ARTICLES LAID ON THE TABLE. A TUMBLER OF WATER. ANCIENT ATLAS. PIECE OF SODA. A BUNCH OF SEA-WEED (FUCUS VESICULOSUS.) POTASH. RED-LEAD. PIECES OF FLINT, PLATE, CROWN, BROAD, AND COMMON GREEN OR BOTTLE-GLASS;-ALSO THE BULL'S-EYE FROM A TABLE OF CROWN GLASS. LECTURE I. DISCOVERY AND MANUFACTURE OF GLASS. WHILE attending some of the interesting public Lectures we have lately heard, I regretted that, from the want of previous information, which is seldom obtained in very early life, the younger part of the audience were not likely to receive all the pleasure which that popular mode of imparting knowledge is calculated to afford. I could not help thinking, what a good thing it would be to have a course of easy, simple lectures, written expressly for young people, on the principle of supposing them to be entirely unacquainted with the subject treated of. Every thing must then be explained from the very beginning; and it would be found that many curious circumstances and interesting facts are to be known, respecting even the most common things-things which we are seeing and using every day with perfect indifference; whereas, did we understand something of their nature, or know what perseverance and ingenuity have been exercised to make them what they are, a new field of inquiry and observation would open before us, and we should be continually presented with fresh objects of rational curiosity. I should have been very glad, for your sakes, if some better qualified person would undertake the task; but not knowing any one likely to do this, I have endeavoured to prepare a few very simple lectures for you. I think they will be intelligible even to the youngest of the present company; but if any explanation does not seem perfectly clear, you must stop me, and I shall be very happy to make it plainer if I can. |