and indeed, you recollect that Arachne was a spinster. Lace is a still finer production, from flax, and is one of those, in which the original material is most improved. How many times the price of a pound of flax, do you think that flax is worth, when made into lace?

H. A great many times, I suppose.

F. Flax, at the cheapest rate, is bought at fourteen pencet a pound. They make lace at Valenciennes, in French Flanders, at the price of ten guineas a yard; (I believe, indeed, higher, but we will say ten guineas ;) this yard of lace will weigh, probably, not more than half an ounce; what is the value of half an ounce of flax? reckon it.

H. It comes to one farthing and three quarters of a farthing.

F. Right; now tell me how many times the original value of the lace is worth.

H. Prodigious! it is worth five thousand seven hundred and sixty times as much as the flax it is made of.

F. Yet, there is another material that is still more improvable than flax.

H. What can that be?

* A princess, said to have been transformed by Minerva, into a spider, for presuming to vie with her in spinning. - ED. English Money is calculated in pounds, (marked £.,) shillings, pence, and farthings. There are also guineas and

crowns.

A pound contains 20 shillings, and is worth about 4 dollars 87 cents.

"shilling

66

12 pence,

66

66

4 farthings

"farthing is worth about

66 66

24}

66

"guinea is worth about 5 dollars 07 cents. A crown, about 1 dollar

15 cents.-J. W. I.

F. Iron. The price of pig-iron is ten shillings a hundred weight; this is not quite one farthing for two ounces. Now you have seen some of the beautiful cut steel, that looks like diamonds.

H. Yes, I have seen buckles, and pins, and watch-chains.

F. Then you can form an idea of it; but you have seen only the most common sorts. There was a chain made at Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, and sent to France, which weighed only two ounces, and cost £170. Calculate, how many

times that had increased its value.

H. Amazing! it was worth one hundred and sixty-three thousand six hundred times the value of the iron it was made of.

Here,

F. This is what manufactures can do. man is a kind of creator, and, like the great Creator, he may please himself with his work, and say it is good. In the last-mentioned manufacture, that of steel, the English have the honor of excelling all the world.

H. What are the chief manufactures of England?

F. It has, at present, a greater variety than I can pretend to enumerate; but the staple manufacture is woollen cloth.f England abounds in

* When iron is melted from the ore, it is cast into large masses called pigs. Pig-iron, therefore, means the iron in pigs, or before it is manufactured into any article. -J. W. I.

This description of manufactures is entirely confined to those of England. The young American reader must bear this in mind. When Mrs. Barbauld wrote her stories for children, there were no manufactures established in America.

fine pastures and extensive downs, which feed great numbers of sheep; hence her wool has always been a valuable article of trade; but the inhabitants did not always know how to work it. They used to sell it to the Flemish or Lombards,t who wrought it into cloth; till, in the year 1326, Edward the Third invited some Flemish weavers over to teach the art; but there was not much made in England, till the reign of Henry the Seventh. Manchester and Birmingham are towns, which have arisen to great consequence, from small beginnings, within a few years; the first, for cotton and muslin goods, the second, for cutlery and hardware, in which, at this moment, they excel all Europe. Of late years, too, carpets, beautiful as fine tapestry, have been fabricated. English

Now, we have many kinds, nearly, if not quite, equal to those of England. - ED.

*The Flemish are inhabitants of Flanders, a country bordering on the North Sea, or German ocean, north of France, and opposite that part of England, in which London is situated. The land is, in some parts, a perfect level, and, in other parts, consists of undulating plains. The soil is very fertile, and is well watered by many rivers, and conveniently situated for trade. The manufactures of lace and fine linen are very considerable. It contains some of the finest cities in the world; one of which, Ghent, is celebrated for the Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain, in December, 1814. — J. W. I.

†The Lombards were inhabitants of Lombardy, a kingdom which anciently comprised the whole northern part of Italy. The name is now commonly given to the whole tract of country lying between the Alps and Appennine mountains, though it is properly applicable only to the valley of the River Po.-J. W. I.

4

clocks and watches are greatly esteemed. The earthenware plates and dishes, which we all use in common, and elegant sets for the tea-table, ornamented with musical instruments, are made in a very extensive manufactory, the seat of which is is at Burslem, in Staffordshire. The principal potteries there belong to one person, an excellent chemist, and a man of great taste; he, in conjunction with another man of taste, who has since died, has made English clay more valuable than the finest porcelain of China. He has moulded it into all the forms of grace and beauty that are to be met with, in the precious remains of the Greek and Etruscan artists.* In the more common articles, he has pencilled it with the most elegant designs, shaped it into shells and leaves, twisted it into wicker-work, and trailed the ductile foliage round the light basket. He has filled our cabinets and chimney-pieces with urns, lamps, and vases, on which are lightly traced, with the purest simplicity, the fine forms and floating draperies of Herculaneum. In short, he has given to our

*The Etruscans were inhabitants of Etruria, a country of Italy, now called Tuscany. They were celebrated for their knowledge of the arts, and for the good taste of their various productions. J. W. I.

† Herculaneum was an ancient city, near Naples, which was overwhelmed in the year of our Lord 79, by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, a celebrated volcano of Italy. After being buried under the lava for about sixteen hundred and thirty-four years, the city was discovered, twenty-four feet under ground, in the year 1713, by some laborers, who were digging a well. The streets and houses, so far as the lava has been removed, have been found to be perfect, with

houses a classic air, and has made every saloon and every dining-room, schools of taste. I should add, that there is a great demand abroad for this elegant manufacture. The Empress of Russia has had some magnificent services of it; and one was sent to the king of Spain, intended as a present from him to the archbishop of Toledo, which cost a thousand pounds.

H. I should like very much to see manufactures, now you have told me such curious things about them.

F. You will do well. There is much more entertainment, to a cultivated mind, in seeing a pin made, than in many a fashionable diversion, which young people half ruin themselves to attend. In the meantime, I will give you some account of one of the most elegant of them, which is paper. H. Pray do, my dear father.

F. It shall be left for another evening, however, for it is now late. Good night.

THE FLYING FISH.

THE Flying Fish, says the fable, had originally no wings; but, being of an ambitious and discontented temper, she repined at being always conthe furniture, utensils, paintings, statues, and other works of art and curiosity, just as they were left by the inhabitants, when they fled from the city to preserve their lives. These valuable antiquities are preserved in the museums at Naples, and Portici, a small town in the neighborhood. - J. W. I.

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