as the ball fell. I should like to hear you explain this."

Tom observed that, when the first ball struck the second, it received a blow in return, which destroyed its motion; and that the second ball, although it did not appear to move, must have struck against the third, the reaction of which set it at rest; that the action of the third ball must have been destroyed by the reaction of the fourth, and so on, until motion was communicated to the last ball, which, not being reacted upon, flew off.

Mr Seymour commended Tom for his explanation; but he begged him to understand that such an effect only occurred when the balls were elastic; and he proceeded to exhibit the difference between elastic and inelastic bodies by another experiment. "When you raise

D

one of these inelastic balls, made of clay, out of the perpendicular, and let it fall against the other, E, the action and reaction, not being augmented by the force of elasticity, are insufficient to destroy the motion of the former; only part of the motion D will, therefore, be communicated to E, and the two balls will move together to de, which are less distant from the vertical line than the ball was before it fell."*

Before we close this chapter, we cannot resist the pleasure of informing our readers that Major Snapwell, in company with his legal adviser, had quitted Overton, for the purpose of making such preliminary arrangements as the purchase of an estate must necessarily require. It is not our intention to accompany them; nor shall we travel over the plains of parchment, nor wade through the rivers of ink, which separate the confines of verbal agreement and legal possession; but, claiming the prerogative of authors, we shall dip our wing in the cup of inspiration, and, by a single flourish of our feathered talisman, drive away a swarm of buzzing lawyers, and at once put the worthy major in the undisturbed possession of his newly-purchased mansion, and install him in one of Daw's most comfortable elbowchairs, surrounded by all the luxuries of polished life.

*This experiment shows why the carriages in the centre of a train are the safest.-ED.

In the course of the ensuing week Mr and Mrs Seymour proceeded to offer their congratulations to the new proprietor of Osterley Park. On being ushered into the library, they were not a little surprised and startled by the loud voice of the major, who, addressing Mr Twaddleton, exclaimed,

"Never will I again suspect the antiquity of your rarities, nor question the rarity of your antiquities."

"Mr and Mrs Seymour," said the major, "welcome to Osterley Park. You find me, as usual, engaged with our friend in a learned controversy, and I begin to fear that my warmth may have offended him."

"Offended me!" exclaimed the vicar, "oh no. No, indeed, my dear Major Snapwell; a difference of opinion on an antiquarian subject may excite my regret, and in some cases, as in the present instance, awaken my pity; but it cannot offend me; it can never occasion any feeling like anger: that would be to visit the folly of others upon myself."

"What is the subject of your difference, gentlemen?" asked Mr Seymour.

"The evidences of Druidical rites, as deducible from certain cavities to be found in granitic rocks, and which have received the appellation of rock basins," replied the major.

"And of which," exclaimed Mr Twaddleton, "I have a most un