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chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit."

There is no authority, papa, like that of God's own word, whether spoken by his mouth, or the mouths of his inspired writers. I was greatly struck with the force of a passage in Ephesians, which bears upon this subject. "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." How completely boasting is here excluded: It is entirely of God to "work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure."

CONVERSATION VII.

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 2 Peter i. 19.

I LOVE to gaze upon the stars on a cloudless night, papa, when I can discern some of the planets, whose size and brilliancy distinguish them from the fixed stars. The pale silvery light of Venus is particularly beautiful; it reminds me of Him who said, "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." Last night, sister Emma and I walked by the river side, watching the moon-beams reflected on its calm surface, and the shooting stars as they glided rapidly across the sky. We staid out so long,

that I was afraid mama might be uneasy at our being exposed to the night air; but I could scarcely prevail upon Emma to return, she was so delighted with watching what appeared to her falling stars. I succeeded in making her understand that the stars did not, and, being so much larger, could not fall upon this earth. Still, she did not know the nature of these gliding meteors.

At her age, Georgiana, it would be difficult to make her comprehend that these are but lambent or fiery particles, confined to our atmosphere, in which they frequently rise to a considerable height, yet are still far beneath the planetary system, or the fixed stars.

Though I have read of meteors, papa, yet I cannot now remember the cause by which they are produced?

They are attributed to the fermentation of acid and alkaline bodies which float in the atmosphere. When the more subtile part of the effluvia are burnt away, the

viscous and earthy parts become too heavy to be supported by the air, and then they fall.

The Ignis Fatuus, vulgarly called Willo' the wisp, is another gliding meteor, papa, which often puzzles the ignorant, who say it leads those who follow it, as it skims along the ground, into dangerous pools and bogs.

That might very probably happen, Georgiana, being generated in such places. It consists of phosphoric matter exhaled from putrid animalculæ, produced in damp marshy ground. Some electric spark kindles this air into a thin, pale, powerless flame, which flickers in the dark, until its vapoury matter is consumed. Sir Isaac Newton calls it a vapour shining without heat.

Is not the Aurora Borealis attributed to some such cause as this,

papa?

It is conjectured that this extraordinary phenomenon in nature arises from exhalations produced from inflammable air,

generated between the tropics, by many natural operations, such as the putrefaction of animal and vegetable substances, volcanoes, &c. The inflammable air

caused by electricity, as it ascends to the upper regions of the atmosphere, being of a light essence, is borne on by the motion of the earth to the poles: experience has proved that that which is lightest, or swims on a fluid which revolves round an axis, is urged towards the extreme points of that axis: hence these inflammable particles accumulate at the poles, where meeting with other mixed matter, they enkindle, and thus cause the luminous streaks called Aurora Borealis, or Northern lights.

If that were the case, papa, would not the same kind of lights be seen also in the opposite direction?

Captain Cook makes mention of such an appearance, which he calls Aurora Australis; he describes it to have been a clear white light, shooting up from the

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