The end of the earth! No. I did not think at all about it.

Well, but you are ten years old: you should now begin to think.

Yes; my master tells me that. But the end of the earth is not at Benares.

How do you know?

Because I remember when we walked on the op of our house there, I could see other houses and trees, a great way off, on every side: besides, I saw a gentleman who had just come from Agra, which must be many miles further from Calcutta than we went, for he had been some time coming to Benares; and I heard him tell my father, that Benares is between Calcutta and Agra.

Very well then Benares, though so far off, cannot be the end of the earth: but England is much more distant from us than Benares.

Ah! I dare say, it is there.

No many places lie beyond England.

Where can it be then? It must be very far off. Do tell me,

if you

know.

There is no such thing any where as the end of the earth. I was joking with you when I spoke of it. Where is the end of that ball in your hand?

The end of it! it has no end.

Nor has the earth any end, because it is a great

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ball. If a fly were to walk on your ball, it would not find an end, though it walked all over it; but if the fly walked on, quite straight, it would come again to the place from which it set out. Now when men travel a long way, straight forward, instead of getting farther and farther off as they go on, they at last come again to the place from which they set out. Many men have done this; and so we know that the earth is round. The outside, or what is called the surface of the earth, is partly land and partly water. You should make haste and learn Geography, which tells us all about these curious things.

THE EARTH.

(Second Lesson.)

You told me some time ago, that the earth was a ball or globe, and that people had sailed round it: what is under? What does the earth stand upon?

There is nothing under but air and sky, just as we see around, and over our heads. It does not stand on any thing.

How can that be; it would fall.

You cannot yet well understand how it is, but will try to give you some notion of it. If you

throw a stone as far away as you can, it does hot fall to the ground for some time, and yet there is nothing to support it. If it were thrown with a great deal more force, it would be a great deal longer in the air. Now the earth travels through the heavens something in the same way. Wise men know that the earth continually rolls around the sun, though at a great distance from it.

No: the sun rolls round the earth: we see it every day.

You must not be positive. The sun appears to move round the earth, but wise men know better.

If you have been in a carriage, when going swiftly, you will remember, that the houses and trees which you passed, seemed almost as if they moved, and were passing you instead. Now the earth moves ten thousand times more swiftly than any carriage, and this may certainly be the reason why the sun seems to move, instead of the earth. You must trust to people who are wiser than you for the present, in these matters: by and by you will be able to see for yourself. You may take notice, that the earth moves in two ways, like the wheel of a cart, or a ball rolling. If you look, you will see that the wheel turns on the axle, and at the same time, passes from one end of the street to the other.

The earth turns round in 24 hours, that is, in a day and night. It moves forward, quite around the sun, in a little more than 365 days, that is, in a year. As the earth turns round, sometimes one part is toward the sun, and sometimes another. This is the cause of day and night. All the time Calcutta is next to the sun, it is day: when by the earth's motion it is turned away from the sun, it is night.

THE EARTH.

(Third Lesson.)

I hope you remember what I have already said about the earth: that it is a globe, which rolls around the sun. The surface of this globe is partly land, and partly water. Much more than half is water, which we call the sea or ocean. Those who know most about the surface of the earth divide the land into four great parts, the names of which are Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. England is in that part called Europe, which is the smallest. Calcutta is in Asia, the largest. As great seas lie between certain parts of the land, men have made ships, in which they sail from one place to another. In these ships, they convey the goods, which are plentiful in one

part of the earth, to other parts, where such goods do not grow, or are not made; and there, they exchange them for money, or things which are useful in their own country. The English have more ships than any other people on the earth: indeed without some ships, they could not come out of their own country, because it is a piece of land in the midst of the sea. Such a piece of land is called an island.

By the word country is meant a large piece of land, generally containing many cities, the dwelling place of a whole people.

THE EARTH.

(Fourth Lesson.)

The globe is a model of the earth, and its sur face is painted with several different colours, which mark, as nearly as possible, the various divisions of the real earth. The part representing water is all of the same colour, but the land is red, blue, and green; showing clearly how many countries and kingdoms there are, and where they lie, whether next to our own or far distant.

On the globe we may see that the greater part of the land consists of two very large pieces, or

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