Evening at Home 51
Rob._ I am resolved to learn, and will ask Johnson to take me with him
to the river.
_Fa._ Do; but let him find you a safe place to begin at. I don’t want
you, however, to proceed so cautiously as Sir Nicholas Gimcrack did.
_Rob._ How was that?
_Fa._ He spread himself out on a large table, and placing before him a
basin of water with a frog in it, he struck with his arms and legs as he
observed the animal do.
_Rob._ And did that teach him?
_Fa._ Yes—to swim on dry land; but he never ventured himself in the
water.
_Rob._ Shall I get corks or bladders?
_Fa._ No; learn to depend on your own powers. It is a good lesson in
other things, as well as in swimming. Learning to swim with corks, is
like learning to construe Latin with a translation on the other side. It
saves some pains at first, but the business is not done half so
effectually.
THE FEMALE CHOICE.—A TALE.
A young girl, having fatigued herself one hot day with running about the
garden, sat herself down in a pleasant arbour, where she presently fell
asleep. During her slumbers, two female figures presented themselves
before her. One was loosely habited in a thin robe of pink with light
green trimmings. Her sash of silver gauze flowed to the ground. Her fair
hair fell in ringlets down her neck; and her head-dress consisted of
artificial flowers interwoven with feathers. She held in one hand a
ball-ticket, and in the other a fancy-dress all covered with spangles
and knots of gay riband. She advanced smiling to the girl, and with a
familiar air thus addressed her:—
“My dearest Melissa, I am a kind genius, who have watched you from your
birth, and have joyfully beheld all your beauties expand, till at length
they have rendered you a companion worthy of me. See what I have brought
you. This dress and this ticket will give you free access to all the
ravishing delights of my palace. With me you will pass your days in a
perpetual round of ever-varying amusements. Like the gay butterfly, you
will have no other business than to flutter from flower to flower, and
spread your charms before admiring spectators. No restraints, no toils,
no dull tasks are to be found within my happy domains. All is pleasure,
life, and good humour. Come, then, my dear! Let me put this dress on
you, which will make you quite enchanting; and away, away, with me!”
Melissa felt a strong inclination to comply with the call of this
inviting nymph; but first she thought it would be prudent at least to
ask her name.
“My name,” said she, “is DISSIPATION.”
The other female then advanced. She was clothed in a close habit of
brown stuff, simply relieved with white. She wore her smooth hair under
a plain cap. Her whole person was perfectly neat and clean. Her look was
serious, but satisfied; and her air was staid and composed. She held in
one hand a distaff; on the opposite arm hung a workbasket; and the
girdle round her waist was garnished with scissors, knitting needles,
reels, and other implements of female labour. A bunch of keys hung at
her side. She thus accosted the sleeping girl:—
“Melissa, I am the genius who have ever been the friend and companion of
your mother; and I now offer my protection to you. I have no allurements
to tempt you with, like those of my gay rival. Instead of spending all
your time in amusements, if you enter yourself of my train, you must
rise early, and pass the long day in a variety of employments, some of
them difficult, some laborious, and all requiring some exertion of body
or mind. You must dress plainly, live mostly at home, and aim at being
useful rather than shining. But in return I will ensure you content,
even spirits, self-approbation, and the esteem of all who thoroughly
know you. If these offers appear to your young mind less inviting than
those of my rival, be assured, however, that they are more real. She has
promised much more than she can ever make good. Perpetual pleasures are
no more in the power of Dissipation, than of Vice or Folly to bestow.
Her delights quickly pall, and are inevitably succeeded by languor and
disgust. She appears to you under disguise, and what you see is not her
real face. For myself, I shall never seem to you less amiable than I now
do, but, on the contrary, you will like me better and better. If I look
grave to you now, you will hear me sing at my work; and when work is
over, I can dance too. But I have said enough. It is time for you to
choose whom you will follow, and upon that choice all your happiness
depends. If you would know my name, it is HOUSEWIFERY.”
Melissa heard her with more attention than delight; and though overawed
by her manner, she could not help turning again to take another look at
the first speaker. She beheld her still offering her presents with so
bewitching an air that she felt it scarcely possible to resist: when, by
a lucky accident, the mask with which Dissipation’s face was so artfully
covered, fell off. As soon as Melissa beheld, instead of the smiling
features of youth and cheerfulness, a countenance wan and ghastly with
sickness, and soured by fretfulness, she turned away with horror, and
gave her hand unreluctantly to her sober and sincere companion.
[Illustration:
Eyes and No Eyes, p. 242.
EVENING XX.
]
ON METALS.
PART II.
_Tutor_—_George_—_Harry_.
_Tutor._ Well—have you forgotten what I told you about metals the other
day?
_George._ O no!
_Harry._ I am sure I have not.
_Tut._ What metals were they that we talked about?
_Geo._ Gold, silver, and quicksilver.
_Tut._ Suppose, then, we go on to the rest?
_Geo._ Pray, do.
_Har._ Yes, by all means.
_Tut._ Very well. You know _copper_, I don’t doubt?
_Geo._ O yes!
_Tut._ What colour do you call it?
_Geo._ I think it is a sort of reddish brown.
_Tut._ True. Sometimes, however, it is of a bright red, like
sealing-wax. It is not a very heavy metal, being not quite nine times
the weight of water. It is very ductile, bearing to be rolled or
hammered out to a very thin plate, and also to be drawn out to a fine
wire.
_Har._ I remember seeing a penny that had been rolled out to a long
riband.
_Geo._ Yes, and I have seen half a dozen men at a time with great
hammers beating out a piece of copper at the brazier’s.
_Tut._ Copper requires a very considerable heat to melt it: and by long
exposure to the fire, it may be burnt or calcined; for, like all we are
now to speak of, it is an _imperfect_ metal.
_Har._ And it rusts very easily, does it not?
_Tut._ It does; for all acids dissolve or corrode it, so do salts of
every kind: whence even air and common water in a short time act upon
it, for they are never free from somewhat of a saline nature.
_Geo._ Is not verdigris the rust of copper?
_Tut._ It is; a rust produced by the acid of grapes. But every rust of
copper is of a blue or green colour, as well as verdigris.
_Har._ And are they all poison, too?
_Tut._ They are all so in some degree, producing violent sickness and
pain in the bowels. They are all, too, extremely nauseous to the taste,
and the metal itself when heated, tastes and smells very disagreeably.
_Har._ Why is it used, then, so much in cooking, brewing, and the like?
_Tut._ Because it is a very convenient metal for making vessels,
especially large ones, as it is easily worked, and is sufficiently
strong, though hammered thin, and bears the fire well. And if vessels of
it are kept quite clean, and the liquor not suffered to stand long in
them when cold there is no danger in their use. But copper vessels for
cooking are generally lined on the inside with tin.
_Geo._ What else is copper used for?
_Tut._ A variety of things. Sheets of copper are sometimes used to cover
buildings; and of late a great quantity is consumed in sheathing ships,
that is, in covering all the part under water; the purpose of which is,
to protect the timber from the worms, and also to make the ship sail
faster, by means of the smoothness and therefore less obstruction which
the copper offers to the water, as the ship is forced through it by the
action of the wind on the sails.
_Har._ Money is made of copper, too.
_Tut._ It is; for it takes an impression in coining very well, and its
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