more than one at a time, (and that is generally a boy or an old woman,) and has a great dislike to answering impertinent questions: but the Hindoo ghost is the strangest of them all, for he continues as fond as ever of fruits and rice, and will upon no account disappear without the aid of rupees. I have often wondered what use he can make of the rice, seeing that spirits have no teeth. But I must not forget their most distinguishing quality: ghosts, one and all, hate light in every shade, candle-light, lamp-light, or day-light; the only light they can endure is moonlight; but of all lights they hate most bitterly the light of knowledge; indeed they have taken the spreading of knowledge so much to heart, that within the last 30 or 40 years they seem to have left England altogether, and I have little doubt, that in a very short time they will leave Calcutta too.

There is one thing rather remarkable in the history of ghosts; I mean the belief in them that prevails in almost every country in the world; but this may be very easily accounted for. A person coming home on a dark night, sees just before him a figure dressed in white: if he have courage enough to go up to it, it turns out to be a white stone, or a cloth hanging from a tree, or some such thing; but if

he gets frightened and runs away, then he will think all his life time, that he has seen a real ghost. Sometimes a mischievous boy throws a white cle th about him, and goes about in the dark to terrify his neighbours; well! if the trick be not found out, they will think that they have seen a ghost. Again, any person, that has had a brain fever, may remember that he used to see strange faces and figures round his bed: now these were just ghosts, that is, mere creatures of the imagination. Many people indeed, who were in the habit of seeing ghosts, have been cured just as they would be of any other disease, by medicine and bloodletting. Every person knows that, when the mind is much affected with ardent spirits, or with opium, many apparitions are seen; and every person should know that fear has just the same effect. But perhaps the best way of manufacturing ghosts is by a magic lantern, or a bit of phosphorus in a dark room, which will bring them in swarms. To conclude, so long as a man tries to serve God, and to have a proper confidence in Him, and to remember that God is every where, he needs not care for all the ghosts in the world.

PART II.*

INTRODUCTION.

HISTORY is an account of things that have happened in the world, written to preserve the remembrance of them, and as examples and warnings to the inhabitants of the earth in after-ages.

UNIVERSAL HISTORY includes that of all the nations that have at any time been known to inhabit the earth.

ANCIENT HISTORY relates to ages long past. MODERN HISTORY is that of the kingdoms and states at present existing in the world.

HISTORY is also divided into Sacred and Pro

fane.

SACRED HISTORY is that contained in the Scriptures; and which was written by holy men inspired of God, to teach mankind that He governs all things, and deals out blessings to nations that love, and fear, and obey Him; and brings judgment and destruction on such nations as disobey his will and commandments, and delight in wickedness.

* From Mrs. Trimmer.

PROFANE HISTORY is that which was composed by persons who wrote what they had themselves either seen, heard, or read, concerning the rise or fall of nations, and the acts of men famous for virtue, or infamous for crimes.

The Creation.

THERE is one Almighty God, the maker of all things in heaven and earth. There was a time when the world we live in, was not; but it pleased the Almighty God to create it from nothing. This world is called the earth; it is á large globe.

When GOD had created the globe of the earth, he said, "Let there be light, and there was light." He made darkness also; and GOD called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

Then God made the sky, and called it the firmament; and GoD gathered the waters together, that there might be dry land; and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas, and the dry land he called Earth.

Then Gop made all the kinds of grass, herbs, flowers, plants, and trees, which are now to be found in the world, and caused them to grow

out of the earth: and all these things God made with seeds in themselves, that other grass, herbs, flowers, plants, and trees, might grow from them, and keep on in the same manner to the end of the world: and they have done so already for a number of years.

After all the things that were to grow upon the earth were created, GoD made two great lights, the sun and the moon, one to give light by day, the other by night. God made the stars also.

The Creation-continued.

WHEN GOD had created the sun, moon, and stars, he caused the waters to bring forth a great many living creatures; fishes of all sorts to swim in the seas, and fowls and birds of every kind to fly in the firmament.

Then GOD made the earth bring forth all kinds of beasts, and cattle, and insects, and reptiles, and, last of all, God made mankind; one man and one woman.

The man, GOD made of the dust of the ground, but the woman God made of one of

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