could not see the tendon last night, mamma: it was hidden by the skin of the fowl, and the shutting of the claws seemed like magic. But now the reason is quite plain: I see it is as much the consequence of stretching the tendon, as that the bell should ring when I pull the handle. I wish, dear mamma, you would explain some more of those wonderful contrivances you were speaking of. If they are all as clear and plain as this," added he, holding up the claw, and pulling the tendon with great rapidity, "I am not at all afraid but I shall be able to understand them."

"I told you last night, my dear boy, that you cannot understand them all; and even of those which may be rendered as evident to your senses as that with which you are now so much pleased, the number is so astonishing, that the labour of a long life would not be sufficient to examine for yourself their infinite variety. I am, however, very willing to assist you, as far as I can, in selecting some of the most striking proofs of contrivance, choice, and design, in the works of the great Creator."

"Then I will tell you what I wish to know more than any thing else. Last night you called animals machines; and you said that their power of motion depended upon mechanical contrivances. I see you were right about the claw of the fowl; but I cannot think that this has any thing to do with human beings. We cannot be machines, because we have the power of thinking, and because our motions depend upon our own choice."

"This is quite new doctrine to me, Harry; pray where did you learn it ?"

"I am sure I do not know. I never thought about it till this morning; but it seems to me one of those very plain things that nobody need to learn, because we know it without learning."

"You speak very positively; pray is this a matter of fact, or a matter of opinion?"

"Of fact, mamma, certainly; plain, positive fact. Can any thing be plainer than that, when we wish to move, we move. When we go to sleep, we are obliged to put ourselves into a safe situation; our limbs do not catch hold of any thing to support us. Little Alfred's whip, you know, dropped out of his hand, because it had no power when he was asleep. Oh, I am sure that we are very different from birds: the actions of men depend upon their own choice, and nothing else."

66

Why do you not fly sometimes, Harry? I should think it would make a pleasant variety in your amusements."

“Oh, now you are joking, mamma! I do not mean that we can do unnatural things."

"I am afraid that you do not understand your own meaning very clearly. The action of flying is unnatural to man, only because the human machine is so constructed as to be incapable of that kind of motion."

Harry now looked rather bewildered, and his mother kindly resolved not to leave his mind in this state of confusion.

"In how many ways have you the power of moving your head," said she.

The young reasoner, who had involved himself in a terrible dilemma, was quite relieved by this apparently easy question, and replied, hastily: 'Oh, I move it just as I please: only look how fast it goes, any way and every way."

"I can see only two motions in all that nodding and shaking; one backwards and forwards, the other describing part of a circle. You will make your head ache to no purpose, if you jerk it about in that manner: those two motions are all that it has the power of making, and to effect even these, two distinct mechanical contrivances were necessary."

"Contrivance, mamma! I see no contrivance in the matter. I assure you, the motion of my head depends entirely on my own choice."

"Indeed! then yours is a very remarkable head. To convince me of the truth of your assertion, be so good as to sit perfectly still for one minute. Now, Harry, without moving your body, look at that fly on the wall behind you.” "I cannot see it, mamma."

"That is because you do not look far enough round the fly is exactly behind you.'

:

"But my head will not turn any further, unless I move my body too."

"If you do, it will be the body that turns, not the head; therefore, its power of motion is regulated by something independent of your choice."

is.

"I should like to know what that something

Can you explain it, mamma?”

"I suppose you would not wish me to illustrate this point exactly in the same manner that I showed you the reason of the fowl's claw contracting on the perch; but, with the assistance of some good anatomical figures, I think I can make it sufficiently intelligible to you. Go and fetch me the plates belonging to Chambers's Dictionary."

By the help of one of these plates, Mrs. Beaufoy showed Harry that the head rests immediately on the uppermost part of the back-bone. She told him that this is not, as at first sight it appears to be, a single bone, supporting the head like a pillar; but that it is, in reality, a chain of joints, of very wonderful construction, and capable of answering a variety of purposes, which could not possibly have been effected by a single bone. That, indeed, might have supported the head; but then we should have been under the irksome necessity of sitting, standing, and walking bolt upright all our lives, without the power of stooping, or of looking either to the right hand or to the left.

Harry said that he saw the use of a jointed back-bone in stooping, but he could not understand how the head moved from side to side.

Mrs. Beaufoy then showed him the figures which represent the two uppermost joints of the neck. The first of these bones is called the Atlas: the head rests immediately upon it, and is

united to it by a hinge-joint. Upon this joint the head plays freely backward and forward, and Harry's mother told him that he was indebted to this hinge for the power of nodding, and of looking either up or down. "A hinge," added she,

66

can only open and shut it will not move in any other direction. We must look a little further for the cause of that power which the head possesses, of turning from side to side." She then made him observe the figure of the second joint of the neck, and pointed out the projecting bone shaped like a tooth, which rises from its upper surface. She told him that this tooth enters a corresponding hole in the Atlas, or joint immediately above it; thus forming a pivot upon which that upper bone, together with the head that it supports, turns freely in a circle, at least so far in the circle as the muscles of the neck will permit. "You know," said she, "that you could not turn your head so far round as to see the fly when it was just behind you. I told you that the first or uppermost joint is called the Atlas: the second is termed the axis. Can you discover any reason for these names ?"

"The meaning of the second is very plain," said Harry, "for that projecting tooth just answers the same purpose as the axie-tree of a wheel. I cannot think of any reason for the other," added he, after a pause, “unless it comes from the old fable of Atlas supporting the heavens."

"That probably may be the origin of the term,